Graduation is rapidly approaching, and all of the seniors are tense. The common application started a month ago, and college applications are due in December, but no one has been able to assist us in determining what to do next. Perhaps that is the anxiety of senior year: it is a crossroads between childhood and maturity. Or perhaps no one has offered any genuine assistance, so here are five things seniors should be doing right now to get ready for college.

– First and foremost, you should be aware that college is difficult and requires a significant time commitment. Personally, I believe that you should not attend college unless you intend to pursue a career that necessitates it, as the amount of loans and debts incurred as a result of attending college is not worth it if you are not interested in pursuing a career that requires it (that you saw commitment in). Even though college is challenging, you should still attempt to attend if the opportunity arises, but not before determining what you could study in college. Identifying three key interests and three occupations that could meet those interests and could be helpful in the early stages of the process. This might be as simple as saying, “I enjoy medicine and caring for children; perhaps I should become a pediatrician.” Or you may go another route with someone interested in a variety of topics and decides on three possible careers: I play football and am a member of the computer science club, the fashion club, and the school newspaper; perhaps I can be a professional football player or a software engineer, etc

– Next, Now that you know what you want to accomplish, you can conduct some research to see what majors are associated with those occupations. For example, if I wanted to pursue a job in computer science, I could major in data analysis or software development (depending on my career path). If I wanted to pursue a career in journalism, I might major in computers and media studies or even public relations. It all depends on what you want and whatever paths you take since, as daunting as it may appear, it is ultimately your choice. Finding a school is perhaps the most difficult and crucial job for an incoming college student after deciding on majors. Do you wish to attend school near the beach or near the mountains? Do you prefer a large school with a lot of variety or a smaller, more conservative institution? When picking a school, the size of the school, the religion component, the population, location/region, and the majors offered are all important factors to consider. Choose about 10 and try to start withering down to 3-5 schools.

– Lastly, when the decision has been made on about 5 schools, paying for college becomes the next biggest factor for incoming college students. The government offers aid like FAFSA and loans to help pay for college. California (if intended to stay here) offers scholarships and the Dream Act and CSAC to help Californian students pay for college. Finding platforms like Bold.com, Immigrant Rising, scholarships.com, Fastweb, Niche, and College Scholarships all offer a wide range of scholarships for incoming students to sign up for. Now is the time to start looking at these websites and signing up for scholarships.

So now we know what we want to study, which institutions we might be interested in, and how we plan to pay for it. How about actually applying for college? Well, the Common Application is a fantastic resource for applying to California Universities. Begin by registering with an email address at thecommonapp.com, where you will be able to choose from a list of schools that the common app supports. You can see a couple of headers asking for compilation of a specific thing through that school’s app like letters of recommendation from teachers or supplemental essays, for example. It’s crucial to double-check each school’s essay requirements – after all, they all have different guidelines because they’re all different colleges.

Finally, you’re a senior! Enjoy it. Go out have fun and make memories because after this year you can never return to high school – and that’s almost entirely a bittersweet thing.