By: Tyler Kacalek
With the starting fall semester of 2025 rolling around, college applications are slowly becoming available to current high school seniors. With many different schools requiring many different applications and forms of applications, it can be hard to find what schools to apply to, and ultimately how to apply to them. This can lead to students becoming overwhelmed and indecisive during the application process, which can affect academics and the well-being of students.
College applications are very important because they can determine the outcome of the rest of your life, and what you ultimately end up doing in your adult years. Because of this, according to pathlightbh.com, 76% of students feel that college applications are a life-defining moment, and 73% of students feel that small mistakes they make can ruin their chances of getting into a given college. This data clearly shows how the majority of students are becoming too focused on, and too stressed out about college applications and how every summer, high school seniors suffer from the stress of deadlines, essays, and tests all within the application process.
The process of college applications may vary depending on the state of the college you are applying to, but most colleges look at things like test scores, GPA, and essays. Each of these elements of the application process can also apply more pressure and stress to students’ well-being.
For example, the two types of tests, ACT and SAT, (American College Testing and Scholastic Assessment Test) both consist of hundreds of questions on a timed basis that are not easy by any means whatsoever.
A student at Benicia High School, Adrian Sanchez, quoted: “I feel like studying for ACT and SAT tests are just added stress on top of all the homework we already have to do.” The basis of these tests contribute to the diminishing of mental health in students, because for many students, depending on a test score to guide you to a college to guide you to a career can seem very important and also scary.
Another example of the application process can be shown in application essays, where students are required for some schools to formulate an essay to describe their personal life, while also demonstrating their academic skills such as grammar, spelling, and formatting an essay in general. This is also challenging toward students who have had rough pasts, or struggle with trauma, because it can be hard to find something to write about that isn’t a sensitive issue. The idea that an essay should define where you spend four years of your life, and overall what you end up doing with your life, is ridiculous, and colleges should make it much easier on students in the application process.
The last example of college applications and overall academics taking a toll on students’ mental health is the idea of GPA, and how schools use it to consider you for college, or other opportunities. Throughout high school, students are constantly suggested to keep their GPA up, and take lots of AP classes, or honors classes, but this can be challenging for students to accomplish, given how skilled they are at certain subjects or just focusing on school in general.
Not all students have the same goal of achieving the greatest academics suggested, and would rather take easier courses for their well-being, or simply because they don’t need to. But admitting students into a college because of their GPA is a ridiculous idea, because schools also need to take into consideration the identity of the person as well, and how they work and get along with others.
Overall, the application period for colleges is draining student’s mental health and well-being, and should be made easier and less intimidating to people applying. Colleges should not just let someone into a school because of their GPA or test scores, but should experience the student in real life and see the type of person they truly are and then decide whether or not to admit them based on that. The college application process should be made simpler and easier because it intimidates students and affects their well being as a person.
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