The college application journey is a rollercoaster full of lots of hard work and anticipation. It requires a ton of patience, dedication, and thick skin. While it isn’t easy by any means, most students in the class of 2026 are thrilled with where this process has landed them. NVD seniors looked back on the past year, mainly focusing on the college application process.
“The most challenging part of this process was waiting for applications to come back with decisions,” senior Alexa Chodos, who will be attending the University of Michigan in the fall, said.
In today’s day and age–where we receive constant instant gratification via social media–waiting for college decisions feels impossible. This is a complaint across the board.
Senior Talia Redensky, who will be attending Southern Methodist University, describes the college process as “the longest and most complicated journey ever.” She adds, “the deferrals and waitlists just make you anxious and prolong the experience.”
On top of the anxiety that comes with waiting to hear back from colleges, seeing your peers commit can be mentally draining. Nowadays, college commitments are constantly shoved in your face, whether it’s via grade-wide commitment pages on Instagram, or even random people posting their college decisions on TikTok. It can be hard to not feel behind when everyone on social media seems to have their plans for the future all figured out.
“I try to not make choices based on social media, but I will say that seeing all of the commitment posts has made me feel a little jealous, especially when I see schools I got rejected from,” senior Yaniv Becker, who will be attending Northeastern University in the fall, said.
On top of having to wait what feels like ages for decisions, physically filling out applications is time consuming and a lot of work. Seniors express the difficulty of managing both the beginning of senior year workload on top of working on college essays. Senior Emily Herger, who will be attending Penn State University, has some advice for upcoming seniors.
“My first piece of advice is to start writing your essay now. I had a huge problem dealing with time management, and starting my essay at the end of the summer was not the best idea. Having to deal with early deadlines on top of writing my essay was not a good experience. I had a lot of nights staying up till 11:30 writing a supplemental when it could have been done before senior year,” Herger said.
While applying to college, waiting for decisions, and dealing with deferrals and rejections is hard, most seniors can say that it works out in the end. Chodos definitely can.
“I was accepted into my first choice college, Michigan, which gives me amazing opportunities in and out of the classroom environment. It is also the college my parents went to,” Chodos said.
Similarly, while Redensky isn’t going where she originally thought she would, she is extremely excited about what the next four years will hold.
“I actually ended up getting into my top choice but I realized that a lower acceptance rate doesn’t mean a better college and ended up loving one I didn’t expect to go to. I liked the way it worked out for me in the end,” Redensky said.
Current juniors, it will soon be your turn to start applying to colleges. While it may seem like a never ending unfair game, just know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and you will end up where you are meant to be.
“Take it easy, it doesn’t matter how flashy your college is as long as you and only you are happy and confident in your choice. In the end you are the one who is attending college not your parents or friends,” Becker said.
