Senior year is an important year for students, but it can also come with the most stress. Applying for colleges, supplementals, senior activities and more can come as a surprise for many students, so I’m here to give my top five pieces of advice that can help make the stress of senior year a little easier.
5. Start the college application process as early as possible
Applying to colleges can come as a surprise for some people. Before going into the college process I was under the impression it would only take a couple days and you just had to answer a handful of questions. In reality, applying to colleges took almost 3 months in total with at least 2 different essays per application. My biggest piece of advice to get through this process would be to start as early as you can. Most colleges want your application by November 1st for early action, so I would suggest applying early and starting your essays, letters of recommendation and common application questions as soon as you can.
4. Find things that motivate you
Losing motivation during senior year is common with all students, but there are some ways you can find motivation especially during the last few months of school. I would suggest that when doing homework to find a spot that allows you to focus like a quiet spot in the library or a space in your room where you can focus on what you need to do and be comfortable while doing it. What always helps to stay mentally motivated is to constantly be reminded that it always feel so much better when whatever you’re working on is finished and that senior year is one of the best years of high school and there are always fun moments that outweigh the work that comes with it.
3. Find teachers to edit your college essay
College essays are definitely a very time consuming part of senior year. All if not most colleges require an essay that can either follow a prompt or allow you to be completely creative. The biggest tool that helped me with this part of senior year would be finding everybody that is willing to read and edit the essay. It’s always stressed that college essays are a huge part of the application and allow students to stand out amongst other applicants, so using english teachers or other students who are also writing essays to edit the work work allows students to write the best that they can and hopefully help in the application process.
2. Makes pros and cons lists
I know for me the most stressful part of my senior year was deciding which college to go to. Pros and cons lists are good for more than just college decisions, but they did make the deciding process so much easier. Writing out all of the reasons to go to a specific college next to all the reasons to not attend that college allows students to visually see if the pros outweigh the cons, or if its the other way around.
1. Go to everything!
Although its cliche, senior year really does fly by so I suggest going to every event possible. While it can be stressful and hard to manage when there’s not a lot of time, going to school events are a great way to see classmates and friends that people might not see after leaving for college. In the fall, going to football and basketball games as well as Homecoming was the highlight of my first semester and I recommend going to every game. In the second semester, it’s so special to go to as much possible before leaving over the summer. Prom, senior breakfast, senior picnic and graduation are so important during senior year and allow students to become close with their classmates before senior year comes to an end.
