ool year, seniors are being rushed to apply to college. Over the past year, they have been researching about and touring schools which they might be applying to, hoping to figure out where they want to spend the next 4 years of their young lives.

In the past, most college-bound seniors have only applied regular decision, which is the typical and final deadline to apply to a college. But recently many people have begun applying both early action and early decison, which means the students’ application is due in early November, and they find out their decision in early December or January. Many students prefer this to regular decision because of the quickness of the decision.

“I applied early to be able to know that I’m already into college,” senior Allie Vogus said. “So the rest of the year isn’t so stressful.”

But due to the punctuality of the early action deadlines, many seniors are beginning to feel stressed with multiple deadlines quickly approaching, along with becoming accustomed to the new school year.

“I’m stressed because my counselor hasn’t met with me yet and I don’t know what papers I need to turn in for what school. I don’t know what I’m doing,” Vogus said.

Many seniors feel as though their counselors haven’t done much to help them through the process. Some believe that have been better prepared last year if the traditional senior interviews held at the beginning of the year would have been switched to the end of junior year. This would have allowed students to spend the summer thinking about and visiting the schools they discussed with their counselor.

“I think we should start having our interviews at the end of junior year, so students are encouraged to look into colleges during the summer,” junior  Lynn Kha said.

But counselors do begin preparing students at the end of junior year for college.

“Through our presentations in history class for our rising seniors we get them ready to start thinking about what they should be doing over the summer,” counselor Marcelo Valencia said.

Many students also don’t realize how much time applying to college actually takes. They assume that they can send in their transcripts in one day and not have to worry about it anymore.

“Getting the transcripts wasn’t as stressful as I was expecting, but figuring out all the papers I needed and filling them all out was,” senior Katie McCann said.

Students need to remember applying to college is not all on the counselors’ shoulders. It is their duty, and they are ultimately the ones who are applying to the school.

“It comes down to time management,” Valencia said. “Some are way ahead in the process, and some could be better prepared and more prioritized.”