Ever felt your heart thumping and mistook it for a rhino stampede? Or had your stomach sink so far down into your abdomen that it pretty much fell out and you couldn’t stuff it back in? That’s how debilitating the admissions process is for seniors, with impending decisions to be made at every corner of the season.

“As far as where I want to go to college, I’m still undecided. I got more than half my tuition paid for at Portland State University, but I’m afraid to move so far away. It’s a big decision to make without any help,” Ryan Haynes said.

Haynes, who tutored and nannied during his high school career, wishes to build on his passion for service by becoming a teacher.

“I’m going to school for a minor in political science and a major in child and family studies. I want to be an elementary school teacher in a low-income area and hopefully one day make a change in the school system on a national level,” Haynes said.

Programs at colleges are taken into consideration when it is time to choose, something Nora Rabah holds key for her decision.

“A school that I want to go to would have to have a positive atmosphere and a strong biology department,” Rabah said.

Rabah has received acceptances from all of the University of California universities, New York University, and Cornell.

“I’m nervous for the intense academics but I’m excited and confident to experience a new environment,” Rabah said.

Despite the United States’ myriad of choices regarding higher education, some students prefer to spend theirs in another country.

“A week after graduation, I’m flying to the Philippines to start nursing school because I have always wanted to study abroad, and the Philippines is known for its excellent and well-structured nursing programs. It also gives me the opportunity to further explore my Filipino culture,” Ethenna Garrido said.

On the flip side of admissions, rejection from some schools one applied to are inevitable for most people, as it was for Pranab Wagle.

“I got rejected from UC Davis, and I was shocked because I thought since it was our local UC that I would get in. After I got rejected, I looked at the other schools I got into and I had to make a decision off the ones that accepted me. Realizing that I got into other great schools assured me that is is not the end of the world to get rejected, and there are other schools I can succeed in,” Wagle said.

Application period to college decisions is a long process, one that is out of your hands once the “submit” button is clicked.

Wagle said, “I feel like decisions are a gamble. It’s different everywhere you apply to. All you can do is hope for the best, hope for the odds to be in your favor.”

by KAVLEEN SINGH