Claudia Kolinchak
Managing Editor
‘Tis the season to be overwhelmed and confused (at least for the class of 2018). With fall right around the corner, the ever dreaded college application process is upon us, and it’s more confusing now than ever before.
“The college application process is almost as confusing as the movie Interstellar” says high school senior Devin Bock who is just one of the many students overwhelmed by college applications. With the countless different accounts and applications we must maintain it’s no wonder we’re so stressed. Naviance, Common App, Coalition, and College Board are only the basic college accounts, but students can expect many more if they plan to apply directly to any schools.
The websites promise to facilitate the application process by combining all your applications in one account; however this is far from true. The reality is that if you are applying to eight schools, chances are four may be on the Common Application, possibly two on the Coalition Application, and two directly to the institution. In addition, students must send transcripts and letters of recommendation through Naviance and SAT/ACT scores separately. The fear of missing a key part of an application is enough to drive seniors crazy.
In addition to the confusion of applying, the amount of writing students must do is excessive. The Common Application essay, which was created so that one essay could be used for all of a student’s applications, has almost become pointless due to the increase of supplemental essays among colleges. A lot of colleges require their own writing prompt, and even when schools claim that their supplements are “optional”, what the school really means is “if you want us to think you are a good candidate for our school, write about how awesome we are here”. So instead of writing one essay for all their schools, students end up doing the Common App essay and individual supplements for each school, this is excluding any/all scholarships they are planning on applying for.
Honestly, sometimes it seems like it would be easier if every school had their own application that students sent everything to directly to the college’s website, or even throwing it back to good ol’ fashioned paper portfolios. Technology has created a platform for colleges to demand so much data from students that we just become a number to them. However, year after year, more steps are added to the process and the senior classes get more and more stressed out.
At this point, there’s nothing more that seniors can do other than attempt to fight their way through the maze that is known as the application process; Battling through dozens of essays, hundreds of background questions, and reporting countless numbers that score their intelligence. Upcoming seniors, be prepared, because it’s not getting any easier in the near future.
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