On May 1, many high school seniors face the biggest decision they've yet faced in their lives — and we don't mean which dress or suit they'll wear to prom.

Candidate reply date is looming, when the months-long tension of deciding on, applying for and choosing between colleges comes to a head.

Radford college counselor Jean Fukuji knows this time of year is more fraught with nerves than any other. Before, college-bound seniors were being judged. Now, the tables have turned; they judge, and choose a college.

With judgment comes responsibility.

"When you're in the driver's seat, you have to make decisions," Fukuji said. "That's super-hard for the kids. ... They're embarking on something new for them. They don't have the safety of parents there 24/7. (They say) 'I thought it'd be hard, picking which college to apply to, but it's even harder figuring out which college to go to.' "

The choice gets tougher when there are both more colleges under consideration and higher odds of being rejected: Citing a University of California at Los Angeles study, the New York Times reported this month that students are applying to more schools — and as a result, individual students are more likely to be turned away from competitive institutions.

Maryknoll senior Melanie Panis knows what those applicants must be feeling.

She remembers dissolving in tears when she went to her college counselor's office the Monday morning after getting a rejection letter from her first-choice school, University of San Francisco.

She's one of those students who always worked hard, kept up with her homework, earned a more-than-respectable GPA.

Other teens were going out on Friday nights, but Melanie made sure her work was done. When they'd tease her back in freshman year about working so much, she'd tell them, "I want to get into a good college."

Finding that others were accepted to USF, even others with lower GPAs ... well, that was heart-wrenching, even with her backup, the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, safely in hand.

"I really wanted to go to California," said the 17-year-old, whose mother lives in San Francisco. (She currently lives with her father.) "It crushed me a little bit."

So that Monday, Melanie and assistant college guidance counselor Tracy Manlansing talked about going about the college application process a different way.

They came up with a list of schools in California that had rolling admissions and would allow for easier transfer of credits if Melanie wanted to keep her sights set on USF.

Friends might be kicking their feet up on their desks and cruising MySpace, but Melanie was back on the computer, up late at night, doing another round of college applications.

The good news: The extra effort paid off.

Melanie has been accepted at one San Francisco college and is waiting to hear from two others. From there, she still has her heart set on transferring to San Francisco University next year. "It's just another route to where I'm supposed to go," she said.

And Melanie has learned an important lesson for a 17-year-old girl: "If something happens, there's a bigger picture. You have to pick yourself up and move on."

That's a lesson many Hawai'i high school seniors are learning right about now.