College Preparation Obliterates Senior Year Fun

Holly Williams, Staff Writer

Registering for college is like selling your soul to the devil. The magic that most people think they’ll find in the process is a ruse. 

My never-ending journey through the college research and decision process has been virtually impossible at times. No one prepared me for the high stress levels and sleepless nights.

Between applications, scholarships, academic programs and housing preferences, I have never been more stressed in my life. Juggling school, friends, family and now college admissions is unrelenting. 

I was naive to believe that after the application process, the beginnings of my college venture would be easy. Wrong. After you receive your acceptance email, you must take on the creation of five different accounts and the thousands of emails for tasks that you must complete in short deadlines. 

For those lucky individuals who know which college they will attend in the spring, they will only endure this process once, but those without a concrete plan, like me, suffer through this process two, three or even four times. 

Every adult I have encountered has asked me where I am going to college and what I am going to study. I admire people who have solidified their decision, but I have not and cannot decide until I know how much financial aid these colleges will provide. No one seems to understand that. 

It is no simple task selecting a college, let alone determining a major that will impact the rest of your life. As a 17-year-old, I can only guess at my future career path. I feel as though I am just closing my eyes and drawing a career out of a hat. If only the sorting hat in Harry Potter were real. 

By choosing a college, I am signing up for tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Knowing that I could leave college with $60,000 on my shoulders is mind-boggling, so scholarships are crucial to minimizing that debt. 

As a freshman, a senior on the bus once told me to start on scholarship applications right then. I chalked it up to a problem that I would worry about junior year, and then junior year rolled around and I had no idea where to find them or how to start the process. 

Now I feel like I am drowning in scholarship applications for awards I will probably not achieve. 

I am fumbling my way through the whole process and living my life hour by hour, task by task, without experiencing it. 

There seems to be a thousand overwhelming tasks one must complete without any instruction even before stepping onto campus in August. Through these many months of late night essay writing and tears, I have discovered the untold truth about college: I am signing my soul and my money away for even more late night essay composition and misery.