While most high schoolers were sleeping in on Sunday, Feb. 10, juniors were in their allotted sections, practicing for the process of applying to college. In this day-long workshop, juniors practiced being interviewed for college to help them in future interviews.

“The workshop really prepared me for any type of interview, whether it is for college or not because they gave some great tips for what to wear and some common interview questions,” said Sanjana Shanbhag, junior.

The workshop was split into four stations. The first station consisted of the juniors being advised on what priorities they should have when looking for colleges. The second one was run by a college admissions officer, such as one from the University of Chicago, to give juniors tips on writing college essays. The third station was also run by two admissions officers to have an open session to answer questions about the admission process. At the last station, seniors explained their own application process, such as how many schools they applied to and when they applied.

“I’m not looking forward to the college [application] process but I think that this workshop offered valuable information on where to focus your attention and tips to make your experience better,” Shanbhag said.

While the workshop was aimed to help juniors prepare for the application process, some students were impacted negatively.

“It just stressed me out more. We did an activity where we ranked students on how likely they were to get into a college and some students were more likely to get in or be rejected because of factors outside of their control,” said Gabbie Chang, junior.

However, if students feel like they are stressed, their guidance counselors are resources to start the search for colleges and get advice in general.

“If you take the time now to prepare, your senior year will be less stressful,” said Mrs. Jennifer Reigner, director of counseling. “I think that there’s a lot of pressure on juniors but there is a college out there for everybody and it’s less about what colleges your friends are going to.”

Starting on Feb. 25 and until April 26, juniors and their parents will meet with their counselors for junior planning conferences. Juniors will discuss plans for what colleges they want to apply to and what they will have to do in order to apply to those colleges.

To learn more about the application process, meeting with your guidance counselor  is a good place to start.

To learn more about college workshops that the University of Chicago offers, check out this link.