Applying to College in a Pandemic

 By: Liv Canova

from: insidehighered.com

Applying to college is hard. Writing so many essays, trying to recall every single thing of value you've done during your 3 years of high school, and making yourself vulnerable to rejection definitely take a toll on a 17 year old. But Covid-19 has thrown a new wrench into the mix of college confusion that the class of '21 is currently sifting through.

Everyone is at a different place with their applications, some students have been finished since October, some are putting finishing touches on their resumes, and some are just submitting to their first college. 

"The process has been a lot" says senior Kaela Burke, "I've had to rewrite my essay a few times and my supplemental essays have been a nightmare". Burke has applied to 12 colleges within the past few months (with only 1 more to go), including two Ivy Leagues, and she's just "glad to have it almost done with". 

Kyle Neuwirth and Tessa Gori also agree that the admissions process has been a little crazy. "It's been really tedious and at times frustrating. I wish I had prepared better over the summer" disclosed Neuwirth, "The hardest part is definitely the questions that each college requires individually" added Gori. Both students have finished their applications and are patiently awaiting decisions. 

But Scott Riley has had a different experience. "The whole process has been fairly simple for me... all of the schools I'm applying to have pretty similar requirements". Riley, who is applying mainly to in-state schools says that his work on the application has been pretty easy due to the culmination of his efforts over the past 3 years.

No matter how easy or hard these students have had it with applications, Covid-19 has definitely made an impact on the process. It was the SATs (or lack thereof) that were the issue for Riley, Gori, and Neuwirth. Both Neuwirth and Gori have had multiple SAT testing sessions cancelled, and Riley found it difficult to focus while wearing his mask for 5 hours. Burke, however, was more concerned about the cancellation of a lot of her extracurricular activities. Both of these concerns could cause major issues for applicants, but the bright side, according to Burke, is that "the common app gives you a space to explain all that".

As for what the future of college applications will look like, we have no idea, but maybe this year will set in place some new precedents to make the application process easier for overloaded students. The seniors this year have put in a lot of hard work, on much more than just applications, and while it may seem like nothing right now, in the wise words of Scott Riley, "it'll all be worth it in the end".