Garden City High School News

By Sara Hayes

News

Applying to college is by far one of the most stressful things I have ever done. Applications take up lots of time for the applicant and the applicants' family. Each application however is virtually the same, which is probably the worst part. Answering the same questions over and over seems tedious and that's what makes this process, in my mind, so irritating.

Many people find the worst part to be writing the essay. I found some of the topics to be interesting because they gave me an opportunity to write about something meaningful. Unfortunately not everyone enjoys writing as much as I do, so for them the essay is a long drawn out process. One piece of advice, ask a teacher to help you with the essay because they're happy to help and can give a lot of assistance. If you're lucky the essay choices for all of the colleges you're applying to will be basically the same, or they'll accept the common app, which means you won't have to write more than one essay.

The common app is probably one of the greatest things I know of. Unfortunately for me I chose not to use it for most my colleges but for those that do the common app is amazing because it's one application that can go out to any of your colleges that accept it. Many people feel that a downside to the common app is that it increases the number of applications each college receives, making the competition for each school much more intense.

Another wonderful thing is early action/decision. Early decision is for anyone whose 100% decided on where they want to go because if you're accepted you are required to attend that school. Early action is different in that you still find out before regular decision however an acceptance isn't a binding agreement to go to that school. With both of these options your decision comes by Christmas and therefore you don't have to participate in the second wave of applications, which is a huge relief. Either way the end result is the same it's just up to you which route you'd rather take to get there.

Once the applications are sent in the biggest stress is what comes next, playing the waiting game for decisions.