As if the beginning of the school year didn’t include enough already, an immensely large percentage of seniors are trying to cram in college applications as well. Seniors who are applying to college are currently working on their CommonApps, filing for need and merit based scholarships, finalizing their essays and trying to do the typical school work that HBHS requires.

With the Early Action and Early Decision deadlines in the beginning of November, tons of students are scrambling to find all of the information they need to finish applications.

The guidance department works hard to make this process as easy as possible for their seniors. “The recommendation that I would give to all students is start early. Start early on identifying your passion and be thinking beyond college,” said school counselor Richard Winslow. Winslow grants that the school and the guidance department provide opportunities to help applicants such as the CAVBlock sessions with counselors to walk through the application process.

As seniors start to finalize most of their applications, they start to realize what parts of the application is the most difficult for them. For Joey Delaney ‘18,  the CommonApp is a long process and the most difficult task is finding time to input all of the information.

Many seniors are rushing to finish their college essays by Halloween so they can apply by November 1 or 15. On top of the CommonApp essay, many colleges require extra writing supplements, which makes the entire process a whole lot longer. Winslow and Delaney seem to agree that the CommonApp questions are fairly easy to complete, but extremely time consuming. Even still, it’s the essay that gives students the most struggle.

Even for those seniors not applying early, there is plenty of work to be done by January. Guidance is pushing these students to complete everything as soon as they can so there is less stress later.

While some seniors will say that applying to college is a very stressful process, others seem to do it with ease. All in all, seniors applying to colleges are busy bees this time of year.