College, college, college. With early action deadlines for college applications due on November 1, seniors were scrambling to finish their up their applications. But with round one of their deadlines done, how are seniors feeling about their college applications? 

Julia McDevitt, senior 

Q: What did you enjoy most about the college application process? 

A: I think probably doing tours was the most enjoyable part, because I usually went with my mom and sometimes my sister came too. But we got to see campuses and actually experience what college is going to be like. Whereas when you’re actually doing the application, it’s just lots of writing and it’s a long, tedious process, because you have to go back and look at every single thing you’ve ever done. But I think visiting for sure is the most fun.

Q: What was the most stressful thing about the application process?

A: Definitely the essays. I think they were very stressful, especially for me, because I’m not going to major in English or anything like that; I’m going into the sciences and math. So I wouldn’t call myself a bad writer, but it’s definitely not a super strength of mine, so I needed to put a lot of time and effort into making sure [the essays] sound good and express my personality.

Q: What would you recommend to someone who will be applying to college next year? 

A: I would say start the process early. Start taking your ACT, or SAT if you do that, and start studying for those and try to get them done earlier, so you don’t have to take that all of your senior year. And I would also say to work on your application over the summer. I know it’s hard to finish it over the summer because you want to relax, but it’s stressful to get them done at the same time when you’re in school, because you also have to balance school work with it.

Q: How do college applications make you think about your future?

A: I think especially choosing a major, I really thought about my major. Obviously when you get to college, you can change your major, but this choice is going to affect my future. It’s almost like you get to this point and all the sudden you have to choose what you want to do with your life, and everyone’s always like, “oh you have so much time to this” but we’re at the point where we don’t have time to decide, and it is time to decide now. But it’s kind of fun to get to research what you want to do and what you’re interested in. 

Paige Orals, senior

Q: What did you enjoy most about the college application process? 

A: I didn’t really enjoy it, but I guess I enjoyed looking at all the different options for schools.

Q: What was the most stressful thing about the application process?

A: There are a lot of essays to do, and all of the colleges have different prompts for the essays so you couldn’t just use the same ones. You had to write multiple essays for each college and that was a lot of work.

Q: What would you recommend to someone who will be applying to college next year? 

A: I would say start working over the summer, and make sure you get the common app basics done, so all you have to do during the school year is finish up your essays, or the last steps. 

Q: How do college applications make you think about your future?

A: College Applications made me think about what I really wanted to do as a career because I had to choose the major to best get me there.

Ainsley Shuman, senior

Q: What did you enjoy most about the college application process? 

A: The whole process was just really stressful, making sure that I had everything. So once I knew that I had everything, and [my applications] was all submitted, then it was just like a big weight lifted off my shoulders.

Q: What was the most stressful thing about the application process?

A: For me was getting my test scores [was most stressful] because I had a whole issue with taking my SAT with my medical accommodations. So my SAT had to be pushed back from September to October. And then,  I completely forgot that sending SAT scores was a thing until two days before the early admission deadline. 

Q: What would you recommend to someone who will be applying to college next year? 

A: Start over the summer, going into senior year. And the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be finished. And the earlier you prepare, the more ready you’ll be by the time your deadlines come up.

Q: How do college applications make you think about your future?

A: I will say looking at test scores can be a little bit underwhelming. Just because like you compare yourself to others.