Colleges nationwide have announced their application deadline of November 1 for early admission and high school seniors are racing the clock to get in. Ivy League colleges including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, as well as local Missouri State University, have announced the application deadline for the upcoming year.

   Nixa High School College and Career Counselor Ashley Finley helps students evaluate college career paths and other alternative plans after high school.

   “Don’t let choosing a career … be super stressful. Go into it, looking at it like it’s an opportunity to learn more about who you are and the things that you like,” Finley said. “And what might make you happy in the future … just try a bunch of different things.”

   Twenty to 50 percent of students enroll in college as undecided. According to North Central College, an estimated 75 percent change their major at least once before graduation. Finley went to Missouri State to become an athletic trainer, yet she graduated with her master’s in psychology for school counseling.

   “I spent one semester in that program and I did not like it. I didn’t like it at all. And so I spent a little bit of time undecided,” Finley said. “So it’s totally OK to change your mind, but you just want to always be thinking about it.”

   Looking at interests might allow this decision to come more naturally. Some knew from the start. NHS senior Lane Meltabarger said he has loved working on things since he can remember. With that in mind, he chose to major as a Civil Engineer.

   “Since birth, I just love creating things, just figuring how things worked out and doing bridges and stuff. It always interested me,” Meltabarger said.

   New opportunities had impacted the seniors’ decisions. NHS senior class president Gina Curry recently switched majors from a job she had experienced.

   “I work at an elementary school,”  Curry said. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I’ve always known that, but elementary school has really just stuck with me since last year because I get to work with them so often.”

   Whether the 2025 high school seniors know their path or not, November 1 is the early college deadline.