The past few months, I have to say, have been something of a blur for me. In truth, between things such as the school musical, Science Olympiad competitions, and various other trips and activities I’ve been part of since January, I haven’t been thinking about college all that much. I figured that the work was all done—all there was left to do was to wait. And by that point, I was fairly experienced with waiting, if I do say so myself.

In terms of colleges, the one noteworthy thing that did happen between January and March 30 was completing my financial aid application. Before I continue, a few words about financial aid: after making it through the application process itself, applying for need-based financial aid feels like more of an afterthought than anything. It’s tedious, for sure, having to assemble the required tax forms (ask your parents!), but you don’t have to write any essays about why you should be selected, or your most remarkable experiences. In brief, check up on those deadlines, and make sure you leave yourself enough time to collect everything and send it out.

Scholarships, of course, are another thing entirely. Though less work than actual college applications, they still often involve essays, which can be fairly challenging questions. The good news is, most of them aren’t due very early. Still, make sure you keep up with those deadlines as well.

In my case, I didn’t have too much trouble getting everything together on time. And once financial papers were all sent out, applications were really over for good. So, of course, I waited. And waited.

My first decision (for MIT, as it happened) came out March 14. Declined. Well, that could be trouble, I thought. But still, there was nothing else to do but wait—so despite some disappointment early on—still I waited. And, well, it was all quiet on the front for another two weeks. Then, at 5:00 p.m. on March 30, the floodgates really opened. Admissions websites were sluggish as thousands of students tried to log on at the same time. But, one by one, I got my results. Without naming them all, I will say that out of nine (extremely competitive) schools that I applied to, I was admitted to four.

I will also say that I have made my decision. Come this fall, I will be a member of the Cornell University class of 2015.

This was not a decision that was made lightly. After all, this choice is going to very nearly define my life for the next four years. But in the end, in addition to the strength of programs at Cornell (especially in computer science, in which I hope to major), it was practical considerations that really won me over—the generous financial aid I got, as well as distance from home (not too far away, but not right next door either), and the look of the campus itself.

One way or another, though, I arrived at my decision. So, now I can really say once and for all that the process is complete. Looking back, there were certainly some things I wish I’d done better—putting more of my individuality into my essays, for instance, or preparing more for my earlier interviews. But everything worked out in the end, I feel. After all, no matter how many places you’re accepted, you can only choose to go to one, and I’m pretty satisfied with my result.

Still, who knows what’ll happen next, in another four years? From this point on, there will only be more opportunities, more diverging roads that we can all take through life. And I admit that it does feel a little strange, to be suddenly stepping out into the real world after 12 years of school, almost like being in a bubble. But I’m certainly hopeful about the future.

So congratulations to my fellow seniors who’ve reached this point—hopefully that senioritis isn’t kicking in too sharply! And to this year’s juniors, keep on doing your best. Probably the best pieces of advice I can give about applications are the following: start early and don’t be nervous. I know that in September, December 31 seems far away, but trust me, it’ll be here before you know it. And the more time you spend stressing out about how you’ll never make that deadline, the less time you’ll have to actually finish the work by that deadline.

In closing, it’s been a long eight months since September—and an even longer four years since freshman year, when all of this seemed impossibly far away. High school has been a ton of work, for sure, and it has required a whole lot of late nights—but it also holds some very special memories, things that I would love to relive. But life goes on, as we say. It’s time to pack up what I’ve gained from these past four years and take it with me into the next four. And I am just about ready.

I never thought that it would happen, but it’s almost time to say goodbye to 2010, and hello to 2011—and with a nice vacation between the two. Of course, for a lot of students out there (including me!), the work isn’t over yet. But the end is in sight—just think of how nice it’ll be once all is said and done, and we can resume our lives as normally stressed high school students, instead of totally distressed high school students scrambling to get applications done. (Though hopefully you’ve been scheduling well and avoiding the second case.)

Looking back, it’s been a long year. January seems like such a long time ago, back when I was still a junior not knowing what to expect of college applications. I was told that completing college applications was like having an extra course through the first half of senior year—now I personally can say that this is completely true. But to all those juniors out there, I wouldn’t worry too much (yet); just do your best during junior year, and your work will show on your applications during senior year.

Right now, these are my plans: I’m hoping to finish off the last few of my applications over the next week—I’ve got about two or three essays to write, and those essays aren’t too complicated—mostly asking me to describe my interest in a certain field, which I feel I’ve practically become an expert at doing. Aside from those essays, my transcripts are sent, my recommendations are in, and the application forms are all filled out and ready to go. So hopefully I’ll be able to have everything done before winter break. And then, I’m going on vacation, of course. ‘Tis the season, after all, and we deserve to unwind a little after months of college-related stress.

I’m holding off on submitting things (and paying that application fee), though, until the 16th—that’s when I hear back from my early action school. It might be a long shot, but if I get in, then I’ll know for sure where I’m going to college. And if not, then well, it’ll be time to wait until April 1. It’s suspenseful, sure, but as I’ve said, there’s no reason to worry about it once everything’s already in. After that point, it’s all up to fate—or in this case, the college admissions staff.

Personally, I’ve been trying not to think too much about not getting into my top school—but it’s a possibility that I do have to face. In that case, I’ve got regular decision schools to fall back on. And if those fall through (again, not something I’m keen on thinking about right now, but still possible), then there’s my safety school. Not my first choice, maybe, but it’s still a pretty good school. The point is, don’t fret a lot about being rejected—it’s not the end of the world, and there’ll always be a way forward. Transfer applications, graduate school, and so on. There’s always a way, if you’re willing to put in the work.

So then, it’s about time to finally get closure on this year. We’ve all come a long way to reach this point—a number of my classmates have already been accepted early, and many more are about to find out. Regardless of what happens next, we’ve put in some incredible work over the past few months and hopefully learned quite a bit more about ourselves by writing those essays. That fact alone, the fact that we were able to get this far, says something positive. So keep your fingers crossed—because you never know!

You’ve filled out forms, taken tests, sent grades, and written essays. Your application is pretty much complete—or, at least, you know exactly how you’re going to complete it. So soon enough, it’ll be time to just hit submit and keep your fingers crossed for four more months. Right? Well, there’s one more hurdle, one more thing to do. Even though it’s oftentimes marked as optional, a lot of colleges “strongly recommend” you do it. What am I talking about?

Of course, it’s the college interview. For me, it seemed like the most nerve-wracking part of the whole college process at first. You mean that I have to sit down with an interviewer and talk about myself? But what do I say? What if I end up looking bad? As I was preparing for my first interview, sometime last June, questions like these were running through my mind. And so, being the nervous student that I was, I turned to the one surefire source of information—the college’s website itself.

It turns out that the college interview is an entirely different animal than all those other parts of your application. If I were to choose, I’d say that it has more in common with a college visit than anything else (which is maybe why a lot of colleges prefer on-campus interviews), with maybe a little overlap with some types of essays. The main thing is that a lot of the application form deals with the academic, measurable side of things—your school grades, your scores, special achievements, and so on. The interview is all about the other, immeasurable side—who you are as a person, and how well you’d fit into the college community.

Because of that, even though the college might allow you to bring transcripts and resumes to the interview if you wish, those shouldn’t be the main focus of the conversation. The interview is the time to talk about all the things that don’t fit neatly into one of the boxes on your application. Things like family situations, or amusing anecdotes, or some of your interests that you didn’t get to write about in your essays. So definitely look at your resume and pick a couple activities that have been really important to you—ones that you can really talk about. Once you’ve gotten onto a subject, it’s time to set down the papers and just have a conversation with the interviewer.

An important thing to remember is that with most college interviews, the interviewer is on your side. They’re not there to try to trip you up—throwing curveball questions doesn’t really help them to get to know you. Their questions are usually pretty general, like asking about your interests or a special activity of yours; they want to give you as much to talk about as possible. So don’t pass up that chance—give them a good picture of what you’re all about.

And—this is good general advice, but especially related to interviews—be someone that people would enjoy being around. College interviews can differ in formality, but there’s no need to be completely uptight about it. If you’ve got amusing stories relating to one of your activities, then don’t be afraid to share it (providing it’s not too far out there, of course).

Finally, don’t pass up the chance to ask questions of your own. Just as the interviewer is learning about you, you’re there to learn more about the college. If you’ve got questions that aren’t answered by information sessions or the college site, such as questions about social life or students’ experiences (especially if your interviewer is an alumnus), go on and ask. It shows the interviewer that you’re truly interested, and it helps you to better learn about the college. I know that from personal experience; I’m always a little nervous going into my interviews—but after a few minutes, I find it easy to relax and just let the conversation flow. So in the end, the interview shouldn’t be an incredibly stressful part of your college application process. Just relax and be yourself!

I’m in that odd period of time, between the early college deadline and the regular college deadline, where I’m counting down the days until I hear whether I’m accepted early or not. I know that I should be working on regular decision materials just in case I’m not accepted early, so that I won’t have to scramble to finish in December. But procrastination lives on; after having spent pretty much the past two months on early applications, I’m not too eager to get back to them so soon.

This is, of course, a trap, one that I know too well. There’s still two months left until the deadline, so I figure that I’m allowed to take a little time off. Next week rolls around, and I take a little more time off—a couple more weeks of time off, in fact. And the next thing I know, there’s not two months left anymore but only one month, and I still haven’t started on anything. It’s one of those processes where you can see it happening, plain as day, but you don’t really do anything to break out of it.

Of course, it’d be a lot easier to just never get tangled up in that trap in the first place, right? So I had to think of a way to keep myself from falling for it. So I thought, what’s the one thing that never fails to kill procrastination? The answer, naturally, is pressure. It’s tough to put things off when the deadline is right in your face, zooming closer.

So I went ahead and set some deadlines for myself. The rough draft for this application is “due” on this day, another draft is due the next week, and so on, until the final due date in December. Obviously, my own deadlines don’t carry the same sort of weight as the actual January 1st due date, but sometimes just seeing a date by which something needs to be done is enough to get me into action. It’s not exceptionally rigorous, so there’s plenty of wiggle room—there pretty much has to be, as a high school student, since you never know when you’re suddenly going to be hit by a wall of homework. But it is definitely a helpful thing just to have in place, for a few reasons.

For one thing, it’s a lot easier to visualize how much work you actually have ahead of you. I can go ahead and say that I have four more supplements to complete, but that doesn’t really mean much without knowing how much work is in each one. Actually picking out each thing you need to do and assigning it a reasonable due date gives you a much better perspective on what your expected workload is. And along those same lines, it becomes a lot easier to see how far along you really are—if you’re on track to finish early or need to pick up the pace a little. Again, it’s all about making it more difficult to put things off; if you see that you’re already behind where you planned to be, it becomes a lot tougher to justify putting it off even more.

So even if you’re not exactly the type to plan very far in advance, I’d definitely recommend drawing out a timetable of some sort. Nothing incredibly detailed—you don’t need to plan out every single day from now through December or anything—but just a few general due dates for where you think you ought to be in one week, two weeks, and so on. Even if you end up getting off track, you’ll be able to tell just what you need to do to catch back up.

I’d like to share an experience from a few days ago. I was staring at the “SUBMIT” button on the computer. Months of work had led up to this moment. I hovered over the button for a moment, started to click, and then moved away. I looked over the entire form one more time, making sure everything was spelled correctly, and that I’d selected the all the right options, checked all the right boxes, and so on. I read my essays one more time, making sure the all the grammar was right. I took out a comma, wavered for a moment, and then put it back. And then, I was right back to that big, inviting “SUBMIT” button. I took a deep breath and clicked it.

And there it went. My applications for a few choice schools were sent.

Here’s my story up to this point. Back in September, I applied to a scholarship program, QuestBridge, designed for low-income students, which promises to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need. A couple weeks ago, I was notified that I was being considered as a finalist for the program. (And yes, the skies cleared, the birds sang, and a heavenly choir ascended me to the heavens … Or at least, that’s how it seemed.) In order to receive a scholarship, I have to send my own materials to the colleges I chose from QuestBridge’s partner universities when I applied, sometimes including the Common Application. In brief, it was an alternate early action option, though the requirements were much higher than normal.

But even after clicking that final submit button, there wasn’t the wave of relief that I expected. There was still that little worry in the back of my mind: did everything go through all right? Was there some mistake that I missed?

Here’s what I say. (And this’ll apply again in another two months, after regular decision closes.) You’ve spent weeks, even months, on that application — it’s certainly as good as you could have made it in that period of time. Take your mind entirely off of that application for a few hours. Walk around for a bit. Step outside for a few minutes. Recall that there is, indeed, a life outside the process; maybe it’s taken a back seat in the past week or so, but it’s still there. Maybe go to bed early, since that’s always a problem for us students.

And as for regular decision? Two months can either seem really long or really short, depending on how you think of it, but it’s definitely more than enough time to get everything in order. Now definitely isn’t the time to be stressing out about that — wait about a month and a half for that. Take a couple days to relax a little, before you dive back into your applications. It’s not wrong to take it easy for a day or two, especially after all the work we’ve put in so far; anything to keep us from feeling totally overloaded. We might be working for our futures, but don’t forget that we still live in the present.

I’ll get the bad news out of the way first … most early action college deadlines are in a little over two weeks, probably on November 1. And most other applications will be due in about two and a half months, at the end of the year. Approaching fast? You bet.

That said, I’d like to offer a saying that has become my motto over the past few months. It’s one of the most important strategies that I have, both for staying on schedule and for doing the best job I can. So (and with all credit to the great Douglas Adams), here it is: Don’t panic. (I recommend writing it on a sheet of paper in large, friendly letters and taping it somewhere visible.)

It’s true that there’s a lot of work. I’ve heard people describe college applications as basically a whole extra course on top of your regular course load for the first half of senior year. As I’m in the middle of it right now, I’d definitely have to agree. It’s been an interesting time (to say the least), collecting all the required forms and recommendations, writing college essays, and keeping up with my difficult courses on top of that. So it’s only natural to be worried; we’d have to have nerves of steel to not be at least a little apprehensive about what’s to come.

But here’s my view: We have to be careful to separate what we can still change from what’s already set. Think of all your hardships, your experiences, and your achievements as building blocks. The blocks have already been made; that’s what you’ve spent the past three years doing. There’s no sense in worrying how well-made the blocks are, or how many there are—at this point, there’s little we can do to change them. All that we can worry about now is building as great a structure as we can, using those blocks.

In other words, now isn’t the time to worry about your résumé or your scores (well, unless you happen to be taking the upcoming October or December ACTs, in which case, best of luck!) It’s true for me that looking back, I definitely see a lot of places where I wish I’d practiced a little more, performed a little better at that competition or that audition—but I can’t go back in time and change them, so there’s no practical reason to worry about them at this point.

My final bit of advice is to have confidence. You’ve worked your tail off for years in preparation for this; now isn’t the time for doubt. The application itself (and especially the essay) is what’s within your control; grab hold of it and don’t let it get away, for everything else that’s already happened is out of your hands. Don’t hold back; get writing and show your colleges what you’re all about. Hit them with everything that’s fresh and unique about you, everything that’ll make them want to admit you—no matter what you think, there’s definitely something that sets you apart from everyone else. And remember: don’t panic!

Well, ok, that essay title won’t open many college doors. But it’s definitely an essay that many of us have stared at for several minutes—maybe even hours, in the most severe cases. And the question on our minds is: How do I even start this thing? Indeed, reading over those college essay prompts the first time can seem daunting. That said, here are a few things I’ve kept in mind—things that have helped me make decent progress on my own essays.

First off, it’s true: college essay prompts are incredibly vague. In fact, that was pretty much my first reaction to reading the Common App prompts. But though the vagueness might make the task seem more difficult at first, it’s really a blessing in disguise. The prompts are meant to give you as much freedom as possible. If there’s a significant experience or trait that sets you apart from everyone else, chances are it will fit into one of the prompts with minimal tailoring.

The flip side is that with so many options, actually choosing a topic and starting your essay might just be your first roadblock. It certainly was for me. I probably spent as much time thinking about my options and trying to settle on one as I did actually writing the essay. The idea is to write about something that makes you unique, something that makes you really stand out from the crowd. The essay is the most intimate picture that application readers will get from you—it should definitely be something memorable, something that shows off your best points.

At the same time, you have to write what you know. A trap that people sometimes fall into is trying to write over their head. While discussing “science” or “peace” might seem grand for writing about a concept that interests you, these sorts of sweeping topics often end up being too broad to cover effectively without the essay becoming overly long, and it’s difficult to connect with them on a personal level.

Once you’ve picked a topic, if it’s something you know well, then the writing should come easily, for the most part. List a few major topics you want to hit in your essay, and then just get writing—whatever you think of, put it down. It’s a lot like writing a school paper, really. Your very first draft should just be sort of a free write, just to get your ideas down on paper and see how they look. After that, edit for length if you’re over the limit, check if you’ve hit all your points, and just generally read to see how good a picture it would give to a reader. Though it’s outside of school, treat it just as importantly as any school paper, if not more so, and follow the same writing process.

And lastly, have someone else proofread it! Often when we read our own writing, we tend to read what we meant instead of what is actually on the paper. You can show it to your counselor, your English teachers, even your parents—see what impression they get from your essay. A lot of work? Yes, just like any other essay. But is it worth it to put in the effort? Absolutely.

Classes have begun once again, marking the close of my final summer as a high school student. Summer always seems to go by too quickly; though looking back, I have to admit that I did have a fairly productive break. In a nutshell, I visited colleges, volunteered at a local refugee resettlement program, and ended up with some time to relax. Essentially, most of the things I planned to do back in June, I did indeed complete — and most of them were done before the beginning of August. So, then, what did I do for the rest of the time?

One fine summer morning, suddenly feeling more productive than usual, I sat down at my computer and fired up a certain website. Which website? www.commonapp.org. And as that webpage loaded, the real application process began for me.

Ah, the Common Application. Nearly all of us will have to enter our information into it at some point, simply because of the sheer number of member colleges — and certainly it makes things easier. Filling out all the web forms is naturally a bit time-consuming — not as much as it would be filling out paper forms, of course, but still — so it’s best to just get that out of the way early. That applies to any application process, pretty much, Get the paperwork out of the way early, before things get down to the wire with deadlines.

In any case, I finished the Common Application pretty quickly. And then I ran into the biggest stumbling block there is: the essays. I’ll certainly return to that topic in the future, but for now, let me just say that on that first day, I looked over the choices for prompts, chose the one I thought would fit me most, jotted down a few notes on what I might write, and promptly left it for another day.

Not that procrastination is a good thing. Indeed, I kept up a fairly consistent schedule with writing, to the point that now I’m done with about half the work that I need to do. Of course, now that school has begun, it’ll be harder to actually get the time to finish, but it’s something that needs to be done and getting an early head start has really helped. Juniors might consider getting a jump-start on essays.

So what does it mean if you haven’t quite gotten around to starting on your applications yet? Well, certainly it’s not the end of the world; there’s still a comfortable space between now and October or November, not to mention December 31, when many applications are due. But you’ll definitely want to make good use of that time — more than anything, good essays take time to write — time to think of ideas, time to write them out, and time to review and get second opinions. And above all, follow that timeless advice: don’t panic. Not least because the less time you spend worrying about how much work there is, the more time you’ll have to get it done.

Yes, the best time of year for us students is already on the horizon — summer vacation is coming fast. Of course, being juniors, nothing is easy for us; summer vacation just can’t be quite the same three months of relaxation and fun it used to be. So what am I personally planning on doing? I’ve mentioned a few things that I need to finally get around to doing over the summer, but here is the list in full.

Visiting colleges. Yes, we all know it’s important, and I need to get right on it. And while I can’t venture very far away from the Northeast, where I live, there are a fair number of colleges nearby that I’m very interested in. My plan is to spend a weekend in each of the major cities around here, looking at colleges and just getting a feel for life in that area. One weekend in Philadelphia, one in Boston, one in New York City, and so on. That will get me some good visits with many of the places I’m looking at. And plus, there’s nothing wrong with travel — going out of town for a few weekends will be enjoyable in itself.

Volunteering. If there is one area I should think about shoring up, I would have to say community service. Certainly I’m eager to give back to the community I’ve been a part of for all of these years, but unfortunately time has been the biggest limiting factor in the past school year. So what better season to catch up than over the summer? Already I’ve found a few promising service opportunities, ones that will be valuable and fulfilling experiences.

Those pesky college applications . . . Yes, it’s time to start thinking about those. I’ve already begun looking at the application process for my preferred colleges, but right around August is the time when I plan to start putting serious work into the applications. By then I’ll have hopefully visited many of them and decided which ones are right for me, so it’s better to get a start before school starts up again (a scary thought, that). Application essay writing, in particular, requires quite a bit of thought in order to get just the right tone, the right feel, the right image of who you are, all wrapped up in those few thousand words. So if I can at lease have some sort of plan on what I will write for each prompt, then I’ll be saving myself a lot of trouble down the road.

And on the side, a little leisure. Reading, practicing trumpet, gaming, and what have you. Work might be there, but summer is still summer; we’d be wrong if we didn’t spend at least a little extra time relaxing. Not overly much — after all, college is key to most of our foreseeable future — but a little extra time to take a break. After the hectic school year, we all deserve it.

At some point in all our high school careers, it will come time to … take “the Test.” The Test can be anything, standardized or otherwise, but it’s important that we do well on it, no matter what. And to do this, it’s important to know just how to take the Test — because like one of those repeating dreams, the Test will come back to us again and again over time.

Even though the Test officially begins only once the proctor gives the signal to begin, the process of taking the Test really begins with preparation. Studying has to happen first, for sure, because if one wants to succeed on the Test, one has to know the material. But scholarly preparation aside, mental preparation is just as important.

The Test is critical, as we all know, and it’s only natural that it occupies a section of our mind in the weeks leading up to it. But we shouldn’t allow it to take up all of our thoughts — and above all, we shouldn’t let it stress us out completely. Stress is good in moderation, one of the few motivating factors that can pull us away from our technological distractions. But too much of it is just as bad — when we start losing sleep over the Test, things begin to go downhill.

So I’ve found that the day before the Test is critical for this reason. If we’re completely stressed out the day before, then that’ll carry over to the morning of and continue right up until we walk into that testing room. And soon enough we’ll be more concerned with worrying about how we’re going to do on the Test than with answering the questions themselves, which would actually raise our scores. So here are a few things to do, to get the nerves under control.

Recall that you are actually well prepared for the Test. All that work and studying you’ve put in certainly hasn’t been for nothing — think of all that you know, that you didn’t know before. Dismiss that nagging thought that you haven’t learned “enough” for certainly one can never say that they’ve learned “enough” — but be confident that you are perfectly capable of attaining a strong score with what you’ve already learned.

Along the same lines, recall that more often than not, you are doing better than you think you are. There might be a streak of a few questions that you don’t know the answer to — but don’t forget the numerous questions that you did know the answer to before that, and those that are still to come. Many a test I have walked out of feeling that it went terribly, but in the end, it all turned out fine.

Finally, remember that the Test is, when it comes down to it, just a piece of paper. The Test doesn’t control you; you can control the Test. From the moment you sit down at that desk or table, you are in control, and nothing can faze you. More often, it’ll turn out to be easier than you thought; but if it turns out to be harder, know that everyone else is taking the same test, and many others are feeling just the same way. And if you’ve prepared well, and your stress is under control, then you’ll have put forth your best effort, and there will be nothing further to worry about.