As students progress into high school, the once far-away notion of college becomes much closer to a reality. This can be a great source of stress, but also curiosity for students. 

Seniors are beginning to hand in their college applications, and that leaves the rest of the students wondering: what is the appropriate age to begin the search for colleges?

Students are taught from as early as grade school the importance of the college process and how to prepare for that time, but they have different ideas on when the appropriate age is to start the search for colleges. 

For some high-schoolers, college is a top priority, and it can be helpful to get an early start on the college process so that they can be prepared for when it is time to start handing in applications. MT Sophomore Anna Tran is one of these students. She believes that sometime around when students start high school is a good time to begin looking at schools. 

“It depends on the person, on how dedicated you want to be when you go to college, but I believe that it’s always good to start looking as early as possible,” Tran says. 

Students who are aware of what they would like to do after high school can guide their high school career. And if students know what type of college they are interested in, like a liberal arts college, or a school that is more math and science based, they can take courses at the high school that will prepare them for that college.

“If you’re looking for classes that you might want to take, it’s important to know what major you’ll be doing in college so that you can take classes that will prepare you for that,” says Freshman Suraj Dumasia.

There are other benefits to beginning the college process early. Having the college process well underway and under control can also help reduce the pressure of the already stressful years filled with SATs and difficult classes. Having one task out of the way early on can benefit students in the future. 

“You want to [know what colleges you want to go to] before you’re going to have to take difficult classes. You don’t want that to be in your mind,” Dumasia says. 

However, there are some students who lean more towards starting this process later, like Junior Jenny Weiss, who believes that starting to look for schools the summer before junior year is the right way to go for her. 

There are many different reasons for why some students gravitate towards starting to look for colleges later than others. Ariel Blumenthal, a freshman at MT, thinks that starting the college process too early can add unnecessary stress to high school. 

“Freshman year, you shouldn’t have to worry about [college], because it’s the beginning of high school and it’s your transition into high school. That transition is already stressful enough, and you shouldn’t have to add more stress to it by looking at colleges,” Blumenthal says.

Senior Jack Sheehan believes that there can be a lot of maturing inside a person during high school, so giving yourself time to do that before starting to make big decisions about college can be helpful. 

“There’s still a lot of growth to be done between freshman year and senior year, and even beyond senior year,” Sheehan says. “I’ve noticed over the course of my four years in high school, it’s been interesting to see how much I’ve changed in terms of my thinking and what I know.”