It may look as if no one has a thing to think about except the holidays. Think again. For many high school seniors who did not submit early applications, looming deadlines threaten to dampen this season’s joy for parents and students alike. Worries about getting into college often lead to overwhelming schedules, parental stress and student angst.
High school seniors across the country are staying up until the wee hours of the morning to fill out applications and write essays for numerous colleges and universities and simultaneously struggling to maintain their grades.
Applying to college is nothing if not a high-stress experience.
On April 3, 2007, The Wall Street Journal article titled ‘Colleges Reject Record Numbers’ stated, “This year’s college-admissions competition is turning out to be more brutal than ever — and not just for students who applied to elite universities. A number of top-tier state schools and smaller liberal arts colleges say they received more applications this year from well-qualified students — and consequently are turning down a higher percentage of them.â€
Filling out forms, writing essays, taking tests, and meeting deadlines can be pretty overwhelming for someone who is simultaneously dealing with midterms, dating crises, graduation, and teen angst. More high school-age students are applying to college today than in years past. This means that there are more high-achieving high school students applying to the same number of highly selective schools.
According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) 2007 State of
College Admission report, recent trends include:
- A population wave has fueled record numbers of high school graduates and students enrolled in postsecondary education.
- More than 60 percent of high school graduates are enrolling in college within a year of graduating from high school.
- For the second year in a row, approximately three-quarters of four-year colleges and universities reported an increase in the number of applications from the previous year.
- The number of applications that individual students submit also has continued to increase; 18 percent of Fall 2006 freshman submitted seven or more applications for admission.
- Many highly selective colleges reported their lowest ever acceptance rates.
As high school students begin the college application process — usually sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by piles of brochures and forms—they get a sense of the agony they’ may go through to complete their applications for college.
If you are a prospective college student there is good news on how to ease some of the holiday stress.
CollegeZapps (www.collegezapps.com), a Colorado company, has launched a proven technology platform to help ease the pain of the college application process. Their online questionnaire efficiently collects required information from prospective college students and then autofills applications for one or multiple schools. Now, students can complete college applications faster, more accurately and more professionally. It’s never been so easy.
Joe Eberle, an independent education consultant notes, “I work with high school students every day in their college application process. It is a painful and tedious one. A few years ago students would want to apply to two or three colleges. Now, they want to apply to eight or 10. While the applications are available for download from the Internet, students have to print them then fill them in by hand or by typewriter. This process is time consuming and leads to many errors. With CollegeZapps, completing college applications is so easy. Students can now spend more time choosing what colleges best fit them, applying to more colleges in less time, and reducing the redundancy that comes with filling out multiple application forms.â€
