During the first semester, seniors at LHS primarily have one main concern on their mind: college applications. A substantial number of seniors find the process stressful and hard to understand.

But is this stress avoidable? If so, how? To answer these questions, we explored further into how LHS seniors approached theirapplications and what advice they have for future college applicants.

“The activities portion on Common App was tedious and time-consuming,” said senior Kaan Erdem when asked about what he found challenging about the application process. 

The “Activities” tab in the Common Application is considered one of the most demanding sections for students, as they must write about their activities in 150 characters or less. 

The most heavily anticipated piece of the college application for students is the personal essay portion. Universities give a prompt, asking applicants to write about a character-building event that made them who they are today. 

This can be especially taxing because it puts pressure on students to have the most “engaging” story possible for the universities they are applying to.  

“Be unique and try to show yourself in your writing as much as possible,” said senior Logan Serochi. “The more personal, the better.”

Along with the actual application portion, submitting the applications on time to meet deadlines can be the most challenging part. Terms like early action, early decision, regular decision, and binding/non-binding are foreign concepts to most students.

So what do these different terms mean? 

Starting with binding decisions, universities can set rules on what the applicant can do if accepted into the university. When you apply early decision to a school, you are agreeing that if you are accepted into the school, you are bound to the school and have to attend.

On the other hand, early action is what is called a non-binding application, meaning students can reject acceptance into the school. Early action is an application submitted earlier than regular decision applications, meaning an earlier decision letter from the school.

The college application process is a stressful part of senior year, but it can be simplified with the use of public resources. Individuals, including school counselors and counseling secretary Julie Batson, are examples of aids that LHS seniors can use to make the process less challenging.