by Vicky Florian ‘14

Where a student goes to college is how many people are defining success these days. And before seniors can get into their “dream school,” they must apply. This application process generates a tremendous amount of stress for many seniors through the months of September and October, especially for those applying for Early Decision.

The extra anxiety during the college application process can affect seniors’ mental and physical health. Students may complain of not enough sleep or headaches caused by the stress, and some experts warn that the pressures even can lead to depression.

Other than the applications that students finish themselves, they must also get teacher recommendations for their colleges. Choosing the teacher and making sure they will complete the recommendation is yet another task to worry about for seniors trying to meet strict application deadlines.

The University of Maryland at College Park (UMD), along with a number of other colleges, has a priority deadline of November 1. This does not give seniors much time to complete their applications, especially when they’re trying to get good grades during first semester as a final way to impress colleges.

Senior Sushmita Malik, who is applying to Boston University and UMD, went to Germany last year as an exchange student and feels that there is more of a time-crunch in the American system. “I didn’t do that much work in Germany. I didn’t have five things going on at once, so I am adapting to the American school system. Here, there is a lot of busy work, and in Germany I had more productive work,” said Malik. “It takes a lot of getting used to, but I can multi-task easier now, which is pretty useful.”

Other seniors are fortunate that the school work thus far hasn’t been overwhelming, but they still have other responsibilities that get in the way of completing college applications. “So far my classes aren’t too stressful; I think because I haven’t gotten much busy work this year, which is nice … I would definitely say my extracurricular activities are taking up much more of my time than my school work,” said senior Caroline McCue, who is applying to colleges such as UMD, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University and MIT.

Although McCue has not yet found her homework too time-consuming, she is struggling to get her applications completed at the same time that she is heavily involved in her extracurriculars. “[Extracurricular activities] definitely help [in the application process], since schools want to see what you are involved in outside of just academics. But this year I have been really busy with many more leadership positions and more commitments to my activities that it doesn’t leave me much extra time for working on applications. I think staying busy with my own interests and activities keep me from falling into the college application craziness, though,” said McCue.