As application deadlines get closer and closer, juniors and seniors say they feel ready and confident in the process.
Although the college process can be confusing initially, many students who spoke with The Willistonian said they felt comfortable with the work they’d done so far.
Henry Sanders, a junior from Amherst, feels ready for college, though he’s got a full year before he’ll be applying.
“I feel pretty prepared,” Henry said. “College is a lot to think about, but I have put some time into it so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.”
Henry is looking to go to college for baseball. So far, he has toured Boston College and Amherst College.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), only half of the public schools in the USA (47%) rate themselves as doing a very good or excellent job preparing students for college. This results in many students feeling unprepared for college, which leaves them scrambling for answers when it is too late.
Regarding choosing the right college, Henry says he is “a little nervous” because the choice of where to go to college “is a pretty big decision.”
“I think that it will all work out in the end, but it will of course help for me to get good grades in my classes, high SAT scores, and participate in good extracurriculars,” he added.
This year, Henry is taking AP US Government, Honors Precalculus, Honors Biology, Honors French Seminar, and AP English Language.
From 2019 to 2021, Williston sent a total of 468 students to 166 different colleges across the country. Williston sends around 99% of its students to college, and has many resources to help students get into the colleges they want.
Williston offers many optionsfor SAT and test prep with the ARETE group and SAT prep workshops. Williston also provides a college advisor for each student, helping guide them to the right school. There are four college advisors: Emily McDowell, Charlie Lonergan, Alex Tancrell-Fontaine, and Derek Cunha.
With these resources, students have everything they need to answer their college questions all in one place.
Olin Rose-Bardawil, a senior day student from Northampton, started touring colleges about a year ago.
“At first, my main goal was looking for colleges and seeing what I liked or disliked,” he said. “I liked Georgetown, Bowdoin and Boston College. I disliked Bates. Eventually, after touring all of the schools I wanted, I started narrowing down my list.”
Olin encourages juniors to tour as many colleges as possible.
“Touring helps you get a lot of information about the colleges you want to go to,” Olin told The Willistonian. “At this point I have toured around 10 colleges.”
Olin’s best tip for a junior who is nervous about college is to talk to others who have already finished their applications, or to talk to people who have gone off to college.
“I talked to both my cousins who had already gone to college,” he said. “One of them went to Harvard and the other one went to Stanford. They encouraged me, gave me good advice for my essays, and told me what admissions officers look for.”
[Editor’s note: Olin is the editor-in-chief of The Willistonian.]
Talking to someone with firsthand college experience can help you hear a real perspective on what applying to college is like. In Olin’s case, his cousin told him how to write good college essays.
“My cousin told me to be myself in my essay, and he told me to not try and perform and to just talk about myself,” he said. “He told me to take a certain passion of mine and transform it into a broader story about who I am, rather than listing my accomplishments in an attempt to sound smart.”
Although the college advising office helped Olin figure out where to apply, he believes there’s one element that would have helped him even more.
“College counseling helped a lot, but I wish the school gave me more time to write my essays because it is hard to balance school work and college work,” Olin said. “I wish that there was more structured time to work on college applications.”
