Late night caffeine induced haze, skipping out on friends, first signs of senioritis kicking in, spending hours staring at a computer screen: these are all the side effects of the dreaded college application process. As the November 30 deadline nears for UC and CSU schools, many students panic to finish them.

This time of the year, from October 1 to November 30, is when the majority of seniors apply to college, which can result in a lot of stress. The stress built up by trying to maintain grades and extracurricular activities can make it very hard to maintain a balance between these equally important parts of a senior’s life.

With applications costing anywhere from $50-$80 depending on where college students are applying, students begin to stress even more, as most students apply to several colleges to have many options on their final decisions.

Senior Kyler Lent has applied to University Of San Diego, Cal Poly, Boston College, Sonoma State, Loyola Marymount University, Gonzaga University, Tulane and Arizona State. With all the costs of applications and other priorities in a student’s life, sometimes the stress doesn’t come directly from the application itself.

“It’s not the applications that put the pressure on, it’s everything else added to it. We still have to maintain grades and such,” said Lent.

But sometimes, pressure can be a good thing.

“I think it puts just the right amount [of stress] on us actually. The pressure pushes us to complete something that will be the next big step in our life. Why shouldn’t it be a bit difficult?” said senior Arianna Milton.

Although Milton believes that the pressure of college applications is good for students, she also agrees that it puts a lot of stress on students.

“[College applications] were stressful because they required so much information and time to spend completing them. Plus, it was a little unnerving to finally push the ‘submit button’,” said Milton.

Not only do seniors have to maintain their grades, many other students are stressed by all the repetitive details that they have to fill out over and over again.

“I think they are stressful because of all the information you have to fill in. It’s tedious!” said senior Arishma Narayan.

Although all the stress can add up by filling in the monotonous details such as grades, SAT and ACT scores, and personal information, the most dreaded part of the college application is by far the personal statement essays.

“Not having any stinking essays!” was what Narayan said would be the best improvement to college applications. Narayan said that other improvements would be changing the “deadlines, fees, and essays.” Other students also believe that some things could be improved to make applying to college less stressful.

“All of the colleges should be on the common application system because it makes it a lot simpler,” said Lent.

Many seniors’ biggest problems with the process is how much time it takes, as many seniors apply to anywhere from two to eight schools.

“[The amount of time spent on the application] depended on the college, the state school one took an hour because it was confusing. USF was different because I had to include an essay also,” said Nijjar.

Most students spend around one to two months working on college applications, and with all their newfound experience, seniors have a lot of advice for future college applicants.

“Start early and be accurate,” said Narayan.

Lent agrees.

“Know what schools you are interested in early, and have a list of your extracurricular activities and such ready so you don’t have to go looking for that information later,” said Lent.

Having information ready really comes in handy.

“For younger kids, I tell them to make sure that as soon as you start, make sure that you have your transcript and test scores ready to record into the system. Also, don’t procrastinate and wait till the last minute to finish college essays or wait to submit. Do it as soon as you can,” said Milton.

With application time closing, some students have already received acceptance letters from several CSU schools. Many students have heard back from Sac State, San Jose State, and Chico. With the surprising promptness of the acceptance, this will undoubtedly relieve the stress of having to wait until late spring for acceptance letters.