by Holly Cuozzo ‘12

As students of the Class of 2012 begin to search for and apply to colleges, stress begins to bombard them. As underclassmen, college seemed like such an unreal thing, but all of the sudden it is the fast-approaching reality that can no longer be pushed to the side. Some juniors have yet to begin to search for colleges, while others already have their top and safety schools picked out.

Regardless of how far one has come on one’s search, assistance is always available, whether the recipient wants it or not. Although this can help make the college search process more bearable, it remains nevertheless a painful and frightening ordeal.

“I knew that I would have a lot on my plate for my senior year with juggling academic classes, honor societies, a job, a social life and college applications, but I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be,” said Payton Clark, a graduated senior who will attend Towson University to major in biology.

Although the college search and application process can seem overwhelming, Sherwood staff members offer helpful resources that make this process seem less like a NASCAR race track that goes around and around but gets one nowhere and more like an exciting cross-country road trip that may take a lot of time, but offers plenty of benefits.

“[I’m afraid that students] don’t start planning soon enough ahead … My fear is that they come into our office forgetting [the resources that they are given in their sophomore years] or just not being prepared,” said counselor Erin McKenna.

Beginning in sophomore year, students have the opportunity to access a Naviance website, known as “TCCI Family connections,” which McKenna deems one of the most helpful websites and the best place to start one’s college search. However, students may or may not use this website for various reasons.

“Some kids use [Naviance] a lot and some don’t and [many don’t use it until] it’s almost time [to decide] … It involves participation on their part, or they just forget about it—that’s the big one,” said Joe Hock, Career Information Coordinator.

The college search process can be easy and fairly painless if the student has the right outlook and ambition; no teacher or counselor can do the search for a student, but they can help anyone on his or her track to the perfect college. However, once a student has found his or her top schools and safety schools, the road trip comes to an exciting close.

Unfortunately for the sanity of rising seniors, colleges are about much more than the hunt; once a student gets his list of schools, he must apply, find financial aid (in some cases), find scholarships (in most cases), take standardized tests, write essays, get teacher recommendations and finalize everything about his high school career before the actual college experience is even a twinkle in his eye—although it is never too soon to jump up and down with excitement over move-in day.

“Begin [college applications and essays] over the summer. Don’t wait to get everything in line; it will make senior year so much easier,” said Eric Boltz, a graduated senior who will attend Salisbury University and major in mathematics and secondary education.

College admissions officers may seem like a group of people only there to scrutinize every detail of every essay and application all in an effort to reject as many students as possible, but that is not the case. Colleges want students who have proven that they can do well in a college environment and they want as many of those students as possible, so when applying to schools, ensure that they see growth and potential. But schools, believe it or not, look at more than just grades and transcripts.

“Try to do as well as you can in school … as long as you try, you will be successful,” said Hock. “You can get where you want to go, but you may need to take an alternate route.”

Although some students easily achieve straight A’s, that is not the case for everybody. And thus, schools look at more than just a student’s GPA. Some students may not be able to get into their dream Ivy League school, for example, with a 3.0 GPA, but there is a school for everyone.

“When I applied to Towson, I never expected to go there and considered it more of a fallback school, but when I visited it I absolutely fell in love. Within my first ten minutes on campus, I knew that was where I belonged—I think I actually teared up a little, I was so glad I had finally found my place,” said Clark.