Having your future built sounds like a comforting jostle to help ease the stress of making extensive collegiate plans, but year after year students continue to be rudely awakened by the foray into pre-college crunch-time.

The “Building Your Future” workshop day has been at BSM since 1995, and it requires months of planning each year. For this particular workshop, the College and Career Center staff put in 100 hours of work, planning speakers, and deciding what areas to cover.

The college search process has been slowly evolving since it was introduced. “The concept of the workshop was here, and each year we’ve adapted it. When we purchased the Naviance program, that made everything easier,” said Ms.Desmond. College overlaps, and BSM matriculation history are now available 24/7 at the click of a mouse, which is making it easier for kids to decide what college they want to go to.

With 96.5 percent of BSM students going off to college, it is valuable to have long-term planning programs in place. “It’s too much information for one day,” said Ms.Desmond, “That’s why we show the silly movie.”

This years workshop brought college planning into the forefront of the junior scope and left many feeling pessimistic. “My view on college and my future has changed. My motto for college now is ‘If I can get in, I’m going’,” said junior Emily Laak.

This is not the type of impression that college counselors Ms. Amanda Anderson and Ms. Amy Desmond wanted to leave on the students. “If people are feeling that there’s no hope for them based on their G.P.A. that’s not our intention,” said Ms. Anderson.

One of the main complaints BSM students have had about the workshop is the volume of knowledge to which they are subjected. “Some of it was kind of pointless, but some was really helpful,” said junior Tanner Speltz.

The college counselors realize that it’s a lot to take in, but it has to happen eventually. “It is a lot of information and it can be overwhelming, but it is a good kick-off for the process,” said Ms. Anderson.