As college application season is in full swing, we checked in with seniors to see how they were feeling!

Senior Samantha Hamilton

Senior Cameron Wang

Senior Michelle Kelman

Q: Do you feel challenged with keeping up in schoolwork and college applications at the same time?

Samantha Hamilton: “I have a job and I have other extracurricular activities that I have to do so college essays are not my number one priority… college applications are due in November so you can always say I’ll do it tomorrow and then it becomes a lot of ‘I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Cameron Wang: “I think there’s a lot of burnout. Once you finish a lot of college essays, it leads to a lack of motivation to do homework in my classes.”

Michelle Kelman: “It’a a whole job within itself. There’s so many decisions to make when you’re applying for all of these schools and having to balance that on top of school is definitely not easy.”

Q: If you could alter the college application process, what would it look like?

Samantha Hamilton: “I think I would rely on more interviews because I think that’s more personal… If you are actually being interviewed it’s coming from you.”

Cameron Wang: “I don’t know if I would alter the process. I think as long as people start a little earlier than they do, it leads to less stress.”

Michelle Kelman: “I would have less supplements…the supplements for each school are not only really repetitive, but they’re really frustrating because you have to put in a lot of research for each individual supplement.”

Q: What are some things you do to lower stress from school and college applications?

Samantha Hamilton: “Just getting it done. I think a lot of times people think that the essay is going to take so much longer to write than it does. I can usually crank out a 600 word college essay in less than thirty minutes and it’s not perfectly edited… if you just sat down and did it it would be less than an hour.”

Cameron Wang: “Not much…just going outside, getting away from the computer. At least, getting away from writing things.”

Michelle Kelman: “I like to do completely nothing for a little bit… I feel like my mind is always racing with things I have to think about for school, but sometimes just completely not thinking about that and turning that part off is really helpful.”

Q: What is the most challenging part of the college application process?

Samantha Hamilton: “The school essays. Not only do they require good writing techniques, you have to research the school and find out why.” 

Cameron Wang: “Motivation, especially after a certain time, all the essays feel like the quality of them are going down… just because I have less incentive to do them.”

Michelle Kelman: “Managing everything. Students are now applying to fifteen schools, myself included, and that is a lot of supplemental essays, and a lot of separate applications… it really becomes overwhelming.”