Most seniors currently have enough drama in their lives to have their own MTV show.
The drama is ignited by problems with the Common App, an online form that allows seniors to apply to multiple schools while only filling out one basic application. This important application that essentially determines seniors’ futures has many glitches that are leaving seniors anxious and annoyed.
“I’ve had to wait for an absurd amount of time for every submission to be processed, and on one of the submissions, the signature page didn’t show up until a day later,” said senior Catherine Luckenbach.
For Luckenbach’s “prescreen,” a recorded submission to earn a live audition for a spot in the musical theater major at certain colleges, “it took three days to upload [her] 45 second clip of one of the 16 bar cuts of a song. It was awful.”
Senior Drew Jung’s self-reported “disaster” with the Common App was a result of the fact that his “transcript was not going through, so [his] counselor had to personally call all of the schools and fax the materials over.” In addition, Jung’s letters of recommendation were initially rejected by the Common App.
College and Guidance Counselor Connie Dominguez said that the glitches in the Common App have exacerbated the fact that seniors have to simultaneously “write essays, work on their resumes, ask teachers for recommendation letters, meet with counselors for a recommendation letters, send scores, match their Common App accounts with their Naviance accounts, etc. while also staying on top of their homework.”
“Keeping track of a million different things during senior year is the main reason that seniors are so stressed out,” said senior Ryan Dimick.
Dominguez had some advice for next year’s seniors hoping to reduce the stress of the application process.“[Students] should ask teachers for recommendation letters at the end of their junior year, then follow up with teachers in September, write their personal statements and start drafting resume over the summer, send scores in August (unless they are still testing), and make an appointment with their counselor at least a month before their first deadline.”
“There will always be pains in applying to college, but the experience of college is WELL worth the pain,” said former Carlmont student and current UC Santa Cruz freshman Jason Ho.
