Spring is always considered the time of new life, new beginnings, and new decisions. But few factor in the fact that spring is a crucial time for those preparing to attend college.

Many seniors are anxiously awaiting their May 1st college decision deadline, while juniors are trying to find the motivation to start preparing for college. Amidst the looming ACT, many are confused on how to make the enormous life decision for college.

As the head of the counselling department, Mrs. Dalton’s job is to advise students on how to prepare for life and help them with problems. She has been the Counseling Department Chair for two years now. She attended Illinois State University, Moraine Valley for one semester, and finished her Bachelor degree at Northern Illinois University. She then went to graduate school at Governor’s State University.

“The abundance of information available online has changed everything. When I applied, I applied to all of the State public colleges because they didn’t have application fees at the time. I was ‘First Generation’ so I didn’t want to burden my parents with schools that had application fees. Now that information is so readily available, and programs like Career Cruising exist. Truly the whole world is open to students”, says Dalton.

Since Freshman year, students are rounded up at the beginning of the year to be informed about resources such as Career Cruising that help them determine how to make a well-educated choice for college and their future. Career Cruising allows users to access quizzes to determine which careers and colleges they are best suited for and provides information to them interviewing those in a certain field.

Lemont High School students mainly attend Illinois State University, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and College of DuPage. But there are still plenty that go to colleges that are unknown by most.

“Most of those unknown gems are smaller schools who may not be in the Lemont cafeteria or at local college fairs. Career Cruising has every college in the database, as do the college search programs offered by ACT and College Board. But when students find one of these schools, definitely check out their social media pages to do some research,” Dalton says.

There are many changes coming for the Classes of 2017 and 2018 with the introduction of the conversion from the ACT to the SAT. And with college tuition at a seemingly all time high, everyone wants to be as educated on entering college as possible. But with this new conversion, more information will be more readily available to students.

She adds, “Starting next year, there is going to be this new application portal, designed to be a more accessible Common App.  The idea is to make it easier on the students, and make the college process a more fluid event and not something that whacks students in the head in the fall of senior year.”

Though many are upset that their high school days are coming to a close, they are also excited for the new opportunities that lie ahead; new schools, new friends, new life. Though most seniors will approach the next few months being nostalgic over their high school experience, they are able to breathe a sigh of relief that their struggle to find the perfect school will soon be over and will soon be passed on to a new group.
Dalton is right in saying that “it’s an interesting time”.