The college process – the ways it sucks nationally

Camille Patton, Writer|October 22, 2018

  1. You have to take standardized tests. These are not necessarily great indications of college success, but teachers parents, and colleges put a large amount of stress on success on these tests.
    1. These tests are quite expensive to take.
      1. Registration for each attempt is between $45 and $70.
      2. For most schools you apply to, you are required to send your scores officially to the college. Meaning you have another $11 – 17 fee for each school you send to.
      3. If your college allows you to super score your tests, meaning you can take the best part of each test and they will evaluate that portion, then you must then send each of these individually. This effectually doubles the cost of score sending to each of your colleges which allows this.
  2. Some colleges do not allow you to use the common app.
    1. This creates
    2. Each application has its own fee associated with it, assigned by the school. These can range from $50 – $80, and can quickly add up.
  3. Supplemental Essays!
    1. While it is understandable that each college wants to know how you might fit in at their school or why you want to go there, colleges which ask for multiple supplemental essays are the bane of seniors in highschool’s existence.
    2. How is it possible to capture the essence of who you are in essays which have a maximum word limit of 150 to 300 words?