1. The entire college admissions process is extremely overwhelming from start to finish, to say the least.
2. When you're not even sure where to start looking, you spend your time scrolling through college websites day in and day out.
3. Eventually you have to force yourself to narrow down your list of schools and figure out where you want to apply.
4. Then you decide whether or not you can actually visit these schools IRL and start planning long road trips with your parents.
5. When you go on college tours, you have to try and keep up with every fact and piece of information your guide throws at you.
6. While also remembering to take lots of notes and photographs.
7. Not to mention, you’re secretly praying to any and every god that your parents don't embarrass you in front of the rest of the tour group.
8. There's nothing quite as nerve-racking as comparing yourself to other students and the number of people who usually get accepted.
9. Generally, obsessing over acceptance rates is never a good idea.
10. Especially when your friends gets in to their colleges and universities during early decision and you can't help but secretly hate them.
11. Figuring out which teachers you want to ask to write your recommendations isn’t easy.
12. Neither is pestering them to make sure your letters actually gets done and sent to your schools on time.
13. Paying for all your applications is nearly impossible.
14. DO COLLEGES KNOW HOW MUCH THIS ALL COSTS?!
15. Signing up for the Common Application isn't *that* terrible… until you open it up and see how many sections there are to fill out.
16. Deciding on a personal statement topic is the worst.
17. So is writing, editing, rewriting, and rewriting it over and over again.
18. Who has the time, since you're busy stacking up on extracurriculars and taking endless AP tests?
19. Deciding between taking the ACTS, SATS, or both is nothing short of painful.
20. And then you have to worry about whether your scores are good enough.
21. Finding out the schools you want to apply to have additional SAT II subject test requirements is another huge blow.
22. Making your résumé and activity list is beyond tedious.
23. And filling out each individual school’s supplement takes up way too much time.
24. Navigating the FAFSA and figuring out what information you need to fill out — and where — is a major pain in the ass.
25. But so is finding out how much tuition costs at most of your dream schools.
26. You get used to having random outbursts of anxiety, fear, and stress tears. Oh, the stress tears.
27. Because all anyone ever tells you is, "This decision will affect the rest of your life."
28. Once you submit all of your applications and can’t go back to many any more revisions, you feel a temporary relief of stress.
29. Except now you have to you wait to hear back from a bunch of strangers who are making a major decision about your future.
*waits by email inbox and IRL mailbox until April*
