Class of ‘24 has finally made it to their senior year; after a not-so-normal beginning of their high school career with hybrid learning. But, the class has bonded over this experience. 

“I feel like we have a lot of unity and a brother and sisterhood that other classes don’t necessarily have,” Andrew Vincenti, a senior at the high school, said. 

This year should be the time of last firsts and enjoyable events with friends you may not see again. But before the kickoff of fun, is the hard part: preparing for college. 

The pressure is real and most seniors are feeling it. Approximately 95.5% of seniors polled said they were feeling anxious about their last high school year. Of these people, about 83.3% say that this anxiety is higher than other years of high school. 

“I’m mostly anxious about submitting my college applications and then just waiting for results to come in. I feel like so much is up in the air. It doesn’t feel real yet that it’s our last year,” one anonymous senior says.

The higher levels of anxiety can be attributed to college preparations, such as creating a list of schools, writing your personal essay, filling out the Common App, writing supplementals, etc. The amount of items that need to be checked off the list seems to be endless. 

“I didn’t know how many [supplementals] I would have. I also didn’t know I’d have to individually keep track of every college; I thought the Common App might help me out and have all of the college requirements laid out for me,” says Neil Sahu, another senior at the high school. 

In addition, the schoolwork does not stop simply because one is applying to college. Most students are taking difficult classes to demonstrate their academic ability to colleges, therefore, the workload is immense. 

“I feel like I don’t have enough time to be social anymore because of it,” says Katie Mae Yetter. 

Everything seems hard during the college process, especially when the self-doubt kicks in. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who are actually limiting their college applications because they don’t believe in themselves and I think that’s wrong in letting numbers dictate this much of your self-worth,” says Naomi Bashan. 

As seniors, most want to capitalize on their final year with friends they have had since kindergarten, but the fun seems to be limited due to the stress of the application process.