By Megha Lakha
With the infamous October 15th deadline in the rearview and the November 1st deadline approaching, the college counseling offices are filling up more and more with students scrambling to get their scores sent, CommonApp filled out, and supplementals edited.
I, for one, spent 90% of my time last week in Mrs. Armato’s office working on my applications.
Seniors Patrick Smyth and Brandt Blazejewski agreed that the college counselors have been exceedingly supportive and thoughtful during this stressful time. “Mr. Rodriguez is super helpful and gives me good feedback on my essays,” Brandt said.
One source of stress for many students is, shall we say, concerned parents. “My parents are on my back right now and pressing me to get my stuff done quickly,” Patrick said, “so it’s been nice to have the college counselors available to help.” Patrick also emphasized his need to crack down on college applications because he is “hoping to apply early action for every school I can.”
Megan Frisch was nervous about navigating the Common App, a website that allows students to apply to multiple colleges using one application, rather than going through multiple websites to apply. “Ms. Brown was really helpful about answering any questions I had about opening my CommonApp,” Megan said.
Megan hasn’t been super overwhelmed (yet), just because her first big deadline is on November 1st, so she still has some time. But there are things that are making her nervous, like “making my writing extra good, also just the fact that I have no idea where I’ll end up scares me.”
It is perhaps the unpredictability of the college application process that is the leading cause of anxiety for many students.
But not for everyone. Emerson Courage “had no stress” when it came to the process. Reese Richardson and Amelia Friedman agreed. The trio applied to all of their colleges before the October 15th deadline. “I applied to only 2 schools and neither of them required essays, so I just applied on August 1st,” Emerson said.
Amelia applied to three schools, only one of which was through the Common App. “The stress hasn’t hit me yet, but I know it will when I apply next week,” she said. Amelia did say that this process has been easier because “Mr. Rodriguez gave a ton of detailed feedback on [her] essays.”
Reese also only applied to one school through the Common App and applied to four other schools through their own separate portals. She has already been accepted into two schools (that she said she will be more than happy to attend), but she is keeping her options open.
All of this has an impact on the college counselors, too, of course. Mr. Rodriguez said that “November and October are always the busiest times for college counseling, since we as college counselors have to coordinate everything for every student in our caseload.” The counselors handle documents sent by the school, including “sending transcripts, letters of recommendation from teachers, and also writing recommendations of our own for each student,” he said.
And the work continues even after students submit. The counselors check that colleges have received documents and ensure students aren’t missing anything. “We want to set students up to be successful and do whatever we can to make that happen,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “It’s a bit stressful, but all of us have been doing this long enough, so we know the drill, but that does mean our weekends are spent doing a lot of work.”
So it seems like some students have stressful processes, and some don’t. However, with the help of Lovett’s college counseling department, students feel a little lighter, even with their futures in the balance. To every senior reading this, take it easy and let out a sigh of relief when you hit that “submit application” button. Once you do, it’s out of your hands.
