Throughout all of our high school years, we have to wait for results. A grade for a test we took a few days prior, or a project that we worked on all trimester, we spend days upon days anticipating a score that could make or break our GPA. We go through this endless cycle from the age of 11, unaware of the fact that one of the biggest waits is yet to come.

August 1 is a day that skyrockets the stress levels in high school seniors. The CommonApp, a website a majority of higher education schools use for the application process, opens up to all incoming high school seniors to begin their applications to whatever schools they could see themselves attending in the near future. It feels like a never ending cycle of sharing facts and answering questions that seem to hold the weight of our futures.

Once you have submitted your application you may think that you’re done, but it is only just the beginning. There are now months upon months to come of stressing and overthinking, waiting impatiently for a decision that feels more important than anything. The increase in anxiety seems to be once the first schools start releasing their acceptances, waitlists and deferrals. Starting during mid-September, some students began receiving these decisions and the 

weight was lifted off their shoulders— and became even heavier on those whose inboxes were empty. 

For some students, like Groves senior Gracie Raznick, this result was something that she has been looking forward to for months. When asking Raznick where she applied to school, she listed multiple schools— Syracuse University, Michigan State University, Penn State University and more. Raznick said that all of these schools released their results at different times, but for her, the biggest wait was for Syracuse University, which she received two months after submitting her application. According to Raznick, the wait was extremely stressful and full of checking her inbox on repeat, but this anxiety and worry did not completely disappear after being accepted to her dream school.

 “I thought I’d feel so much better, but I still have some anxiety,” said Raznick. Even for the students that are committed to a school, the worry is still present, just over different aspects. Finding a roommate, getting dorm decorations, finding school supplies— the list of things to do feels endless, but the one thing that feels freeing is knowing where you are going.

Then, you get the opposite end of the spectrum. The University of Michigan is a major goal for a lot of students at Groves. Michigan, along with few other schools, has a drop date for all first-round decisions. This year, January 26 has been a highly anticipated day for months, with at least 100 students impatiently waiting to hear whether or not they got into their dream school. For students like Lilly Dimmer, a senior at Groves, this day could not come fast enough. Dimmer, like many other students, claims that waiting for the results has caused her stress levels to rise. However, when asking Dimmer if she believes whether or not this stress will decrease once she receives her decision, she says, “yes, one hundred percent.” 

Senior year within itself is a highly anxiety-ridden time. Adding on college decisions, and students’ stress levels increase drastically. Regardless of whether or not you know exactly where you will be attending school in the fall, or are still waiting for a decision that feels like life or death, the stress never truly goes away or leaves your mind.