Applying to college: a look back: like many seniors, Kiran Gandhi spent a stressful year caught up in the college-application process.

• Author: Gandhi, Kiran
• Position: VOICES

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This month, I started as a freshman at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and I could not be more excited.

A year ago, I had other ideas. But I learned that applying to college doesn't always turn out the way you planned, though based on my experience and those of my friends, I really think things do work out for the best.

I went to an all-girls private school in New York where there was a lot of hype about college and the whole application process: pressure to do well, and pressure to get into a "name brand" school.

I was lucky that my school is very college-oriented and has a lot of resources to help students navigate the whole college process--resources many schools don't have.

AN EARLY START

The school encouraged us to get our college requirements done as early as possible, and more than a year before our applications were due, they started getting us ready for what lay ahead.

In some ways, my classmates and I had been preparing for college all our lives. Last spring, I overheard a couple of fourth-graders arguing about who had the grades to get into Harvard! As I listened, I realized that I was probably one of those girls when I was in the fourth grade, and it made me laugh.

My parents are from India and both attended colleges close to their homes. They didn't go through the intense application process that my friends and I experienced.

During junior year, we refined the lists of schools we were applying to. Then our college counselors color-coded the lists: bright red to indicate the schools that would be hardest for us to get into, then red, pink, yellow, and finally green...