For many of us, college is right around the corner. Sure, we are all excited to learn, experience, and enjoy everything associated with it, but as the time to go draws nearer and nearer, this excitement has devolved into anxiety. From worrying about application deadlines to ACT testing dates, the college experience is beginning to look drearier by the day.

I am not the only one who feels so negatively. Recently, I’ve walked around asking university-bound rising high school seniors about their experiences so far and what they anticipate the coming school year to bring. When asking how they feel about the process in its entirety, I got varying degrees of answers, but none of them were particularly ecstatic. “I’m dreading it,” one student said. With such dramatic responses, I had to dig deeper into why everyone felt so foreboding about pursuing a higher education. A lot of it seems to be a lack of information and preparation. A couple kids that I talked with actually had solid resources they could go to discuss and plan for it all. However, this largely seemed to be the exception. One student even said, “I don’t go to my guidance counselor.” I can honestly relate. From hearing so many horror stories about the guidance office at my school mixing up important college info or not processing scholarships correctly, it is very hard for me to find any trust in the system. If students don’t feel comfortable to work out the stresses of college preparation with the very people who are payed to help them with such matters, there has got to be a problem. In order to get kids on the right track for success, parents, teachers, and administrators need to step up their game.

Standardized testing is making the problem even worse. Not only are tests like the ACT and SAT costly, but they degrade students to a level that isn’t representative of who they truly are as a student. Whenever I brought up standardized testing, the immediate response was always “a student shouldn’t be based on a number.” I can’t help but agree. Whereas the SAT may judge reading comprehension, it certainly doesn’t take into account any other personal attributes. I even was told a story of a student who has taken the ACT nine times in hopes of getting into the military academies. Nine times. That means hundreds of dollars in testing fees, hours of studying, and loads of stress have been put on this poor kid. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t gotten the placement he desires and plans on continuing his futile quest for a perfect score. Based on this dedication, any military academy would be lucky to have him.

In West Virginia particularly, there seems to be a constant dilemma: should I stay in-state or sprint towards greener pastures elsewhere? A lot of this boils down to the inherent lack of opportunity in West Virginia. As the coal industry is plummeting, and the economy is minimizing, the Mountain State is looking less and less attractive by the day. However, the PROMISE Scholarship has made higher education significantly more financially accessible and it has become one of the few driving forces that keep West Virginia students in West Virginia. In recent months, though, funding for promise has been threatened, and students are not happy about it. “If they lose [PROMISE], they will lose a lot of people,” said one student.

In just a couple of months, millions of other students and I will be locked up in their rooms typing out personal essays selling themselves to colleges all across the nation and world, and saying that this is going to be hard is certainly an understatement. If you are one of those people, good luck… and my condolences.