Now is the time when seniors are having the most stress. The end of the first quarter is here and application deadlines for colleges are coming up fast. Seniors have started to feel the stress especially when it comes to writing essays, finding scholarships and filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.

“Applying for college is a really big decision, it determines where you are going to go in the United States and what you are going to be majoring in,” senior Maya Angeles said. “Even though you can switch your major, you might pick your school based on the major you want to pick. That’s what I am doing in my case.”

The FAFSA is what students need to fill out to figure out how much money they will receive in financial aid from different colleges. The FAFSA for the 2018-19 school year opened Oct. 1. This means that students who are planning to be enrolled in college during 2018 or 2019 need to fill this form out to receive financial aid. The final deadline for students planning on attending college in fall of 2019 is midnight June 30, 2019.

The things needed to complete the FAFSA are:

• Your Social Security Number
• Your Alien Registration Number (if you are not a U.S. citizen)
• Your federal income tax returns, W-2s, and other records of money earned.
• Bank statements and records of investments (if applicable)
• Records of untaxed income (if applicable)
• A FSA ID to sign electronically.

Most of these items will need to come from the parents and will be a very helpful tool when filling out the FAFSA.

Writing college essays are also a stress for students. Picking the right prompt and figuring out the correct way to explain your opinion can be very difficult, especially when there is getting accepted to a school is riding on it.

“I think a lot of the prompts are very personal and you have to really dig within yourself to write a good one that will attract the attention of whoever is reading it,” senior Kaitlynn Mauck said.

Although if students need help with writing college essays, most English teachers would be happy to help students and guide them on how to make their essay the best it can be.

“Take some colleges acceptance of your paperwork with a grain of salt, because you are more than a number,” Ms. Borders said.

The last main thing on students getting ready for college is finding and applying for scholarships. College is very expensive and scholarships can be a crucial thing for students who do not want to accrue more college debt. If students already have a college in mind, then they can apply to specific scholarships that are at that school. If a student is still undecided on which school they want to go to, don’t panic. There are also scholarships that are not tied to a specific school that they can apply for online, some include sports, academic and club scholarships.

While all these worries are tying down a senior’s mind, they should also try to enjoy senior year because it only happens once.

Here is a link for scholarship information from the Liberty guidance department:

https://sites.google.com/wsdr4.org/lhsacademics/college-career-a/scholarship-information?authuser=0