As the calendar year comes to an end and students celebrate the holidays and the new year, seniors and early graduates have one more thing to celebrate: the end of college applications. The college application process typically starts in mid-August and ends in January or February, depending on the schools that the student applies to.   

In order to start applying to colleges, resumes, supplements and application forms need to be completed and students must narrow down their lists of schools and decide where to apply to. 

“I started making a spreadsheet on what colleges I wanted to apply to, what kind of application they take, when are their due dates, how many supplements they have ,” senior Connor Tran said.

It is important for students to consider multiple factors when applying to colleges, including programs, majors and courses. Nonetheless, many students have so many applications that it is important to stay organized.

Keeping up with turning in college essays and forms with the addition of balancing school work and any other extracurriculars, it can get stressful for some students. 

“Honestly, I was really frustrated and intimidated by the application process itself. There’s so many different ways that you can apply to college that it all seems so overwhelming. As a first generation college applicant, I felt like I had to figure everything out on my own. The first thing that I did was apply for a counseling scholarship so that I could get more help with the process itself,” senior Armita Mirkarimi said. 

To help ease the process and keep students updated on what they must have to meet their college requirements, parents and school counselors are the few people that are able to guide students into the direction they are headed to.

“Woodbridge counselors are available to help students if they have questions about particular questions on applications.  Counselors are also available to read through application essays or personal insight question responses for the UC’s.  Most students reach out to counselors to request a recommendation.  Most colleges on the Common Application require a school report and a recommendation from a counselor.” counselor Jennifer Carrington said. 

With the overall process of turning in the applications to the individual’s college choices, a checklist is a suggested idea to keep track of everything that is needed. When the student is completely done with turning in all their forms, they will wait  for mid-March to early May for their acceptance letters from colleges.