by Bailey Hussung

There is no way to forget it: college creeps ever closer. College seems to be right on top of juniors and seniors, especially when email inboxes are flooded with college spam. With all the glossy leaflets and fancy fold-out posters showing up in the mail, it is easy to become overwhelmed.

For FC students, junior and senior year is college crunch time. Junior Garrett Jones is feeling the heat. “I am taking really challenging classes this year, and since I know I want to major somewhere in the physical sciences, I am taking AP Physics and chemistry to prepare myself.”

Along with being extremely involved in academics, Jones is maintaining his extracurricular activities he said, because he would also like to be involved in music in the college of his choosing. “Being able to take both science and music classes are both big factors in why I am looking at University of Illinois, Maryland and Purdue.” Jones said he is still intimidated by the application process, and will continue to keep college in mind while making decisions.

“I’m scared most about making the right choice,” said senior Mark Merk. He plans to attend IU, but is still keeping an open mind. “I like IU; it’s close to home and it’s a great school, but I haven’t committed to anywhere yet.”

Merk knows all too well the stresses of trying to choose the right college. “I think the most important thing I have done to plan for college is make a game plan, it really gave me direction and focus.”

Though all students are at different levels in regards to their preparation for college, the counselors are there to guide any student to the right college for them. “We will sit down with a student, see what the colleges are looking for and direct them toward the website. Everything nowadays is online, and colleges want you to complete most things online, so that is the best place to go,” said guidance counselor Kirk Hamsley.

Hamsley has plenty to advice to offer when it comes to searching for a college. “My best advice for juniors and seniors is to take challenging classes, take the SAT and ACT, visit as many campuses as you can and most of all, put some money away for college.”

Hamsley said that students sometime did not utilize their years in high school, so they were unprepared for the rigor of college academia.

Hamsley said that visiting colleges was one of the most important components of finding the right college. “When you visit a campus, don’t be overwhelmed by all of the information they throw out at you. Pay attention to the campus layout. Sit in on a class that you will take if you go there, and listen to the professor. Think to yourself, ‘Can I listen to this guy for the next four years?’; really think about it.”

Of course, there can be pitfalls to the process. “It never fails, every year, that seniors don’t want to write essays for scholarships. I mean, it’s one page for usually about $1000, if you think about it, that is about 100 hours of work to earn that money, it doesn’t get any better than that,” said Hamsley.

Graduate Rachel Sieg, who is in her second year at Hanover College as a Spanish and biology double major, said she wanted to keep her options open when it came to colleges. “Not only did I take challenging classes, I knew they were looking for more than that, something to make me stand out. So, I made sure I had leadership positions, volunteer experience, extracurriculars, and passions that made me unique and desirable to schools,” said Sieg. She also took advantage of all of her allotted college visit days both junior and senior year. “The visit days are what helped me most. They gave me the feel of the campus and I found the school that felt right to me.”

Graduate Tyson Woolf, however, used his junior and senior year to discover what he loves. “My senior year, I was juggling the idea of being a theatre major, so I really threw myself into theatre to decide if that’s what I wanted to do.” Now a second-year theatre major, he said he does not regret his decision. “I was trying to choose between IU and Ball state, and last minute I went with Ball State; it had the extracurriculars I wanted, and a stellar theatre program.”

College applications can be daunting, but everyone goes through it. And with all the opportunities that FC students have, along with the assistance of the counselors, it makes the seemingly gargantuan task a little easier to handle.

“Remember that it is never too early to start thinking about college, and the more preparation, the better,” said Hamsley.