<p>I am just starting my college search (I am ending my sophmore year) and I am already feeling very, very overwhelmed. Does anyone else feel the same?</p>
<p>Nah... I'm a junior and started looking at colleges a few months ago, and so far I've just found it extremely exciting and rather fun! There is a ton of information to go through, but I have yet to feel overwhelmed.</p>
<p>Don't feel overwhelmed just yet. I can't tell you how good it is to start early like you're doing. </p>
<p>Right now, I'm pressed for time and need to make a decision very soon. Because you're starting out so early, you'll have plenty of time to visit many many schools and make good choices.</p>
<p>For right now, just have fun with it. This can be a great time in your life, and you're going to have so many opportunities to meet new people! Just think about it; you're starting a new chapter of your life with a clean slate.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>You're doing very well to start early. Better to feel overwhelmed at the end of your sophomore year than the start of your senior year, eh? </p>
<p>I would suggest starting out casually at first, to get a sense of what you generally like and dislike about colleges in general, then start putting names to those preferences. Don't stress about it right now for sure. One thing I like to look at for different colleges is the student newspaper. Most schools have articles online and reading the paper can give you a better insight about the student body.</p>
<p>I felt roughly the same a year ago when I first started looking at colleges but my list hasn't changed all that much from the first one I put together a year ago (added 3 schools, only got rid of 1). Now, a year later, I'm way ahead of my friends and I don't stress about it. </p>
<p>If you really want to get the jump on college, I would recommend taking the SAT in October as a Junior, using the summer to practice, practice, practice. If you don't do well, you have more opportunities to take it junior year with plenty of time to study. If you do as well as you'd like to, then you can relax and do fun stuff while your friends are sweating AP studying, prom, AND SAT studying.</p>