Many people remember their senior year as the best year of high school, but for some, the last year before college is the most stressful yet. With college applications and decisions right around the corner, seniors face a difficult decision: Is applying to a small number or a large number of colleges the best choice?

Andrew Rutledge (12) and Stephanie Wang (12) are prime examples of students choosing to apply to many colleges. There are many reasons for this decision, but one reason stands out at the top of their list: safe schools.

“When you apply to more selective colleges, you have a lesser chance of getting in,” Rutledge said, “so you have a higher chance to get rejected from them, and that way you’ll always have backup colleges to end up going to if your reach schools don’t work out.”

Furthermore, one of White Station’s counselors, Leslie Fleming, expressed her thoughts on why applying to many colleges can be beneficial.

“If you’re looking at the competitive schools like Yale, Harvard or Princeton, there’s no rhyme or reason, so if you want to be that selective, you almost have to apply to all of them because you don’t know what it’s going to look like,” Fleming said.

When applying to many colleges, it is best to start early because it is difficult to keep up with all the requirements and deadlines.

“I think that before the summer starts, start writing down all the deadlines because I feel that I missed out on some of the deadlines for fly-ins and stuff,” Wang said.

As a counselor, there will always be an increase in workload when seniors apply to so many colleges, but they will work with students and give advice about what to do.

“Our goal is for you to find a place where you’re going to be comfortable after high school and to achieve your career aspirations,” Fleming said. “The most important thing is to make sure that you have a safety school because when you reach for the stars, you got to land somewhere.”