Hopefully by now, you’ve had your senior meeting with your guidance counselor to clear up any confusion and questions filling your head about this whole ‘college’ thing. If you have an early action deadline of November 15th, you should have already passed in your transcript request forms (the blue papers) to be sent out to the colleges you’re applying to. At the request of the college itself, or just personal preference to help give you a leg up over other applicants, SAT and ACT scores should be sent out to colleges as well. You can easily access your scores and send them out through the college board website, and scores should be sent out sooner rather than later.

The entire college application process is a learning experience in itself. You learn a lot about what you like, what you don’t like, and you begin to think about your future in a way that you might not have before. Senior Justin Wiggins said that, for him, the most important thing he has learned through all of this has been to go with your gut feeling. He also advised that you “think about where you wanna be four years from now, not what you want to do right now. Ask yourself, ‘can I be here for four years?’ It’s important because you can actually make the decision now, instead of high school, where you have to go.” His biggest piece of advice for juniors thinking about college is to start early. Don’t wait until the last minute to start thinking about where you want to go. By starting to plan out what you want to do after high school early, you can give yourself plenty of time to explore all of your options without feeling rushed.

You have probably been told time and time again that the best way to get a feel for a college is to go visit. If you happen to be the type of person who usually brushes this sort of advice off, don’t. Visiting a campus is one of the most important parts of the entire process. Not only is it nice to see the place in person, but you can gain a whole different perspective on what life is like there. You could absolutely love a campus online, however once you’re there, you realize that it doesn’t have the atmosphere you had imagined. Don’t be afraid to ask your tour guide questions, it makes their job much easier. This will definitely help you to save money on applications, by preventing you from applying to colleges you don’t end up loving, or simply help to narrow down your decision.

One of the most dreaded parts of college is the price tag. What many students don’t choose to take advantage of, however, are all of the scholarship opportunities available to them. While they are often times consuming, they can also pay off big time in the long run. Remember that every every little bit helps, and it doesn’t hurt to dedicate a little time to them a few times a week. Scholarship opportunities are posted on the Daily Bulletin, included in the senior memos, and there are plenty of websites (such as myscholly.com) dedicated to finding scholarships to fit each individual.  

Once your application is complete and you hit that button to send it out, you can finally relax. Accept the fact that everything is out of your hands now, and all you can do is wait. Remember that you will end up exactly where you’re supposed to be, you just have to trust the process.