The first of April, April Fools' Day - the worst possible day a college could choose as its acceptance/rejection deadline.

Imagine that you have been raised to believe that your entire future rests upon what college you get into, and then realize that your entire future rests upon something that you will read on April Fools' Day. This is just such a fun time - let me tell you.

Given, not all colleges run on the same schedules. Perhaps only those of us who applied to USC are that 'lucky.' Either way, this is the month for college decisions. Unless you've been accepted early into your dream college, the time between April and May is fraught with all of the college perils: stress, fear, anxiety, hope, competition, ego-bruising/boosting and panic. During this month, all colleges will send out the last of their acceptance/rejection letters for the fall 2007 quarter. In turn, all of us enduring the application process must make a choice and then mail out our final decision letters before midnight of April 31st.

It's nowhere near as easy or as simple as it seems. I am lucky enough to have already enrolled at one of my top schools as a film production major. I am driven by my love of film and therefore had specific requirements with which to narrow down my prospective colleges. For people in search of more general education or more popular fields of study, the process is hardly as straightforward. I have several friends who are frantically trying to decide between at least five colleges!

Recently an article published in the New York Times was brought to my attention. Written by Sara Rimer, "For girls, it's be yourself and be perfect, too" brings up the social, educational and political pressures that are essentially unique to college-bound teenage girls.

The article states that teenage girls are constantly trying to live up to three conflicting expectations: 1) ACHIEVE! 2) Have FUN, be yourself and RELAX, and 3) Be "effortlessly" HOT. The secret inside scoop is that you juggle these three standards by being brilliant, busy, athletic, overachieving, beautiful and fashionable and make it look easy. Take it from me, all of this amounts to stress, headaches and emotional breakdowns for everyone following this path of perfection - it just all happens behind the scenes.

College searching brings out the worst in all of us. So many people I know begin building their college resumes day one of freshman year - often earlier if they plan to focus on music or athletics. So what if these people don't like theater or politics? They will often still join the drama club or run for student body president because it looks good on their application. Don't like animals but want to appear like you do? Volunteer for the Humane Society. Want to seem worldly? Take four years of Spanish, Latin or Japanese (etc.) - you don't need to learn the language so long as the courses appear on your student record. This can apply to anything! It doesn't matter what you are really like because all the college sees is your application - you can make them believe anything you want them to.

I can't stand people who fake interest and enthusiasm. It isn't fair to those truly fervent individuals who actually have passions, but I can't blame those people either. It isn't their fault that what they are passionate (or what they've been told to be passionate) about is college. People like this believe that they have to sacrifice their own interests in order to impress the colleges, and to some degree they're right. You shouldn't have to, but unfortunately getting past round one is what it's all about. Once you're in, you're in and one way or another you've worked your tail off to get there.

No matter if any given super girl is truthfully driven and fascinated by the world or zealous about getting into her dream college, the pressure is still there. There is nothing infuriating or offending about the article because it is true. Understand that the girls mentioned in the article and myself come from prestigious and challenging high schools with a high concentration of overachievers. I don't know if this pressure exists in all high schools, but I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it did. As one of my girlfriends put it, the article was probably "the truest thing I have ever read."

Kyra-lin Hom may be reached at kl_hom@yahoo.com