Second semester is a time where emotions are running high.

I am not talking about the bittersweet emotions that result from reflecting back on fun times in high school. I am talking about being so frustrated that one wants to throw his or her laptop out the window.

The other day, I found myself screaming “I just want to graduate” after dealing with above emotion. Although I do look forward to no longer being in high school, I am not rushing it. In fact, if I could, I would rip up my overbooked calendar and hang out with all of my friends before we go off to college. I am not ready to say farewell to familiar places and people.

However, I do look forward to saying farewell and never reminiscing on pesky scholarship applications.

I was told that filling out college applications is the worst part of senior year. At least in my life, that was a lie. I began doing my applications in July, so I was more than ready for the January 1 deadline.

Also, people will tell you that finding out about admissions decisions is the most agonizing part of senior year. At least in my life, this has also been a lie. I have been accepted into four colleges so far, and while it’s difficult deciding between them, I am still not overwhelmed by this task. I was expecting to deal with things like this, but I was not expecting the stress that comes from scholarships.

Scholarships can be vague and confusing. It seems like every day I wake up, there are fifty new scholarship applications that I can pick up in the guidance office. Of course, I am in no way complaining about receiving money. Scholarships are a wonderful thing that will greatly benefit my family, but I wish there was a Scholarships for Dummies book because I feel helpless some days.

One scholarship wants my weighted GPA transcript. Another scholarship wants only my unweighted GPA transcript. One scholarship wants no letters of recommendation. Another one wants at least two.

The other day, I found myself filling out a scholarship that wanted to know how much money my family has spent on furniture and vacation property. News flash: my family still has furniture from before I was born and the closest thing we have to a vacation home is my back porch with tiki torches and colored lights.

You’d think once a scholarship committee has your social security number, tax returns, W-2 forms, etc. that there would be nothing else they need to know about you. I feel like I am taking part in some creepy dating program: “So what do you like to do for fun?” “Oh, all I want to know is how much you have in your retirement account, baby.”

Perhaps I am exaggerating too much. Forgive me. I am just trying to be super-extra because that is what makes a successful scholarship essay.

Okay, enough about me, though. Here are some tips that will help you or your beloved senior make it until May. Share this article to save a life (just kidding).

Make a letter of recommendation request form. Hopefully, by March, you have already gotten a teacher to write a letter of recommendation. If not though, it is not too late. There are kind teachers who are still willing to do it for you last minute. But, you defintely need to have a letter or recommendation request form for them. It is hard to write about a student when teachers have no additional background information. Include on the form your birthday, GPA, rank, extracurricular activities, courses taken, AP scores, etc…anything that you think shows who you are as a student.

Write a generic essay that you can tweak. I’m not gonna lie: I write a brand new essay for every scholarship, but it is very time consuming. I have many friends that just change out their essays based on prompts. Also, you need to have a designated proof reader. When you are writing an essay late at night (it’s inevitable) and you are exhausted, you probably won’t catch a blatantly obvious comma error or spelling mistake. You may have meant “I am paying for my car,” but you actually type “I am paying for my cat.” Of course, I understand being a cat parent can be expensive, but scholarship people probably won’t consider that a financial committment.

Purchase a calendar and planner. One calendar is not enough. Let me repeat myself: one calendar is not enough. You need a wall calendar to keep up with your social life, but you also need a planner to keep up with scholarship deadlines and other important dates. I purchased my planner from Target in August and it has held up pretty well. Of course, a few pages have fallen out here and there, but all in all, it has allowed me to keep up with what I need to keep up with…scholarship deadlines.

Make a Google spreadsheet for scholarships. If you aren’t good with spreadsheets, just use a normal Word document and utilize the highlighters. You need to know not only when a scholarship is due, but what it requires. Color code them. Does it ask for two letters of recommendation? Does it want a sealed transcript or an unofficial one? It can be hard to distinguish between scholarships if you don’t write the information down.

Focus on major scholarships first, then minor ones. I know it is tempting to see any offers for money and immediately want to jump on it. If you have time, I say right on to filling out lesser-known scholarships. But, do not spend so much time on “minor” ones that you forget to finish the “major” ones that guarantee money. For instance, I spent over four hours working on a scholarship that is only guaranteed to one student out of a large amount of students. I do not want to say I wasted time by filling this out, but the odds are not in my favor. Of course, you don’t know if you don’t try, but don’t try too much because you do not have unlimited amounts of time. You still have to balance college visits, core classes, and extracurricular activities.

Give yourself a break. Saturdays are scholarship days in my house. It is when we break our backs getting down large crates full of tax returns and who knows what else from the closet. It is a stressful day and it is one that I dread. Just like anything else in life, you need to take breaks occasionally. I don’t mean that you should give yourself the whole day off, because, once again, you do not have unlimited amounts of time. However, if you have been writing an essay for an hour, by all means, take a ten minute break to eat some ice cream, go to the bathroom, or do yoga. Okay, so I don’t do any of those things. I actually just check my Snapchat and complain to my friends who are also working on scholarshps, but the above options sound better. Just take a break because you are not a machine that you can just put in work and get money out of, although it may seem that way sometimes. You are still an 18-year-old student who has a lot of life and energy. Don’t become a slave to work. Once again, maybe this is just a problem in my life, but I know there has to be other perfectionists out there, right?

Thank your parents and guidance counselors. Whoever is helping you with scholarships, give them all your love. Sure, writing an essay may be stressful, but my mother is still under more stress in regards to scholarships than I am. There are so many financial questions that she has to fill out that I am not even aware of, and I am forever grateful for her. Plus, this is the second time she has had to do this for a child. Ask your parent if there is a way you can help them or just offer to massage their back (or head) when they’re hunched over the computer. Also, your guidance counselors deserve appreciation, as well. I mean, it may be hard for me to keep up with six transcripts, but imagine having to do that for hundreds of students EVERY SINGLE DAY. That is not a pretty scenario. Buy the people who selflessly love you a candy bar or surprise them with a nice note. Anything that says, “hey, thank you for giving up your time because you care enough about my life to put yours on hold.”

Although I have not made it to the finish line yet, I know you are capable of surviving scholarship season. Just like your senior year, it will go faster than you think and scholarship applications will eventually be distant memories. Savor your last semester of high school, even if there are some parts you don’t enjoy. Also, don’t forget that your hard work filling out applications will soon “pay off.” As the popular saying goes, “nothing worth having comes easy.”