In his time as a Career Services associate at Emerson College, Ken Mattsson has seen more than a few seniors get nervous when graduation is pending.,Class, homework, sleep, eat, drink (a lot)-that’s all in a day’s work for most undergraduates. That is, until senior year, when the prospect of becoming a professional starts to morph into a reality.

In his time as a Career Services associate at Emerson College, Ken Mattsson has seen more than a few seniors get nervous when graduation is pending.

“Unfortunately, anxiety before graduation happens a lot at the undergraduate level, as students tend to be pampered by the academic community,” he said. “Then suddenly one day some students wake up and realize that it is almost time to graduate and they have to scurry to get prepared for the real world.”

Mattsson said he believes students can avoid senior stress by preparing for graduation from freshman year. Anthony Caputo, a graduate student majoring in print and multimedia journalism, said he was not focused on his career path during his freshman and sophomore years at Boston College.

“During my first two years I took it easy, as I felt as if I had spent so much time just trying to get into school in the first place that all I wanted to do afterward was relax,” Caputo said. “It is easy to live in a bubble and just do the basics when you are in school.”

During his junior year, Caputo decided that he had done enough lounging, so he got his act together and applied for internships. In the spring of 2004, Caputo landed his first internship at Louder Magazine.

“The most essential component for preparing for the outside world is planning,” said Mattsson. “One of the things that Emerson is best at is preparing students for the real world, because this is a practical school where students have the opportunity to do lots of stuff, from publishing stories to making a film to working backstage at a performance. There are tons of things that students can do to build up their resum