By Espen Storlie | City of McGovern, Dodge County

College admissions season is a time of high stress for many college-bound students.

Many citizens attending Badger Boys State face the same dilemma, as all the citizens will soon be seniors at their own respective high schools. The waters of admissions can be tough to navigate for many of these students alone.

Luckily enough, there are an increasing number of resources available to assist students in college matching and searching.

A recent special discussion topic at BBS was “College Admissions: the Nuts and Bolts,” led by Ripon College Admissions Counselor Hannah Erdman.

One point that was stressed heavily in the discussion was that when applying to a college or university, it is very important to make admissions essays stand out. The admissions officers at any university are going to be seeing thousands, even tens of thousands of essays each and every year.

If an essay sounds generic or bland, it will fall to the wayside in the minds of these officers.

A second important point was related less to the admissions process and more to choosing schools. The importance of campus visits was stressed greatly during the discussion, and for good reason: campus visits can show students things about the college that are not included on the website. The first-hand experience will surely assist students in the decision process.

While this situation can surely be very intimidating for anyone soon to leave high school, there are a few ways that the stress of the situation can be alleviated. Whatever happens, Erdman stressed that students must trust that everything will work out, and not to let the stress overcome them.