My Experience Applying to My First College
August 1st: the day most college applications open and one of the most stressful days of the whole application process. On August 1st, I started receiving a lot of emails from colleges stating that they had opened up their applications. This is where the stress began. 
I am a very busy person, like most high school students. I have a job in the summer and participate in many extracurriculars, plus I will have all the homework that gets piled up over the school year. I knew that if I didn’t start college apps right when they opened, I might never get any done.
After August 1st, I started receiving personalized emails from colleges saying that I had been ‘specially selected’ to complete shortened versions of applications, and without the typical app fee (most schools charge anywhere from $55 usd to $90 usd), which was very exciting for me. One email that caught my eye was the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I had UMN on my list for quite a while, so I already knew I wanted to apply and the shortened app made it even better.
Even though the application was shorter, it still took me about two hours to actually complete the finished applications. They still asked for short writing supplements, so I had to complete those as well as all the basic information that the school needed to know. I had to think about what I actually wanted to say and stay in the word limit. (Trust me, it’s hard to write about something in 200 words or less).
After I finished the actual online application, I still had to have my counselor submit my high school transcript and send my ACT score from the actual ACT agency. This might take a little longer, especially if your specific counselor has a lot of students applying to different colleges.
Even though I was not officially done after just submitting the online application, I felt like I really accomplished something. This was taking a small step leading up to my next big stage of life and it felt really good knowing that I completed three years of high school successfully.
College applications do bring stress, but it’s amazing to realize what you have actually accomplished when applying.