This fall, our seniors endured the daunting college process. There is no doubt that the college process is getting more competitive each year. Now that the seniors have wrapped up the application process, with the hard deadlines set by the college office, we asked various seniors questions regarding their experience with it.
In general, some said the college process went smoothly while others experienced both highs and lows. Olivia Clark shared that she “struggles with comparing myself to others and thinking that all of my effort in school was not being rewarded.” The anxiety that came from this led Olivia to believe that it interfered with her academic performance atin the beginning of the year; however she later felt at ease as she received acceptances from schools.
Will Carnell shared that the college process went well as he “was not cramming work for deadlines or struggling with the common app.” In his case it was not as stressful as he initially thought it would be.
Acceptance rates seem to be putting restraints on students’ decision-making when it comes to the application process. They are seemingly not an accurate representation of how hard a school could be.
Olivia Clark mentioned, “Acceptance rates are going to be dependent on the number of students who apply. As more people apply to the school, a smaller percentage of the applicants will be accepted because the number of spots are fixed.”
There are a number of schools where the applicant number progressively grows each year ultimately making it more difficult to get in. The popularity of certain schools differs every year because of many reasons such as the success of their sports teams, expenses, Greek life, etc. This could mean that the chances of someone getting accepted into college one year could be higher than the next due to the increase or decrease of popularity.
Olivia also mentioned how, “I also think that people need to be aware that going to a school with a higher acceptance rate does not mean the academics will be less rigorous or the quality of the education inferior.” This is a misconception that people tend to let determine their decisions without being fully informed about the school.
This year was a transformative year regarding the college process concerning standardized testing and affirmative action. We reached out to the college office wondering if they would be willing to answer some questions regarding the college process, however they respectfully declined. When students were asked whether Harvard and University of North Carolina’s affirmative action Supreme Court case made a difference this year, most decided to not answer due to lack of knowledge.
However, Will Carnell mentioned, “I do not know how much of a difference it will make this year. After this applicant class, we may see a decline in minority enrollment in some universities assuming that (a) the institutions follow the ruling and (b) university admissions offices were making decisions based somewhat heavily on race as opposed to qualification.”
This year, more schools decided to become test optional regarding standardized tests. When asked about this change, Sarah Katoulan said, “Iit gives students who may not be great test takers a chance to demonstrate their application of knowledge through other activities (…) it also gives lower income students a chance at getting into certain school that switched (…) they might not want to spend $60-$80 on the SAT/ACT.”
We asked seniors what advice they would give to the class of 2025. A lot of the seniors we talked to emphasized the importance of being diligent and staying ahead when it comes to completing the common app and writing their college essays. Will Carnell said, “Get everything done early, you have all summer. I was able to finish my common app and a good number of supplemental essays over the summer and it made the fall, once we came back to school much easier.” This is also important because of how a lot of students load their fall semester schedule with more challenging, time-consuming classes. Another piece of advice given was regarding finding rolling admission schools to apply to as early as possible. Will went on to say, “I was able to get back an acceptance on September 7th and it took so much pressure off of me.” These are all key elements to keep in mind for those who will be going through the college process this upcoming summer/fall.