Senior year is supposed to be the best year of students’ adolescent lives. Between the parties with friends and the newfound freedom from parents, there’s barely any time for school, right? Wrong. Horribly wrong. On the contrary, saving for college, doing schoolwork, and applying to college means there’s barely any time for that newfound “freedom.”

The pressure is on as students approach those fateful college deadlines. Students everywhere are applying for scholarships with rapid intensity, and with the amount of talented competition out there getting a spot is tougher than ever. With tensions running high, the question on everyone’s mind is simply, is there enough scholarship money for all of us?

Senior Kaheya Nash says the answer for securing those much-coveted funds lies with proper preparation. “Applying for college is easy but it’s the repetition that gets annoying,” she said. “For the most part it’s all the same information over and over, eventually it becomes a nuisance to put your address half a million times.”

As far as the competition goes? It’s all stress, says Nash. “There’s more competition now more than ever,” she said, “Going to college seems like its getting more expensive by the hour, so obviously everyone wants to cut costs.”

Senior Zach Kepler says that the key to being prepared is to just be yourself. “When people cater themselves to what they think colleges want it takes away from their authenticity,” he said. “Just relax, there’s no point in pretending to be something you’re not when there are other scholarships that would suit you perfectly.”

As the price of college increases and the competition for scholarships grows thicker, students everywhere are finding solace not only in copious amounts of Red Bull, but also in HOPE. The scholarship, of course.