It’s common to hear from adults that, “The college application process is nothing like it was when I was a kid,” and it’s true. In past generations, students typically applied to three to five colleges. Applying wasn’t an incredibly stressful process. Today, there’s test prep courses, college counselors, supplemental essays, and thousands of applicants for every school. The process for every student is, to say the least, very stressful.
For southern schools like the University of Georgia or Florida State University the deadline for early action applicants is October 15. However, most schools across the United States have their early decision or early action deadline being November 1. Five weeks away and NVD seniors are getting ready.
“The fact that there is an end to this process is actually what’s keeping me motivated. I am looking forward to the relief I will feel when I’m done applying, knowing that I won’t have to do it again,” Samaaya Agarwal said, a senior here at NVD.
While it seems simple to finish your applications during the summer, it’s sometimes difficult for students to finalize their college list. Part of the application process is finding a good mix of safety, target, and reach schools all of which you would commit to if it came down to it.
“There’s so many schools out there, and picking only a few that check the majority of boxes has been really difficult for me. I think my list has changed at least ten times in the past two months,” Ava Pavlos said.
Most schools have added essays besides the personal statement. These are called supplemental essays and colleges assign them to gauge why an applicant is specifically right for their school. Supplementals are only around 150-300 words compared to the 650 word personal statement. Still, each takes an incredible amount of effort and thought.
“My strategy was getting the essays done that had the earliest deadlines. I wanted to get my essays done for colleges that had October 15th deadlines rather than ones that were later such as November and January,” senior Sam DeCosta said. “Also, I started the ones that were most important to me first so I could get the most amount of time to draft and edit the essays.”
It’s crucial for students to put the same effort they put into their personal statement into their supplemental essays. Some applications have you write multiple supplements, some have you choose your prompt, some have 500 to 650 word supplemental essays, and other schools have none.
“I am applying to 18 schools, and I have 33 supplemental essays to write,” Pavlos said.
Miles Schwartz had a similar situation.
“I am applying to 12 colleges, and in total, I have to write 26 supplementals,” Schwartz said.
A big part of application stress comes with finalizing these supplemental essays. Resources like college counselors, parents, and trusted adults or teachers are crucial for students to have assistance through the process. Other people are needed in order to come up with ideas for essays and make sure the submissions are coherent for admissions officers.
“Although it can get hard to stay creative while writing such a large amount of essays, the encouragement I have received from those around me (especially the ones experiencing the same struggles as me) has kept me motivated,” Agarwal said about the writing process.
Meeting this deadline, hundreds of thousands of high school students across the United States are typing away right now and finalizing their applications. In a couple months they are all going to land somewhere and live a new experience for the next four years.
“It’s going to be very nice to have the whole process over with and to be able to look forward to college,” Miles Schwartz said.
