Andrew Leibowitz ’23
On November 1, seniors in the class of 2022, submitted their first rounds of college applications. With a couple clicks of a button as the culmination of hours of nonstop writing and editing, this year’s senior class submitted approximately 450 applications to 140 different institutions across the globe.
The road leading up to the start of November brought with it obstacles to a varying degree. Christian Jetter ’22 said, “I felt confident being able to get my work done but of course procrastinated and ended up staying up until 3 A.M. many times to finish essays.”
On the other hand, students had contrasting thoughts about their essays. “For me, the college application process wasn’t at all that stressful. I started doing most of my writing over the summer so I wasn’t cramming it all in,” said Griffin Lange ‘22.
In order to meet the deadline, many students put in tremendous amounts of effort into their applications, whether this was over the summer or at 3 A.M. on October 31.
“My students have done a lot of work in writing and rewriting essays, requesting their letters of recommendation, researching colleges, and diligently filling out applications,” said college counselor Justin Ledesma.“I know that this can be a challenge as it is outside the norm of what you do as part of your school routine.” However, the work is not over yet.
“Many of our seniors still have applications to prepare for late November, December, and January deadlines,” said Mike Conklin, director of college counseling. “We will continue to support our seniors by reviewing their supplemental writing, affirming their plans through regular decision, and helping them to interpret and respond to their earliest admission decisions. We expect students to advocate for themselves, and to write proactively, ideally in an effort to complete all applications for regular decisions by the winter break.”
Needless to say, COVID-19 had a very significant impact on the college application process last year, making an application process and decision cycle that was unprecedented in its many irregularities.
“The process is in many ways very similar to last year,” said Conklin, “the admission and financial implications of early decision are difficult to predict in the current landscape. We’ve also observed that many more colleges are changing their policies as it regards the submission of a student’s academic record, often requiring self-reported courses and grades as well as standardized test scores—this is a relatively new practice, and can sometimes be difficult for students to track.”
While the application process is in full swing for the class of 2022, it will soon be time for current eleventh graders—the rising seniors—to follow suit.
“If I were to give any sort of advice, it would just be to start early so you’re not stressing yourself out a week before your deadlines,” said Lange.