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The high school senior class of 2021 is in the midst of a college application process never before seen in the United States of America. But change in 2020 is not new, especially to seniors. They are constantly being reminded of every new variable this year—changing standardized tests, YouTube college tours, canceled sports and activities that could secure a scholarship—being thrown into this already daunting ordeal. These repercussions aren’t unique to anywhere in the country. Fifty-five seniors from nine states across the nation (ranging from Pennsylvania, Texas, and California), surveyed through a Google Form, have all been feeling the effect the pandemic has had on colleges.
On a scale from one to ten (“one” being listed as “I’m only now hearing that schools are going test optional”, and “ten” being listed as “I’ve heard that schools are going test optional too many times to count”), 52.8% of them answered “10”, 15.1% of them answered “9”, and 18.9% of them chose “8.” And while high school counselors have been tirelessly working to familiarize their seniors with these new factors, just knowing about them isn’t enough. Students have been stressing over the large cloud of uncertainty that looms over the current nature of standardized tests. An anonymous survey responder stated, “while it is test optional and they say that not submitting them won't work against you, it's really hard to believe that that's true after years of being told that your SATs are one of the most important tests you'll ever have to take and that you need a high score to get into more competitive colleges with low acceptance rates.”
Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University
The dozens of well-intentioned reminders to attend virtual college events have turned what were supposed to be helpful accommodations into sources of stress.
Evyn Appel (12-1) noted that “the majority of virtual events by colleges are only happening now during weekday evenings (when we have tons of homework)”. Like the other negative impacts of COVID-19, the ones surrounding college aren’t limited by national borders, either. High school seniors Vicky Venkataya and Lucas Kiewick, along with Masterman alumni and college freshman, Isaak Popkin, share their stories of how COVID-19 has influenced college around the world.
Photo courtesy of Vicky Venkataya
Vicky’s Story
For Vicky Venkataya, a high school senior in Auckland, New Zealand, her high school plays an instrumental role in applying to college. Her school is intended to be a place where students can meet with college representatives and become prepared for the several rounds of standardized tests required for the college application process. Each college a student wants to apply to requires an admission test (unique to each school and the course being applied too), but the real challenges are the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) tests. Students normally take level 1 of the NCEA tests in 11th grade, level 2 in 12th grade, and level 3 in 13th grade. Students will earn credits by taking several NCEA tests (typically ranging from 3-5) throughout the year for each of their subjects, needing a total of 80 to pass. If they haven’t gotten all their required credits for college by the end of 12th grade, their 13th grade is designed to let them get extra. Venkataya and her peers were preparing to finalize their college applications this past spring, but their plans were derailed by New Zealand’s lockdown. Not only were their applications put on hold, but so were the opportunities to take their Level 2 tests—opportunities that Auckland students have been missing more than any other region. With the most COVID-19 cases in the country, Auckland has spent the most time in Alert Level 3 (the most severe level, not including the nationwide, month-long Level 4 lockdown). Auckland students spent more time unable to take their Level 2 tests, leaving them less time to earn credits and less likely to graduate. Venkataya’s school has been trying to make up for lost time, but their frantic pace is hurting the students. The information being rapidly crammed into the students’ brains isn’t on par with the teaching that they would have normally received, causing their Level 2 grades to be unreflective of their true merit. While Venkataya describes her Level 2 tests as “the biggest thing that has been affected…by coronavirus”, COVID-19 has still affected plenty of other parts of her college application process. Her school’s environment that once guided students through the Odyssey-like journey of college admissions is no longer to be found. “We can’t talk to the teachers about how to apply anymore because they’re all so busy, trying to catch up”.
The admission tests that were delayed by the nationwide lockdown, specific to each college she is applying to, were postponed even longer after she returned to in-person school. She was finally able to take her first admission test two months ago (three months late), but she’s completely in the dark about when she’ll be taking her second. “They haven't talked to us about it at all. They should, but they won't. They kind of keep a lot of things secret from kids. The [New Zealand Qualifications Authority] and the principal don't tell the kids anything.” While Venkataya is suffering, she thinks that those who have been affected the worst are the “tradies”—the students who drop out after completing 10th grade to pursue a trade. About half of the grade drops out at that time, and the other half normally completes high school. But this year, more and more of Venkataya’s grade has begun joining the tradies’ ranks. They are convinced that they have no way of passing their Level 2s, because of all the time lost from their lockdown, and want to try to secure a job as soon as possible, before competition spikes even further. While this narrows down this year’s pool of applicants, Venkataya is still worried about her chances of acceptance. Even after the setbacks from her lockdown, her grades aren’t the problem: the number of deferred students that have already been admitted means that colleges will inevitably have to accept fewer students, to avoid an overflow. Even if they’re accepted, Auckland students have yet another problem that the rest of the country may not need to worry about. While they are with the rest of New Zealand at Alert Level 1 right now, their region has the highest probability of reentering Level 3 and having inter-regional travel restricted. While Venkataya has experienced other setbacks from living in the Auckland region, being physically unable to travel to other parts of the country will be the only setback that she can’t overcome with her skills as a student. Another of her concerns is for her friend, Lynette. Before COVID-19, Lynette had plans to study in the United States on a Volleyball scholarship at Columbia University. Venkataya knows that while she may face some travel restrictions, they’ll still be looser than if she was planning to travel internationally. Lynette has even less wiggle room than her peers in one of the key deciding factors of her future.
Lucas’s Story
Lucas Kiewek thrives in the uncomfortability of the unknown. Kiewek has grown so accustomed to a constantly changing life that he begins to feel bored if he spends too much time in one area, knowing that there are so many new cultures and experiences around the world that he could be discovering instead. Kiewek was born in Mexico and lived in Mexico City and Monterrey, until the age of 8, when he and his family then moved to Shanghai, China. The 4 years that they lived there were not stationary: they traveled to New Zealand, Australia, and “nearly every Asian country besides Russia and Mongolia”. These were then followed by 4 years in Buffalo, New York, and then a move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Kiewek currently attends Germantown Friends School. Kiewek has already lived about one-third of his life in the United States, and he doesn’t plan on letting that number grow, any time soon. Kiewek is applying to two colleges in Finland, one college in the Netherlands, one in Scotland, and not to a single one in the United States. Living in the U.S. has made Kiewek feel cut off from the world. “In the U.S. you can either go to Canada, Mexico, or maybe South America, if you’re lucky. There just aren’t as many opportunities [for travel] as when you’re abroad.” While Kiewek has loved his time in Philadelphia, he can’t spend another 4 years here, or in this country. “My whole life I’ve seen the U.S. as an outsider, but now I see the world as an outsider, and that just doesn’t make sense.” He plans to change this by moving somewhere new about every 4 years, experiencing every culture that this world has to offer. He's “not willing to die” until he has. Like the experiences of many other American high schoolers, Kiewek’s SAT was
Photo courtesy of Lucas Kiewek
cancelled three times before he could take it, and his subject tests were postponed until November. But, unlike most American high schoolers, none of Kiewek’s schools are part of the 900+ American schools that have gone test-optional. All the countries that he’s applying to handled COVID-19 better than the United States, so they never had to deal with the same problems of standardized test cancellations that the U.S. did. They don’t see the need to make an exception for U.S. students (when so few of them apply each year), whose country’s mishandling of COVID-19 led to all their test cancellations. Despite the gravity of this situation, Kiewek’s SATs aren't even his main concern—he’s more worried about the 4 Advanced Placement (AP) tests in Physics, Statistics, Computer Science, and an advanced form of math he needs to take. But, Kiewek knows that he’ll manage; he’s no stranger to adapting to new and uncomfortable situations. In fact, he’s even excited for the uncertainty that comes with fully submerging oneself into a completely alien culture (the only right way to experience a new one, according to him). He’s looking forward to the unknown element so much, that while researching his schools’ programs, he purposely tried avoiding any other information about the area. “I’m not really looking too much into what those colleges will be like… in terms of what it’s going to be like to live there. I want to be thrown into it, flipped around, jumbled up, and kind of crash my way through it until I make it… I’m pretty excited.” He’s not even worried about having to learn a new language. He thinks that the American system of learning a language in school “makes it seem a lot harder than it actually is.” Concerning difficult experiences with learning new languages, Kiewek especially knows what he’s talking about. When he moved to Shanghai, he not only needed to learn Chinese, but he also needed to learn English so that he could understand the lessons being taught in his American school. The college process, which seems completely normal to most Americans, has been the most uncomfortable part for Kiewek. And while moving to a completely foreign country may seem scary for most Americans, that process is the reward waiting for Kiewek at the end of the tunnel. “My whole life has built up to this moment. My mom was like, ‘have you considered college in Europe?’ That’s just weird enough for me to pursue. Going to college in the U.S. seemed just too normal for me. I’ve always prided myself on not being normal. Why be normal? There’s too many of that.”
Photo courtesy of Isaak Popkin
Isaak’s Story
One would think that with his colorful sweater collection, Isaak Popkin (Masterman ‘20 alum) would feel right at home in Paris, the capital of fashion. But after a month of Columbia and SciencesPo’s dual-degree program in France, Popkin has already experienced the alienating effects of a different culture. Popkin would have also felt friction while acclimating to France’s new etiquettes, customs, and language any other year, but this is the first time (since 1918) that the differences in culture are being inflamed by a pandemic. He has voiced disappointment in how his school, the French government, and his peers seem to perceive the seriousness of COVID-19—sometimes leading to clashes. He described an integration program, organized by an unofficial school representative group, which included two weeks of daily parties and bar nights. Before arriving in France, Popkin was caught in a “waiting game” while France decided if they would reopen their borders and restart granting visas. The program helped him forget the stress of waiting at home, but its lack of precaution (which the school failed to condemn) kept him from being fully able to enjoy the activities. The day that 23 of the partiers received positive (just COVID-19) test results did not surprise Popkin, and neither did the following day when 40 positive cases were confirmed. What did shock him were the test results of the campus’ 1,000 student body—about an eighth of them were positive (approximately 125 people), including his. Throughout his campus’ two week lockdown, Popkin spent his quarantine baffled. He was sure that he had been careful, avoiding the parties and bar nights, but suddenly “this abstract concept had become concrete”. Despite his youthfulness, the physical effects of the virus were still painful, and the mental effects were even worse. Two weeks meant to make him feel welcomed were cut short by two weeks of feeling alienated. Popkin warns about the usual symptoms of COVID-19, but he describes the effects on your mental health as being the strongest incentives for not getting the virus—
something that he thinks that his peers (and the rest of the country) are failing to understand. Contrasted to the country’s iron-lockdown policies from the spring of 2020, the government has shortened their mandated shutdowns from 14 days to 7 days, with Popkin’s school following suit. “I think that the French went through a really strict period of quarantine, and they now have this mindset that they can’t be affected by COVID because they’re young. People that had COVID a week ago definitely still have it, but we’re opening campus again and people are just going to continue to spread the virus. I think that it’s going to be a cycle of campus opening, people partying, thinking that it’s gone, and then campus is closed, and it’s going to feel like it’s back. It’s going to be a cycle of partying and quarantining. And that sucks.”
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