Beyond Stressed: College application deadline comes and goes

Around this time at Prospect, there are many emotions that seniors have. The college application process can be difficult for most seniors, especially with the due date being the day after Halloween. Despite the stressful situation, some seniors have a positive outlook for their applications. 

“Obviously, there is anxiety for everyone, obviously a stressful time and a pretty serious part of your life, I mean I would have fun with it,” Senior Shelby Hiskes said.

Some seniors tend to stress more than others, for many reasons. Procrastination of college applications is one of the biggest stressors. Waiting until it is close to the deadline can cause an unnecessary challenge in making great college applications and finishing them on time.

“It depends on if they are waiting until the last minute, kids seem more anxious if it’s close to their deadline and they didn’t realize how much time it was going to take,” Post-secondary counselor Colleen Carroll said.

According to many students, Carroll has helped a lot with their applications and she is a good go-to person. Her job is to help students with their college applications and help other counselors. 

“It’s why I am here, and I love it, so I stay late with some kids, I email with kids at home, if I could ease their anxiety about it, then I am happy,” Carroll said.

There are little parts to each college application that can make it stressful for seniors as each college has different requirements and deadlines.

“Depending on the school, [there are] little details that have to go in and you have to keep checking their websites to make sure that you have all the requirements and that you are meeting their deadlines,” Hiskes said.

After November 1st, the stress and anxiety from submitting applications tends to go away, and those thoughts are not constantly in the back of seniors’ minds.

“Obviously it’s a little relief because that’s a big deadline for a lot of people so that’s all ended and everything on my part is done so all I can do is just sit back and know that I put forth my best effort and whatever happens, happens,” Hiskes said.