By Niki Kottmann

Dear NNHS Senior Class of 2012,

Calm the heck down. I know it’s college application season, and your mind is overflowing with information about deadlines, scholarships, test scores and how you’re going to convince Mrs. Krashen to send in your transcript request super last minute, but you need to relax.

According to the 2010 Illinois School Report, you go to a school with a 96.1% graduation rate; 9% higher than the state average. The average ACT score of 26 was a NNHS senior class record this year. Also, 79.2% of students met or exceeded standards on the PSAE, which is better than 97% of schools in the state.

Long story short, you go to a good school filled with smart kids. Of course, you already knew this, because it’s obvious and you are probably a part of this intelligent bunch. So stop freaking out about college. You go to a school that has prepared you for a higher education, and all the schools that you’re applying to recognize that.

This is especially applicable to all of you who have higher than a 4.0. All of you need to take a chill pill. There are so many students at this school who work hard but get a B or C average. All of you who take a million weighted classes, and have ridiculously high ACT scores are obviously getting in to a good college, so stop complaining. I know numerous NNHS students who work almost, if not just as hard as you do, but they can’t get the kind of GPA that guarantees them admittance to over half the nation’s universities.

This is one large generality, and I understand that, but seniors need to realize that there is more to life than getting into college. Yes, it is probably the most important part of your life up until now, but where you go to college does not define you. Is your future employer more likely to hire you if you went to Northwestern, over a candidate who went to College of Dupage? Probably, but that doesn’t mean that the COD graduate will not be successful in life.

A phrase that has recently been engraved into my brain by my mom is that college is what you make of it. So don’t look down on the students who plan on going to a community college or a state school, just because you plan on going to an Ivy League school. All NNHS graduates who go to college with a positive mindset and good work ethic are bound to have bright futures once they receive their diploma.