In my junior year AP Economics class, the girl who sat next to me gave me just one piece of advice for senior year: Do your college applications during the summer. I took this advice to heart and had my Common Application ready by the time school started.

Then I stopped. For the next two months, I didn’t do or look at any applications. Deadlines approached and essays loomed, but I still hadn’t quite figured out where I wanted to go to college and I was becoming stressed. 

I knew from early on in high school that I wanted to go to school in the vicinity of a large city; this fact, mixed with my desire to stay within a day’s driving distance from home, meant most of my college search centered around Washington D.C. and New York City. By the summer of junior year, I was nearly set on Washington, as I wanted to major somewhere in the political science field and D.C. is the best place to do so. I visited a number of schools in the city but only got “the feeling” from American University and Georgetown University. My plan was to apply Early Action to Georgetown and then either Early Decision II or Regular Decision to American based upon Georgetown’s decision.

On the day of the deadline for Georgetown, I had finished barely any of the four required essays. I had to miss school that day to finish them. When I got the letter telling me I had been waitlisted for the college, I went into full panic mode. I thought about what would happen if American also chose to waitlist or deny me. I thus began to rapidly apply to as many colleges as possible, pushing up against all of their deadlines.

I barely made it in time for many of them, and I submitted my American application the last possible day. 

Having now been accepted into American University, I can better contemplate on my past choices. My first reflection is that American University was the college I had wanted to go to all along, and I had likely only applied to Georgetown because I was chasing the approval I would get from my parents if I attended one of the most prestigious universities in the country. I don’t know what would have happened if I had gotten in. I really enjoyed my campus tour and was excited by the specific opportunities offered by the school, yet the specialized major and climate of American University are much better suited for my personality. I’m very happy with my decision, but I promise myself I will never procrastinate this badly again.

With that, juniors, here’s some heartfelt advice.

For the love of all that is good in this world, take the advice of the girl that sat next to me in AP Econ. Before senior year starts, tour as many colleges as you can — rural and urban, big and small, so that you can get a sense of what you want. If a college has a specific major or activity that you want, as American did for me, try to find other colleges that have the same. As soon as applications open, look at the essays and begin writing them. You don’t have to apply when you finish them, but having them done makes the whole process a simple copy and paste when you do decide where you want to send your admission fee.

For every college deadline, make yours two weeks earlier, so that when things go wrong, you’ll have time to fix them. Understand that the ACT and College Board can take weeks to send your scores, so make that a top priority. 

Finally, decide your college for your future self, not your current self. Look ahead to when you are in college, and ask yourself if you will be happy with your major, where you will be living, and with whom you’ll be sharing the experience. Don’t worry about where your current friends are going, where your parents want you to go, or the college that has the most recognizable name.

College is more than a school. It will be your home for four years. The decision is yours to make, but procrastinate at your own peril.

Thank you.