Senior year: The most stressful time in the life of a high school student.

With the struggle of keeping your GPA up and the looming threat of senioritis, it can get pretty overwhelming, especially with college application deadlines coming up. A lot of seniors may feel like their application is lacking and may even find themselves comparing their application to unrealistic but outstanding teens around the world, leaving them with little to no hope of getting into their dream schools. The emotions felt by senior classes vary by the high school they attend; some may feel like they get tons of support throughout the process, making it feel like a breeze, while others may feel like they’re left to fend for themselves.

Today, I will be providing an in-depth insight into how the college application season has been affecting the 2026 senior class of Park Slope Collegiate, with thoughts and opinions from a few different students and insight from a staff member, as well as our very own college counselor.

To start this off, I interviewed parent coordinator Steffen Nelson. A lot of seniors feel welcome in his office to drop by and chat about how they’re feeling, so I had a strong belief that he would have insight into how people have been feeling so far with the college application underway. I asked him questions concerning the emotions seniors have been feeling, and whether or not the process of applying to schools seemed rougher this year when compared to last year’s senior class.

Mr. Nelson told me that this year’s applications seem to be a lot more stressful for the senior class on account of the use of a new site, Overgrad. He feels as though both the kids and the adults are worried as the adults at this time aren’t able to assure the kids that Overgrad is functioning properly. These kinds of errors can put a lot of stress on teens.

Furthermore when he was asked whether or not the senior class seems to have a sense of where they want to go to school, he said that he got pretty mixed responses. Some students seem to have everything figured out. Knowing exactly the college they want to apply to and the programs they want, while others are choosing to go undecided. After questioning whether or not he believes staff members are helping as much as they can, he responded in a positive light, sharing about how staff members from all grade levels are pitching in by reading essays and writing letters of recommendation, whether for college directly or scholarships.

“I think there’s more stuff we can do in circles to give extra time and support during the college application process, like all of our senior circles could do virtual college tours as part of the circle curriculum. There’s a way to expand it a little,” said Nelson.

I interviewed three seniors at PSC, asking them the same questions. Each student responded in a different way, but they all sort of came to a similar consensus of how they have been feeling and whether or not they are getting enough support from our school.

The emotions felt by students definitely varied, with some claiming they weren’t confident or felt scared and or anxious when thinking about the topic of college. Most seemed to be a bit behind on applications and weren’t sure why they were being pressured to apply to SUNY and CUNY schools, especially if their program wasn’t listed as a choice. Each teen seemed to come to a consensus on the fact that they weren’t receiving an adequate amount of support in comparison to other students at other high schools in NYC, but they had an understanding that there really is only one person dedicated to helping the entire senior class, rather than a team. It was agreed upon that they all wanted more support and more staff dedicated to this. The majority of the students felt as though this process was very difficult, with only one knowing exactly where they wanted to attend and what they wanted to major in.

It’s definitely more of a mixed bag of emotions for the students of Park Slope Collegiate High School, with some agreeing that they have received the right amount of support and others wanting more. To wrap up this article, the last interviewee is our very own counselor, Ms. Samuels. She agrees with Mr. Nelson on seeing a lot of differing emotions surrounding college applications, but disagrees when it comes to how the process differs this year from last year. She believes that the process is a lot smoother and more organized, except for when it comes to parent involvement. She also believes that there is a small lack of student involvement, with some procrastination connected to not having conversations about colleges with parents and guardians at home.

All and all, the emotions felt by our student body vary, but there are definitely a lot of connections. Good luck to the Seniors!