Senior year: the year when students start applying for different colleges and choosing where they will be heading off, the year when students face great challenges in the first half of the year with (in some cases) an overwhelming amount of work. Seniors are struggling to balance college applications, homework, extracurricular activities, and work commitments.  While many seniors decided to apply to their schools early, some are still writing supplementary applications and applying to schools they want to attend in the Fall of 2024. I decided to interview a senior who decided to apply early action and has committed already, one senior who chose to apply early decision, and one student who is still working on their application. 

Thoughts from a student who applied early action and committed very early:

Olivia Berard was one of the first seniors to commit to college. Olivia started her essays and supplementals before the Common App opened, and she was already pursuing other schools that she was interested in. 

“I think I knew I wanted to go to Pitt at the end of sophomore year, so that was my main goal. That was my focus. I started to follow all of their social media platforms because of my demonstrated interest. I tried to talk to some students that I knew were going there. “

Olivia also wanted to not worry about a single essay during the start of her senior year.

“I did end up doing everything very very early on. Once the brag sheet opened up, I completed it very quickly. And most of my stuff was done before August 1st, it was actually doing the application on that day.”

When asked about her overall decision and reflecting on how she still feels about it, Olivia had this to say:

“I have no regrets about where I am going to school whatsoever. I love it. I’m going to visit again in February.”

Thoughts from a student who decided to apply early decision:

Jacob Cece is a senior who decided to apply early decision to Tufts University and he had gotten accepted. Jacob had a bit of a different path than Olivia because he had to figure out what was best for him in terms of campus size, location, and what the school had to offer. Jacob had planned out what he wanted from a school, and there were some specific things he was looking for. He also started early, right when the Common App opened on August 1st.

“I knew that once the school year started I would be very busy with academics and also the cross country season which was going on. I needed to start early so I could limit the amount of work that I would have to do in the school year”

When I asked Jacob if he was already dead set on Tufts, he had this to say:

“Actually no, I was deciding between a couple schools to apply early to, and I didn’t actually make that decision until probably late September because there wasn’t a clear number one school for me. There was a lot of things that I liked and didn’t like about some of these schools. There was a combination of factors which made Tufts the base decision for me”

Jacob chose to apply early decision because Tufts didn’t have early action and he knew that he wanted to get in as soon as possible. Applying early would result in giving Jacob the best chance of getting in and knowing where he would be attending as soon as possible. In the end everything worked out and Jacob ended up committing mid December.

Thoughts from a student who is still working on their applications:

William Lee is a senior who decided to start working on his applications in August, but he is still completing some of his applications to submit soon. Will has had plans of joining the Naval Academy since 2013, the year where he would take up swimming to help him join. However, the college deadlines were a bit sooner than Will expected.

“I looked at some prompts and they only had 250-350 word limits, and I was thinking that I could get this done easy. At the beginning I got a couple done, but I ended up procrastinating. I would end up cramming and pull all nighters because a lot of applications were due on the same night. I kind of regret it now, I should have done it earlier.”

Will had a huge plan of starting very early and finishing applications before school started, but it didn’t work out according to plan. As of now, Will just has a few colleges to apply to for Regular Decision. 

“I was really going for the mid-December deadlines. I just have some finishing touches on some essays”

Will is also waiting for the Naval Academy’s decision, and he believes that he will fully commit in February, and if he doesn’t get in then he will commit to another college that offers an NROTC program. He is making updates to his application to the Naval Academy and he has received everything needed. He is determined to get in the Naval Academy, and he is ready to do whatever is required.

“I managed to get [my applications] in. It’s not how I would like to have done it but it works. I got my stuff in on time, I got into a couple of colleges, and it’s going ok.”