(May 24, 2013) — The stress, constant worrying and sleepless nights all seem to be worth it when students turn in their last college application. Senior year is all about time management, and students learned just how important meeting deadlines was. The college application process can be brutal and exhausting, but seniors realized the importance of the process and sat tight for a tough few months.

“The process was easier for the UCs than for the privates because you don’t have to send recommendation letters,” said Yana Pashyan. “The whole application process took me two months, and it was very stressful.”

While the application process may differ and certain colleges ask for something particular, 488 public and private colleges have the Common Application as a requirement. “For most private colleges, they use something called the Common Application, where you put in all of your information and you send in one application to all of the private colleges that you want to apply to, and each college has its own supplement,” said Adnan Tayyib. “On top of that one application you have to complete some essays they want you to do. The supplements differ but the common applications are all the same.”

One of the requirements on the application is the personal statement, something many students find difficult to write. “The personal statement was the hardest for me,” Pashyan said. “You have to make them realize it’s you that is talking and not some robot or an English teacher. For UCLA you had to write two personal statements — one about the world I came from and the other one was a personal challenge I went through.”

For certain schools, such as Harvard University, students often attend an interview session, usually conducted by an alumnus from that college. “The interview was about one and a half hours,” Tayyib said. “They asked questions about what your interests are, and I had to talk about Clark and how it helped me become who I am today. The interview itself was kind of intimidating.”

Many English teachers also helped students with the application process by reading or editing their personal essays. “I got help from Mr. Pruitt,” Pashyan said. “He would read and edit my essays. The essay process was generally the same for both private and public schools.”

Many students suffered from the effects of procrastination during the months-long process. “I’m a guy who kind of procrastinates, so I actually thought that most of the applications for the private colleges were due January 10th, but it was due the 1st,” Tayyib said. “My friends would ask, ‘Oh did you turn in your applications?’ and I was like, ‘Oh there are applications due?’ So I had to do most of the applications in one day, and stopped doing everything else.”