JOURNALISM NEXT | College application stress turns into waiting game

Ask any senior at the Out-of-Door Academy how they feel about the college application process and almost every response will be the same: They've been under more stress during this process than they've been under throughout their entire high school career.

Now it's almost over, and a long stretch of waiting for answers begins.

All 60 seniors began this long process at the end of junior year, when college counselors asked for the first drafts of their common application essays.

Students felt relieved and accomplished to turn in the essay, thinking a large chunk of the process was out of the way. Little did they know all the work that would continue to come afterward.

Most students have either had to write at least three drafts of their original common app essay, or have been asked to completely change their topic and start over.

Rewriting was a grueling process that came with frustration and required huge amounts of focus to do the job correctly.

Now that the essays are finished and have been checked off by each counselor, it is clear Mr. Harding and Mr. Runge knew what they were doing when they kept asking for changes, even if it didn't seem like it at the time.

Then there were the supplements.

These are extra essays some schools require aside from the common app essay. Students had anywhere up to 15 supplement essays to complete, which became another, even larger source of stress.

Students were required to finish by the deadline then be reviewed by the counselor and edited by the student.

Each senior had to take the time to fill out the common app questions as well.

Only then were they allowed to set up an appointment with their counselor, review one last time and submit their applications.

At this point, almost every student has submitted at least a few applications, and should be finishing the rest soon.

The relief is nearly indescribable.

"It's surreal. It really hasn't even hit me yet," said senior Lisa Hoffman, who is finished with her submissions.

Senior Olivia White said she agrees.

"Upholding our grades first semester while working on the whole college application process was really difficult," she said. "I'm glad it's over."

White said she has a strategy to handle the waiting game, which is the next step in the process.

"As for waiting, I'm going to try to find the school that I really fall in love with and apply Early Decision to eliminate some of the stress," White said.

Early Decision, a binding option to apply early to your No. 1 school, increases your chances of acceptance at that school.

The next few months hold endless possibilities for student futures. The feeling is similar to waiting to get a test grade back after knowing you have done everything you could to do your best.

All that is left to do for students who have given their all is support each other and wait for the results.

This story was originally published December 1, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "JOURNALISM NEXT | College application stress turns into waiting game."