Sheka: Week 2

 On the College Process

Recently, I turned seventeen years old. Being a year closer to graduating has gotten me to reflect on the college process, and the absolutely ridiculous amount of hoops I need to jump through in order to get into the college of my choice.

I’ve started narrowing my college list down to a few schools, which has been an intense process. I have to weigh my options and decide what matters to me the most. Even for someone like me, who has known where they wanted to go to college since they were eight, it’s just been incredibly stressful. I thought that it would be simple: I take my SATs, write my essay, go to an interview, fill out an application, and hope for the best. How wrong I was. 

For starters, half of the colleges on my list, including my dream school, require that I take the SAT Essay. For those of you that don’t know, the essay is the same every time: they ask you to read a well-written argument, then rhetorically analyze it. Sounds familiar? At least by the second time I take it, I should have ample practice writing that style of essay. It should hopefully put me ahead of the curve, but I detest that I have to write another essay to show my worth. 

Another thing that I have to do are these SAT Subject Tests. I’m going to be honest, up until this year, I had no idea that they existed. When I read about them, they looked like a much easier version of an AP test, which irritates me to no end. If I already took an AP exam, why do I need to take another test showing my mastery over a subject? If I got a ‘5’ on my AP US History exam, or a ‘4’ on my AP Calculus exam, couldn’t we just call it a day and say that I met the requirements? It’s not even that I have to study more, the hassle of signing up for extra tests and taking them just feels redundant and tiring. 

All that being said, taking a bunch of tests isn’t my least favourite thing about the college process. No, that distinction belongs to the so-called “resume-building” activities. I know that colleges want well-rounded students, but let’s be honest. The fact that colleges are using extracurriculars as a way to distinguish between applicants is ridiculous. I want to get into an accelerated pre-medicine program; why should the colleges I’m applying to care about what sports I do, or what clubs I joined? The worst part is that I genuinely like my extracurriculars, but now they feel like a chore. I have to succeed at them, otherwise I won't get into my dream school.

I am so tired, and I haven't even begun to apply. I hate this dog-and-pony show, and I'm worried that it's only going to get worse over the next year.