BY CAITLIN GALLAGHER October 14 2021
Dear Seniors,
As the November 1st deadline approaches for college applications, our stress levels are going through the roof. We are all excited to start a new chapter in our lives, but the process pressure is immense: expectations from family members and teachers, the pressure that most of us put on ourselves, and the deadlines that loom close. The college application process is incredibly overwhelming. However, I would argue that the biggest contributor to stress amongst seniors is the way our peers discuss the application process.
I’ve heard countless stories from friends at CHHS about how bad other students made them feel when they talked to them about college. One student told a fellow senior that “your dream college is a safety for me”, and that they “weren’t even trying that hard on the application.” I’ve overheard another senior telling a peer that” they should reconsider their list of colleges because there is “no way you could get into any of those schools.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Multiple times, I have head other seniors talk about how they would never attend a SUNY school. I’ve heard my peers say things like “I’ve worked too hard to just get into a SUNY”, or “I want more for myself than attending a SUNY school.” As someone who is applying to a SUNY, this has discouraged me from sharing what schools I’m applying to, and I know that other students feel the same way (For the record, many SUNY schools are both excellent academically and far more affordable than private colleges, which should mean everyone should be considering them).
The reality of the college application process is this: you don’t (and you can’t) try to understand anybody’s position except your own. You have no way of knowing what everybody else’s grades are, every extracurricular everyone participates in, and what their financial situation is like.
Seniors should think about how what they say might make others feel. I encourage my fellow seniors to think about what they say before they say it, as making offhand remarks about where someone is applying to college can make people who are in a different position than you very uncomfortable. Even if your intent isn’t to offend (and it usually isn’t), I encourage everyone to understand that their words can have an impact and have meaning even if they aren’t significant to you.
We have limited time left with each other at CHHS. Many of us have built strong relationships, often with people substantially different from ourselves,, and it would be a shame to damage those relationships and I would urge all seniors to question if they want to ruin relationships with each other over something as inconsequential as where somebody else is applying to college.