Senior Guest Blog: Michael Henley

Michael Henley, Lela Johnson, Alyson Wright

            If I could give one main piece of advice regarding the college application process, it would probably be this: remember who you are and who you want to be. If you follow this one rule, then I believe that the whole process should go a lot smoother for you. I see so many people (many of my close friends included) who apply to a lot of schools that they don’t really want to go to. They just apply anyway, almost as if for no reason at all. Make sure you have a reason to apply somewhere. Not only will this help you remember who you are and who you want to be in the future, but it will also make things a lot easier in regard to your time management, essay writing, and decision-making.

            Personally, I ended up applying to seven different schools. While this list may appear rather large at first, it is actually a lot smaller than it was when I first started my college search back at the end of sophomore year. Originally, I wanted to apply to twelve different schools, which while it could have been done, it would have been a lot more overwhelming. Now you can see the great importance in narrowing down your college choices by thinking about why you really want to go there.

            On a different note, another piece of advice I would like to give would be to ask as many questions as possible. The college application process can be extremely confusing at times, and it is greatly important that you ask questions whenever they need to be asked. More specifically, never forget to consult your college counselor at Holy Innocents’ when you have these questions. They’re there for a reason, and they’re really really good at what they do.

            Next, as you go through this process, I strongly encourage you to stay positive. Don’t doubt yourself about the schools you’re trying to get into. In my experience, I ended up getting rejected from some schools that I didn’t think I would get rejected from, while also getting accepted into a few schools I didn’t expect to get accepted into. In this process, you never really know what’s going to happen, so keep your head up.

            Lastly, I’d like to encourage you to keep your studies up, even after you’ve already applied to college. So many students nowadays decide to ditch their grades as soon as they’ve applied to college, and this isn’t necessarily the smartest decision. Colleges are able to see your grades at the end of your second semester of senior year, and if they see that your grades have not met the same standards as when you applied, then they might have second thoughts about your college decision. That being said, you would really have to mess up for your acceptance to be rescinded, so just try your best, don’t get too lazy (because believe me, I definitely got lazy), and you should be fine.

            All right, well, I hope this helped. Good luck next year! It’s really not as bad as everyone says it is (but it might be just as stressful), and I can’t wait to see where everyone ends up! In the meantime, I’ll be starting the next chapter of my life at the University of Southern California in the fall, and I am incredibly excited. Hopefully I’ll see some of you out there next year! Until then, I wish you all the best.