College applications

The anxiety. The pressure. The dread that is the college application process. Nowadays, the stresses on high school students are even greater.

When you factor in requirements like SAT tests, AP exams, essays, financial aid, not to mention keeping up your GPA, it can get downright overwhelming. As if being in high school wasn't hard enough already!

Jackson High School senior Dede Whitlow spends most of her day consumed with stressful thoughts about her future in college.

"I find myself thinking about that throughout the day," she said. "Planning for college funding has really been bothering me a lot lately."

Whitlow isn't alone -- many of her friends feel just as stressed.

"Talking with friends about these stressful situations helps me out a lot," she said. "They give me the encouragement to think that everything will be fine, and that I can get through it."

Parents of students going through this process tend to get just as caught up in the madness and mayhem as their children, if not more, which only leads to more stress on everyone.

Whitlow's father Dean said he understands the stress his daughter is under. "There have been times that Dede's mother and I have intervened and encouraged her to let go of some of her obligations. Over the years we have allowed her to have limited responsibilities at home," he said.

Most of the stress from the college application process stems from deadlines. With everything seemingly due on the same day, those last few days and hours are usually spent scribbling essays, collecting recommendations, writing checks and running to the post office.

With more than 4,000 colleges and universities to choose from, the process of finding the right school is a daunting one. Nobody likes to get rejected either, so the tendency is to apply to a large a number of schools in order to increase the odds of acceptance.

As the application process hits its peak, here are a few tips for keeping those last minute freak-outs to a minimum.

At this point, you've probably looked at brochures, visited campuses, and heard from advisers, all telling you where you should go. By sitting down with your parents and narrowing your school choices down to a manageable number of five, you can focus on creating the best applications possible for those specific schools. If you finish those five applications and have time for others, that's great. At least you've done a thorough job on the ones that really matter.

Make a calendar of when different applications are due, and how that will fit into your schedule. By focusing on the most important responsibilities, you'll stay focused without feeling pressured.

Sometimes, the best way to relieve stress is to simply get away from the environment that's causing it. When your life seems about to be swallowed whole by the applications, take a weekend off to do nothing related at all to college. When it's been drummed into your heads that where you go to college will affect the rest of your lives, going on a camping trip or spending the day seeing movies, always helps to get some perspective on the matter at hand.

Staff writer Jennifer Freeze contributed to this report.