The saying 'Tis the season' is flowing through the guidance office as counselors Mrs. Laura Klipa and Mrs. Debbie Rietski are in the process of helping students apply for college.
   "Of the 56% of graduating seniors that plan to go to college, we are seeing 25-30% of the applications," Mrs. Klipa said.
   While some students are procrastinating until the last minute, others have already turned their applications in or are close to being done. Senior Dan Yu is currently in the process of applying to Harvard University.
   "I've been working on my application every day for the past week," Yu said. "I have to have it done very soon because I'm applying for early action."
   Although Yu plans to apply to other colleges such as Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, the University of Pennsylvania and others, the application for Harvard is the only one he has looked at so far. He chose these colleges, and more importantly Harvard, by looking at the top 50 colleges in the US.
   "I plan to major in pre med, biology or music," Yu said. "I want to do a double major."
   While Yu has only applied to one school so far, senior Brittany Schaller has already applied to a total of ten schools. She has sent applications to Seton Hill, St. Vincent, the Coast Guard Academy, Ohio State, Boston University, Cornell, the University of Miami, Carnegie Mellon, Robert Morris and Ohio University.
   "I had to apply to five of the schools for the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarship," Schaller said. "If I get the scholarship I have to attend one of the five."
   Although both Yu and Schaller haven't had to use much guidance from the counselors, both Klipa and Rietski want all students to know that help is available whenever they need it.
   "We help students by reviewing their transcripts and making sure they are enrolled in the right classes," Mrs. Rietski said. "It's important that students are enrolled in classes that pertain to what they plan to major in."
   Contrary to popular belief, the SATs are not the most important part of the college application. According to the counselors, the high school transcript holds the most power.
   "A transcript is built up over four years," Klipa said. "SATs are just one day and they don't always determine a student's intelligence accurately."
   The guidance office arranges meetings with colleges in the area that are open to students. An example of this is Penn State University Application Day on Tuesday, November 20. Klipa and Rietski try to plan these meetings as often as possible to get students aware of what's going on.
   "By attending this meeting, students will have the chance to fill out applications and turn them in on the same day," Klipa said. "This meeting will also waive the application fee."
   Not only do they provide help with applications, but the guidance counselors also help with finding and applying for scholarships.
   The guidance office is planning to have a meeting with all seniors in the near future to remind them of the help that is available and that it is certainly time to start applying.
   "We want students to know that we are here to help," Rietski said. "We would like to meet with everyone at least once."