Like clockwork, that time of year rolls around where seniors scramble to get in the single most important application of their high school career: their college applications. 

College applications are not only long and confusing, but they also cause students an unnecessary amount of stress. From writing an essay to the financial burden of application fees, the stress is endless.

   “I’ve applied to about 4 schools already for early action, and I still have more for regular decision,” said senior board member Tiana Brown. “ Even though I’ve already applied to some schools, the stress hasn’t gone away. There’s also the fact that I’m a dual enrollment student at CPCC and I have to purchase my transcripts which is adding extra stress,” said Brown. 

 For seniors, this experience is a right of passage.  There is a huge amount of pressure put on high school students to apply to college, even if it’s not necessarily the path they want to follow. “I’m in ROTC and I plan to continue that in college,” said senior Carter LeGrand. “All of the places I have applied to are military based institutions or have those programs,” said LeGrand. 

   High schools seem more concerned with getting students to graduation, rather than the path they follow after. Counselors push for students to apply to college, rather than helping students consider other options. And of course, counselors only do the bare minimum to help alleviate the anxiety of applications. 

   Students are feeling the stress of the applications, and even more so, the stress of the colleges’ decisions. As more and more students apply to college, competition is getting steeper, and less students are being admitted to schools they easily could have gotten into without the extra added applicants. 

   “The whole process has been really stressful,”  said senior Madison McNeill. “ It’s been really hard to keep up with everything we’re expected to provide admissions officers.” 

   Another added source of anxiety is the amount of questions on college applications. Where applications used to be short and simple a few years ago, there are a multitude of complicated questions which make students second guess the quality of their answers. 

   “The process used to be much simpler when I applied to college,” said Student Congress advisor Robin Cluse. “Back in the day, we only had to fill out a few questions on a piece of paper and that was it.” 

   However, Cluse doesn’t think negatively about the new process. 

   “While it definitely is more stressful while doing it, in the long term the process is rewarding.”