For upperclassmen and some underclassmen, the pressure of finding the right college is a lot to handle. Mix in SATs and the workload of junior year and students feel as if they’re drowning in the chaos of it all.

For junior student Fiona Higgins, the stress has just begun.

Now that the process of applying for colleges is right around the corner, Higgins is definitely beginning to feel the heat.

“I had to choose which colleges I wanted to visit and everything, so it was a little difficult to choose and very stressful as well,” Higgins said.

Higgins visited two schools that fit her major, which is early childhood education. She also kept in mind what she was looking for in a college.

“I visited Endicott College and URI, but I ultimately liked URI better than Endicott,” she said.

Her qualifications were simple: the size of the school and the campus layout. “I really liked the aspect of it being a medium sized school, and I thought the campus was really pretty too,” said Higgins, explaining why she preferred what she saw at URI.

On most occasions, visiting a college can either be a disastrous or a very positive experience. For Higgins, her visit at URI was completely positive and persuasive. She can see herself attending URI in the near future.

“I hope to go to URI because they have the major I want to major in which is early childhood education and I didn’t know if I wanted a small school or a medium school so I looked at Endicott which is really small and then I looked at URI which is a lot bigger and realized that I definitely want a bigger school,” Higgins said.

Growing up with two older siblings who have both visited colleges, Higgins is somewhat used to the experience.  Nevertheless, she is also freaked out by the fact that she is now doing the visiting for herself.

“I’ve always gone on colleges visits with my siblings, so it was weird for me actually being the one going on them,’ Fiona said.

Higgins’ college visits are not over yet. She plans to continue to visit schools.