As the school year comes closer to an end, the stress of college becomes more of a reality and sometimes a nightmare for some seniors. The responsibility of applying for college, writing essays for scholarships, studying for the ACT, starting to save money, filling out FAFSA, and making sure they pass all of the essential classes can start to overwhelm students.

Senior Julie Franklin rated her stress level at a nine on a scale of one to ten. Franklin has taken the ACT, and taken three dual credit classes in order to prepare for college.

“I’m stressed because I don’t know where I am going to go, or where I am going to live, so I’m homeless. Although, I would consider my major my biggest stressor because I’m not sure what I am going to do and that determines where I go,” said Franklin.

Senior Randall Sherman also has a very high level of stress. When put onto a scale of one to ten Sherman rated himself at a stress level of nine. Sherman is considering majoring in business, but is still undecided.

Sherman said his biggest stressor was “deciding where I am going to go and deciding if I want to play a sport because that will have an impact on where I go.”

While Sherman has not decided on a college, he has still done much to prepare for that next step. He has been working on his FAFSA, taken the ACT three times, taken four college classes and applied for scholarships.

Many seniors also have the stress of maintaining qualification for the A+ scholarship.

If a senior is involved in the A+ program, there are a few more things that they need to do to prepare for college. The A+ program requires the student to be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or lawfully present in the U.S., enter into a written agreement with the high school prior to graduation, attend a designated A+ high school for three consecutive years immediately prior to graduation, graduate with an overall grade point average of 2.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale, have at least 95 percent attendance record for overall grades 9-12, perform at least 50 hours of unpaid tutoring or mentoring, of with up to 25 percent may include job shadowing, maintain a record of good citizenship and avoid the unlawful use of drugs and/or alcohol and beginning with the high school senior class of 2015, have achieved a score of proficient or advanced on the Algebra 1 end of course exam or a higher level DESE approved end of course exam in the field of mathematics. While the A+ program does help many seniors by providing scholarships there are many things that seniors must maintain in order to stay in the program.

Senior Megan Brown is involved in the A+ program and maintains all of the qualifications to stay in the program. Brown plans on attending William Woods University and majoring in sign language interpretation and speech language pathology.

“My biggest stressor is the financial part of college, also, I need to get a higher ACT score,” said Brown.

Senior Kyle Goodsell is currently undecided on what college he is going to attend, but says that he would like to either play football or wrestle in college and that this will influence what college he chooses. Goodsell wants to major in athletic training and thinks about college on an average of three times a day.

“On a scale of one to ten I would rate my stress level at a 17,” said Goodsell.

Preparing for college is something that many seniors must do. There are many things that come with this, including the stress of getting everything done on time.