With more than 40 colleges and universities in Indiana alone, simply deciding where to apply to college can be challenging.

Visiting campuses, attending interviews, filling out forms and writing a decent essay can be even more daunting. Add to that a search for scholarships and financial aid, and many students decide the admissions process is more trouble than it's worth.

Y-Press spoke with seven Indianapolis seniors about the college guidance they have received. Steven Hernandez, Seth Lucas-Falk, Bhavana Pandya and Jamaal McCray attend Tech High School; Brittany Mowell, Wesley Clemmons and Robert Pero Jr. go to Northwest High School.

At Tech, the guidance office issues a newsletter with information such as admission deadlines and scholarship offers. It is updated daily on the school Web site as well as in bulletins during daily announcements. Tech, which has six guidance counselors, helps with campus visits and hosts representatives from colleges and universities (primarily in-state); it also offers workshops, such as a practice SAT. Of its 287 seniors, 43 percent plan to go to college.

Northwest hosts college representatives and posts scholarship opportunities in the guidance office; the list is updated weekly and posted on the Web. In addition, the school, which has four guidance counselors, sponsors college workshops and administers the PSAT. About 30 percent of its 220 seniors plan to go to college.

Both schools also offer Advanced Placement classes, and students recognized the benefits of these challenging courses, which offer college credit.

Bhavana said AP calculus, while difficult, has done the most to prepare her for college.

Some students enjoy special advantages in the college admissions process. For example, many colleges actively seek student athletes such as Wesley.

Wesley, who will attend Southern Illinois University next year, was recruited to play basketball. He described his campus tour: "You stay overnight and they show you around campus and you hang out with the players. They really look out for the athletes."

Athletes also have special access to scholarships. "Ever since I started playing basketball, I knew I would get into school free," said Wesley.

The other students are relying on their academic records. While Seth participates in tennis, swimming and baseball, he credits his academics for his college offers.

"I'm taking AP English and calculus, as well as econ and Spanish. And I go to IUPUI for a physics class," he said.

He's had other advantages. His parents paid for an SAT-prep class and an adviser to help him research schools and fill out applications. He's going to Denison University in Ohio, which has offered a generous scholarship.

Rob, too, has worked hard -- he's taken AP classes and participated on Northwest's yearbook staff and academic team, and served as junior class president, among other extracurricular activities. He is interested in engineering but knew he needed a scholarship. Then came an offer from Indiana Institute of Technology in Fort Wayne.

"They have all the engineering programs that I need," he said. "I mean, it was really hard for me to find a scholarship, and then the school just offered me one out of the blue."

While Steven and Bhavana credit Tech's college preparatory classes with getting them ready for college, they have also benefited from the school's career-oriented magnet programs.

College-bound Tech students often enroll in one of five magnet programs: applied academics for technology, foreign language, health professions center, math/science and telecommunications. Bhavana and Steven are in health professions. As underclassmen, they learned medical terminology and basic medical skills; this year, they got on-the-job experience -- Bhavana as a nurse's assistant at Community Hospital East, and Steven as an assistant in his dentist's office.

Bhavana will attend Butler University as a pre-med student. Steven is going to Wabash College in Crawfordsville with an eye on medical or dental school. "I chose Wabash because they have this rigorous bio program," he said.

The technology magnet at Tech helped Jamaal decide his plans, but in a different way. "I got into computer electronics, but then I felt that I wasn't that interested in it," he explained. What did inspire him was his psychology teacher, and that's his intended major at Indiana University.

Brittany was inspired by a teacher, too. Accepted by IUPUI, she plans to study nursing. She credits a difficult AP English class and the toughness of her teacher with preparing her for what lies ahead: "She continues to remind us that we can always do better and that we have more than what we're giving."

In general, these IPS students appreciate the effort their schools made to prepare them for college. Although few access the information offered on their school's Web site, they felt their classes were challenging. The Northwest students were disappointed in their guidance department, however.

"I haven't been talked to once about next year -- not a single time," Rob said, adding that student apathy may be to blame. "Some of my friends want to go to college, but they want to do as little as possible to go."

Despite these obstacles, all the students were fortunate to have families that encouraged them to pursue higher education. Almost all said their parents have given unfailing support, though most of them will be the first in their families to ever attend college.

"My mother has been the biggest influence about my future. She has always encouraged me to go to college, and she always wanted more for me than what she had," said Brittany.

Steven, who is from Honduras, said his family "put a lot of pressure on me because I'm setting the example. . . . They really want me to go as high as I can so my brothers and sisters will follow."

Parents also may influence a student's school selection.

Bhavana chose Butler over Northwestern and IU "because it's paid for and it's close to home," she said. "The way I've been raised, I don't want to leave my parents." Her parents are from India; neither attended college, she said. "It's like they're putting their hopes and dreams on me."

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Christine Beyer, 14; Emily Biesecker, 18; Julie McDowell, 15.

REPORTER: Lauren Seaman, 13.

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Y-Press is a nonprofit news organization with offices in The Indianapolis Star building. Stories are researched, reported and written by teams of young people ages 10 to 18. For more information, call (317) 444-2010 or send an e-mail to ypress@in.net.

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Missing credits

Due to a production error, the bylines were omitted from last week's Y-Press story about interns attending the Teen Mania Honor Academy. The article was written by Briana Hansen, 18, and Stephen Miller, 14.