One quarter of the way into school seniors have to keep up with daily work and deal with the added stress of college applications and essays. 

“I want to go to UTEP and study electrical engineering,” senior Johan Martinez said. “I have always been curious to understand how electricity works and how devices use it.” 

College offers are coming in and seniors are lucky to have the Go Center to make sure they are going down the right path. 

“It is actually just doing it, once they start the process they realize it is time consuming but not hard,” Go Center Specialist Julie Rodriguez said. “I think most of the time it has to do with a student not knowing what is expected and so they are afraid to even start the process.”

Knowing what to do next is a simple question but being able to focus may be tough. 

“I want every student to know that I know school sometimes is not something that they want to do, college, not at the moment as soon as they get out of high school,” Communities In Schools Agalee Hidalgo said. “But for them to seriously consider college sometime in their future, to not give up the whole idea all together.”

When thinking about college, seniors take into consideration what different schools have to offer such as, class size, programs, and majors in addition to tuition. 

“I think I changed my mind about UTEP because I am not totally sure,” Martinez said. “I would change to a different school because it varies if I can save money or if there is another cheaper school.”

Even though thinking about college is stressful, teachers recommend thinking ahead of time about college because it is one less stressful thing to deal with during your senior year.

“Senior year is too late to be thinking about colleges or deadlines,” Rodriguez said. “It really should start as soon as you are a freshmen and sophomore and you get more involved with that so by the time you get to senior year you already have a good idea.”

Teachers have some survival tips for upcoming seniors 

“As a freshman you are taking dual credit, AP classes, you can start thinking about whether you want to stay in town or go out of town,” Rodriguez said. “But when you take the more rigorous classes you start getting more involved in school stuff that opens up opportunities for you down the line.”

 A senior’s college career begins with the application process. 

“It is a lot of hard work to start from the very beginning. Start writing the essays, start thinking about what you are going to put on that essay, start thinking about SAT scores,” Hidalgo said. “I always tell my students to please ask me anything and if I do not know the answer then I am going to help them find it so there is an answer somewhere and we will find it.”