Stress To Impress

How are CB seniors balancing college applications, school work, and all their extracurricular activities? Find out their tricks here.

October — one of the most stressful months for seniors, as deadlines for college applications start to approach quickly.

CB seniors are battling to take the time to finish applications, while also staying on top of a heavy work load, and staying involved in the school community. This can take a a huge toll on health and sleep as well.

The Talon went to ask Mr. John Riley-Portal, the counselor for the Class of 2013, for advice about this stressful time. Mr. Riley-Portal believes the key to staying on top of this mountain of stress is to stay organized. This can be achieved by a filing system to separate colleges that you are interested in.

Also, while choosing where to apply, Mr. Riley Portal says to “keep in mind the places you want to go. You want to make sure these are places you are going to be happy at.”

“The main thing is your own mental health, you need to keep things in prospective.”

The Talon caught up with senior Claire Keneally ’13 to see how she is staying sane while taking AP courses and balancing playing soccer for her club team, volunteering, tutoring, and applying to 14 colleges. Although she is unable to “sleep a lot,” her focus is “trying to do [her] homework on time and not procrastinate”. Her top choices are Boston University and Stanford University, while she has already been admitted to the University of Portland.

We also talked to senior Madeline Esquivel ’13, who is in 3 AP and honors courses, plays varsity lacrosse, volunteers at her church, elementary school, and Wellspring — all while applying to a long list of colleges. Madeline’s secret to success is to “do a little bit of college apps everyday.” She limits her breaks to the weekend, and keeps busy during the week.

October is a busy month, especially for Seniors. The key to checking off all the colleges on your list is to balance your time and stay organized.  We wish you luck on every application and hope you stay positive during this stressful time.