It’s that time of the year again, folks, when every senior is filled with absolute horror at the mere thought of filling out his respective pile upon piles of college applications, scholarship information, and FAFSA forms. And who can blame him? Senior year should be a time of “lasts”: of enjoying what little time of high school you have left, of going on adventures with your best friends, of making memories with as many people as you possibly can. Seniors are always told that high school is supposed to be “the easiest years of their lives.”

Then why has fall of senior year seemingly turned into the most stressful and busiest time of all? No one wants to spend a good chunk of his senior year holed up in his room, trying desperately to write a million different college acceptance essays. How can seniors be expected to, when there’s so much school work already assigned to them in their normal classes? When can they even find the time?

        Looking around at the seniors this year, I think it’s safe to say that most of them have some sort of confusion or dread tied to their college application process. It’s a very scary thing to deal with, signing away the next four years of your life at a school you probably know very little about. The college application process isn’t exactly easy either, which makes this procrastination on doing college work completely warranted and understandable.

On top of the stress they’re already dealing with in schoolwork, maintaining a social life, being in extracurricular organizations and the normal college application process, to name a few, students going into an art-related field have to find the time to put together a college art portfolio. Depending on the college, this can vary anywhere from a 8-20 piece showcase of students’ best artwork from high school. As an art student myself, I’ve found myself having to create upwards of five pieces during my senior year simply to fulfill most portfolio requirements. Similarly, students going into a theater or music-related field have to deal with and prepare for college auditions.

Overall, the work expected of college applicants is just so exasperating. It’s like throwing an extra mountain of homework at every senior, on top of the work they already have. Good luck to all of the seniors out there trying to get it all done.