Ahh senior year has finally arrived. A time for relaxation and getting to kick back watching all the underclassmen suffer. Right? Nope! That’s where you thought wrong. I’m about to prove why all that for many students is just a fallacy.
Senior year. You’ve waited three years of being smacked around by upperclassmen and a few teachers here and there for this pivotal moment of your high school career.
Now you are the top dog. The captain of the ship. The “au chancelier.” No one gets to boss you around right? Haha nah fam. There will always be someone above you. Unless of course you make fun of enough races, diverse cultures, and women in your lifetime… then you get to be president of the United States.
As a senior you probably think it’s got to be better than any other grade you have been through though. I mean come on there’s senior dress up day! The day where you get to dress as crazy as you want. None of the underclassmen have the right to judge your costume. Right! Except the administration did. And it had a lot this year. Some people might disagree and say seniors were explicitly told a week prior to that chaotic Friday of the rules, I feel many will agree it seems the administration has been more strict this year than with any other class prior.
Okay now that I have finally had that vent session here’s the real entity that gets to boss you around – college. Sure, sure, junior year was the most stressful academic wise but if you stay on that track of taking weighted classes next year it won’t get much better.
Not to say you don’t have your reasons like that it’s a rigorous challenge or helpful peer-pressure. But let’s be real here; you want to be the best, plumpest hen on the chicken farm we call school. Instead of being injected with steroids, you are injected with the highest dose of a GPA you can handle. Rather than fat, you’re full of community service hours. Each claw on your feet must be as sharp as your SAT score. And every bok-bok is a cry to your teachers begging them to lower the amount of homework you receive this week.
You hope one day all this hard work will pay off well with you… being paid-off well. Many think the ONLY way to achieve this goal and become successful will be by attending a prestigious four-year college. Before attending the school of your dreams you must apply.
First of all, consider whether the college(s) you chose is a safety, match, or reach. To determine which college fits where, you generally want to look at their acceptance rate, average GPA and SAT score.
Senior Will Morgus considers Penn State a “safety-match” school and Stanford is a reach. Every college level varies for everyone.
This is the process that instills senior year with the most anxiety. It makes you take a step back from the happiness and joy of finishing your last year with friends, to complete applications full of information about yourself and forcing you to write various essays, “The worst part is probably the essay, but mostly because of the amount of introspection you’re expected to do. College is a pretty serious thing to consider, and colleges want to make sure you’re all in (especially at their school specifically),” said Morgus.
Also prepare for the cost of all this. The cost to apply is essentially a precursor to college tuition and lifelong student debt :))))) Just the price of sending an application to a college costs around $55. The cost of sending your SAT score through College Board is $12 per school. But that’s not it; some schools require you to fill you a CSS Profile along with the FAFSA. Both are forms which you provide information about your current financial status. The FAFSA is a free application; however, if you notice there is no letter “F” in the CSS Profile. That’s because it costs $25 to send in this form. No one really tells you this stuff. You kind of learn about it along the way. The cost of all this makes me wish universities also participated in Black Friday deals.
Obviously, you won’t be paying for everything on your own. This is where your parents come into the equation.
Morgus said, “My parents have been an equal mix of helpful and annoying in my college search. They did help me gather my thoughts with writing essays, but they were also less than hesitant to remind me how much of a failure I am and that I’m never going to get anywhere in my life.”
Just remember they are there to help you and although you can’t imagine it, you will most likely miss them during your actual college years.
Colleges will make you check your email as often as you check to see if anyone has liked your Insta pic. But once you do receive that email, it’s like opening a present on Christmas Day. Although instead of socks or a sweater, your spirits are either uplifted or mercilessly crushed to a pulp looking at the results. One or the other; no inbetween.
Always keep in mind, your feathery wings must be large enough to cast a shadow that covers all your competition.
Now let’s end on a positive note with a Nathaniel Pettit quote, “Make your college decision knowing that your preconceptions about what you will study may change and that that is alright.”