Essays, legal documents and college interest questions galore, the Common Application is officially open for high school seniors to begin working on their college applications. The Common Application, better known as the Common App, is a standard undergraduate admission application that high school seniors can use to apply to over 1,000 schools and universities across the United States as well as internationally. This time is both stressful and exciting for our seniors.
Senior Evan Geisner has begun working on the Common Application. Like others, he has found this process to be both exciting and tedious due to the large number of essays and documents he has had to work on.
“Working on the common app has been relatively stress free besides making sure I get all of my work done and documents in. This process has been less stressful due to the fact I can submit all my applications in one place, which has allowed me to begin reviewing and preparing for submission of all my applications,” Geisner said.
Amidst students working on their applications, this past summer the Supreme Court Decision 20-1199 “STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE” ruled in favor of the students, effectively prohibiting the use of affirmative action and race as a factor in deciding whether a student should be admitted into college. This ruling has caused different reactions around the country and has created a changed environment for students working on their college applications.
Senior Bilal Somji said he feels the ruling on affirmative action will not have a direct impact on him, and colleges will continue working to bring diversity into their college campuses.“Affirmative action will not impact the potential for myself to earn acceptance into potential colleges but I feel it is important and likely that colleges will continue to strive for diversity on campus with their college acceptances,” Somji said.
Somji, who said he feels the application process is not as tough as others made it out to be, thinks working on everything over time makes the process less stressful. “This process has not been as bad as I was led to believe. It has been stressful and overwhelming at times but making sure you have all documents in and a good plan helps this process to go smoothly and easier,” Somji said.
As students continue to grapple with and learn about the effects of the Supreme Court decision, the Common App essay has proved to be a thought-provoking challenge. Senior John Wang is working through the process of choosing an essay topic, which is arguably one of the most difficult sections of the Common App.“The essay prompts are interesting but it is difficult to think about and decide a good story to write about,” Wang said.
