As September comes to an end, seniors are starting to realize that college is coming more quickly than they had anticipated.

Along with the arrival of October comes many visits from college representatives. NDA College Adviser Beth Abler offered some advice on what to ask a visiting admissions counselor.

“When you sign up to get a pass to visit with a college representative here at NDA, each time it comes with ‘Questions to Ask College Reps’ paper,” Abler said.

“It would be in your best interest to prepare any questions that you might be wondering about the college for that meeting, such as What are your most popular majors? How many undergraduate students attend? What is the cost? What is the campus like?  Do you accept IB credits?”

Abler said the Web site for a college is a great place to start, but visiting with the admissions counselor can be advantageous.

“The admissions process is so much more than what is just online,” she said. “Meeting with an admissions counselor who will be reading and deciding your application can be a huge benefit. They also have all of the insider information that might not be on the website.” 

Abler said there are so many things to consider when selecting a college, and she believes it is different for every student. “I think that you should choose a college where you will be happy and healthy, studying what you love,” she said.

Once you get accepted to a college, you have until May 1st, which is the National Candidate Reply date, to make a decision, Abler said.

For many students at NDA, that “favorite” college is Marquette University, which has a college representative visiting NDA on October 9^th. There will be a longer and larger session for students to meet with the Marquette representative.

“Marquette University asked if they would be able to meet with any of our students on a more personal level to make sure that all of their questions are answered. It’s one of our most popular college visit meetings and I think in the past there wasn’t enough time to get everyone’s question answered,” Abler said. “We have a great relationship with Marquette University and they love NDA students.”

In the past five years, 276 NDA students have applied to Marquette, and 54 have attended, Abler said. 

Marquette is the third most popular college NDA students have attended over the last five years, behind UW-Madison with 91 students and St. Norbert College with 73. There have also been a few schools close behind including UW-Milwaukee, University of St. Thomas, and UW-Eau Claire, Abler said.

Overall, Abler said that most NDA students attend a college or university after high school. “In the past five years, we have had 799 students go on to post high school education to 146 different colleges in the United States,” she said.

Some seniors are ahead of the game, including Rachael Shilbauer, who is almost completely finished with the application process. “My mom motivated me to get things started and get the process done early,” Shilbauer said. “Once I started it was really easy.”

Shilbauer is happy she is done applying. “I’m super relieved,” she said. “I feel like I can enjoy my senior year now.”

Other seniors have finished their activity sheet, received letters of recommendation, and have decided what schools they will be applying to, but haven’t completed the actual application process.

Senior Mary Lovell has applied to seven colleges already, and isn’t finished yet.

“My parents told me that the worst that can happen is the college saying no,” Lovell said. “I believe it’s better to try and know if you would get in than not trying and never knowing.”

Abler said not to be too stressed out if you haven’t started applying yet. You still have time—about eight months to be exact.