The college process is long and exhausting, filled with standardized tests, long applications, and a whirlwind of deadlines. On November 1, the first major round of deadlines came around, which required the submission of the majority of Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA) applications. A smaller portion of these applications were due on October 15 and others will be due on November 15.
Most students who sent in their early applications will hear back from the colleges in December and receive one of three results: acceptance, rejection, or deferral. A deferral means that the student’s application will be pushed to the regular decision pool to be evaluated again.
The goal of the EA and the ED applications are to push your college process forward a couple of months. Other goals of the early applications, according to College Board, are to “reduce stress by cutting the time spent waiting for a decision” and to “save the time and expense of submitting multiple applications.” They also give students who are very interested in a certain school the opportunity to put themselves in a smaller pool with similarly interested applicants.
However, do these applications really complete the goal that College Board has stated? After the momentous November 1 deadline, it seems that the reaction among the senior class is mixed: some seniors are relieved while others continue to resent the college process. Tippa Chan ’19, Sixth-Form Class President, disagrees with the claim that the early applications reduce stress. She said, “I actually feel more stressed that the deadline is now over. I know it is supposed to give you some time away from the college process, but it seems to always be in the back of my head.”
As a student athlete, the college process is different, but still tough. Kobe Tray ’19, a diver who has verbally committed to a college already, said, “A lot of my peers have been pretty stressed, so I am glad I got to know where I am going to college so early.” In response to Tray’s comment, Chan said, “I sometimes envy recruited athletes because of the security they have in knowing where they are going, but then I remember the amount of work and number of hours they put in to reach that point and that envy turns to respect.”
On the Choate campus, it seems that college is an inescapable topic. The College Counseling Office consistently provides a stream of college-related events: college fairs, individual college information sessions on campus, and college process seminars. Even for fourth and fifth formers in their fall term, it seems that college is a hot topic that comes up in everyday conversation. Zaid Ball ’20 commented, “I understand that the topic of college is important to our future, but it sometimes annoys me when people spend too much time talking about college when they themselves are not in the process themselves yet.”
One of the major talking points between students when college is brought up are the problems with the current process. College Board and the Common Application have seemingly morphed into living nightmares that will continually haunt seniors until spring term. Tracey Stafford ’19 commented, “The college process is stressful and annoying because it requires seniors to spend a ton of time working and critically thinking outside of the work they already have for classes, which is difficult to deal with. Students have to visit schools, which requires extreme coordination, parental cooperation, money, and time.”
One particular problem that seniors applying to college encounter is dealing with other people asking about the process. The general sentiment among the senior class is that they enjoy talking about their own experience and plans in moderation. However, it is probably ill-advised for a freshman to pester seniors for information on all the colleges that they are applying to. When asked about this topic, Niraj Desai ’19 said, “Personally, I am someone who is very open about my own college process; however, I know that a lot of people want to keep things to themselves or between friends, and I respect that.”
Evan Karas ’19 echoed these sentiments: “Frankly, I feel like my grade has done a great job remaining chill throughout this experience. My own personal experience has been discussing my plans, worries, stressors, openly with friends.”
However, Karas did note one issue that he finds irritating. He said, “What does piss me off is when I hear people talking down to other people about where they’re applying. When people ask me where I’m applying, and I say my choice, and they respond in a condescending way, that is what annoys me.”
Another point that seniors agreed on was the treatment they received from faculty members when crucial deadlines approach for the college process. Karas said, “Coaches and teachers and other faculty members have in no way, shape, or form been sympathetic. They’ll say, ‘Oh, that must be so difficult,’ in class and then assign a heinous amount of reading. Like I have 80 minutes to read and take notes.” Desai agreed, saying, “Teachers definitely do not ease up on the work, so you have to deal with both college applications and the regular amount of work.” However, he also mentioned that “faculty members do their best to provide moral support during tough stretches.”
Ms. van Mierlo, one of the sixth-form deans and a sixth-form science teacher, said, “I’ve had students reach out to me, saying they have a heavy work load, or they are going through a tough time. I wouldn’t say I moved a lot of major assignments because of this, but I would attribute that to strategically planning my class schedule to avoid major deadline conflicts like November 1 or October 15.”
However, the sixth-form deans have tried to work with their class to coordinate form events to boost morale. Ms. van Mierlo stated, “I think that form events can be a nice stress reliever. It is a nice time for the class to get together. The dance was a wonderful time and I know that other form events, like the karaoke night, were very well attended.”
Ms. van Mierlo did have a final message to seniors to motivate and comfort them: “This is not going to last forever; I am very much looking forward to getting everyone back after applications are submitted, seeing them become playful, teenage students and enjoy life a bit more.”
