As seniors look ahead to freshman year in college, their junior colleagues are just beginning to research universities, write senior portfolios and brave the dreaded Common App. However, seniors at MSMS have started to prepare the juniors for their college process by telling them the dos and don’ts of the application. One junior, Cameron Wright, set up a college seminar on Wednesday, April 14 to further help the juniors with the start of their process.

“My inspiration to hold the college seminar actually came from Vineeth Vanga,” Wright said. “He asked me if I could possibly hold one, and, knowing how I would have appreciated some advice when I was going through the college application process, I decided to do so.”

The seminar consisted of four panelists. Other than Wright, Jackson Flowers, Sid Nagarajan and Max Dobbs all were there to help out many of the juniors figure out what colleges they wanted to apply to. They went into detail about factors to consider when choosing a college such as political affiliation and minority resources. They also covered more general topics such as the difference between early action, early decision and regular decision. 

Junior, Vidhi Patel, expressed her gratitude for everything that they said.

“I found the advice really helpful,” Patel said.  “I’m sure counselors give the truth also, but having a student’s perspective was very helpful.

Many attendants appreciated the seniors’ point of view since they have already gone through the college process. Junior, Raeed Kabir, felt this exact way.

“The seniors were quite passionate about what they were saying, almost in an ‘I wish I had known this’ before,” Kabir said.

As the presentation ended, many of the juniors had great feelings about the seminar. Junior, Nicholas Djedjos, felt enlightened after the seminar.

“The college seminar was very informative,” Djedjos said. “All the presenters went in-depth on what juniors should look for in colleges. I plan to take their advice and start brainstorming college essays over the summer.”

Overall, many of the juniors felt very informed and there were many topics covered. Wright expressed that he felt that the seminar was a success.

“From a presenter’s standpoint I definitely felt like it was a good experience,” Wright said. “Applying to college is a daunting task. It was for me and I have no doubt it will be for the juniors. That said, it felt good to be able to give some advice to hopefully make applying to college a little easier.”

The seminar is going to be over the next two weeks since they were not able to hold all of the information in one setting. From writing essays to when to start, the next two seminars will cover everything that juniors need. Wright expressed how he felt that the coming weeks are going to be a great opportunity for interested juniors. 

“For the upcoming weeks, I am looking forward to seeing what the other presenters for applying to college and applying to scholarship presentations come up with,” Wright said. “While I will be holding the Zoom and giving some advice in the chat, I won’t be playing any part in the presentations. Knowing how amazing the seniors are who will be giving them though, I have no doubt they’ll go above and beyond to prepare their juniors for applying to college.”