As seniors work on applying to college, the thoughts of supplements, teacher recs and their future loom overhead.

Senior year is known for many things- senior parties, off-campus lunch and college applications. Some students are still working to submit applications, while others started working on August 1st, the day the Common Application opened online. The Common Application is an online application that students fill out and send to whichever of the 600 colleges that they wish to apply, though most state schools have their own application.

“I applied to four schools on the Common Application. For the University of Texas I had to use the Apply Texas Application and send that in by October 15th. Then I also had to fill out the Georgia Application to apply to the University of Georgia at the same time. It was kind of a pain  trying to juggle three different applications and deadlines. If all my colleges were on the same application, it would definitely make my life a lot easier,” senior Katie Dalton said.

But despite the tough college application process, many students have already been accepted to various colleges, and some even know where they’re going to be a student next fall. Certain schools, including the University of Mississippi and the University of Arkansas are on a rolling admission schedule, meaning there is no set day students find out if they have been accepted, but instead the school notifies the applicant as soon as a decision is made. This means the earlier a student sends in their application, the sooner he or she can find out.

“I applied to the University of Arkansas in August, and they started to admit kids September 1st. Unfortunately, I still haven’t been admitted because my transcript is pending. As soon as the counseling office sends it in though, I’ll find out pretty soon after if I’m in,” senior Suzanne Wright said.

Students must work with the counseling office during the application process so the office can send in students’ transcripts and counselor recommendations. In September, students were required to send in counselor recommendation requests. Students had to answer general questions about themselves, classes, activities, and interests to help their counselor write their recommendation. In addition to the counseling office, students usually have to ask two teachers to write recommendation letters for them. Some teachers require students to answer questions about why they are applying to each college, while other teachers simply want a student’s resume. A couple teachers will cap how many recs they will write for students, so students began requesting their recommendations in May to make sure they had a spot on the teacher’s list. Other teachers will write as many recs as they are asked to and get over 100 requests. As school starts back up students continue to ask teachers for recommendations and check in on them periodically to make sure all the deadlines and directions are understood.

As it becomes more competitive to get into schools and the average HP student applying to between 6 and 8 colleges, overall it becomes a very time consuming process, but will be well worth it in the end.