While Seniors may have escaped the pressure of online learning, another pressure has reared its head: college applications. 

“I applied to 13 schools,” senior and student body president Nick Leonard said, “and I probably wrote over 40 essays for all of those schools.”

While that may seem like an astonishing number of applications, he is not alone in applying to a large number of schools. A survey taken of the senior class showed that at least 20 students are applying to 10+ schools. Many of them have already submitted applications for the November 1 early action deadline.

With many of these schools requiring multiple supplemental essays, submitting the best application to every school seems like a difficult feat. However, Leonard’s outlook on this is pretty simple.

“I have worked so hard in high school to set myself up for future success,” Leonard said. “So at this point, what’s another few essays if it gives me another 15% chance at getting into a high-caliber school.” 

Leonard and other students showed that they were willing to do the extra work to set themselves apart from the rest of the pack, especially with the obstacles that COVID-19 has created over the past year and a half. 

As someone entering the medical field, Leonard clearly felt the implications of the pandemic.

“My ability to shadow doctors has been greatly impacted because many hospitals didn’t allow shadowers during COVID,” Leonard said. “The same is true for volunteering in the health field.”

As a counselor, Chris Headrick is witnessing firsthand the toll some of this process takes on students.

“I 100% think that our students here at U-High are super ambitious,” Headrick said, “but at times, do put too much pressure on themselves.”

However, while the focus of the college application process tends to be on seniors, this season also creates quite a lot of pressure for counselors and teachers. 

“Over the past month, 80% of my work has been college applications of some sort,” Headrick said, “and the burden is more so making sure everything gets submitted on time.”