Mad Apps: College Road

Summer in Texas often ushers in three months of painfully high temperatures and an unforgiving blast of sunshine. The green fields and constant showers that we grow accustomed to slowly transition into dry days and dead grass. Dirt rises, and fields become like the barren landscapes of the recently released Mad Max: Fury Road.

In all this heat, what better time to start working on something even scarier than people crusading on dangerous automobiles? Yes, college admission season is ever looming, and instead of getting caught outside in a Texas summer, you juniors can get a head start on your journey to college.

After you watch your senior friends walk across the graduation stage, the transition from studying into the midnight hours to pass AP exams to choosing where exactly to send those scores becomes an ever-increasing concern. You don’t want to wait until you return from summer break to buckle down and figure out what you are going to do with the next four years after high school. Instead, you want to use the free time you have in summer -- you have free time, right? -- to research majors, universities, and prospective career paths.

Once you return to school, your focus between applying to college and studying for class will ideally make an even split, but the reality of the situation is that you will give priority to your studies, hoping to maintain a good GPA and class rank (as you should). This means that you will not give as much thought as needed to make well-reasoned decisions about your college future. Plus, during the heart of application season, you don’t want to start making a list of schools and possible majors, you want to finalize applications, admission essays, and compile important documents.

So do what you can NOW to make your application process go as smoothly as possible. You may even get to convince your parents to visit a cool place -- Big Apple, anyone? -- under the pretense of “checking out a university.” However, I wouldn’t abuse their trust too much; after all, who do you think is going to help with those college bills once you get into the Ivy League?

The road is a long one, but with proper planning, you can escape the Texas summer by doing some college research in the comfort of an air-conditioned home. Brrrrrr.

(image credit: "Mad Max: Fury Road" -- theverge.com)