With college application season over, seniors may finally recover from the long process. 

For example, senior Isabela Painter was hit hard by the work. She spoke about her first semester of the year.

“It was honestly exhausting,” Painter said. “I had no energy. I never wanted to go out with my friends and do anything, I had so much work to do. And even when I didn’t have anything, I was just so exhausted from the amount of work I had already done.”

Painter constantly uses her passion for writing as an outlet. However, during first semester, she was too preoccupied with the workload to write for herself. 

“Writing has always kind of been an escape for me, and I just genuinely did not have time for an escape,” Painter said. “I never had time to sit down and work on my book, and when I do that I kind of escape into a different world. So, I could not leave.”

The application process takes away from much of a senior’s regular life. Senior Rachel Kohley, for example, struggled to maintain a social life while applying. 

“You’re a senior, you want to hang out with your friends for your last year of high school,” Kohley said. “I really struggled with watching people post about going out every weekend.”

This process is common forhigh school seniors across the globe. Kohley points out, however, that the shared experience does not ease the stress. 

“It’s really interesting because everyone’s going through the same struggle as you, yet it feels so isolating,” Kohley said. 

According to Kohley, it didn’t matter as much that the process was shared. 

“Trying to figure out how to summarize yourself in a way that makes schools want you while also being true to yourself and competing against literally the whole country is a very taxing thing to put yourself through,” Kohley reasoned, “regardless of if millions of other students are doing it at the same time as you.”

In fact, Kohley mentioned thatthe lack of uniqueness while applying makes it even harder. 

“Everyone else is going through [college applications]. So if one person is able to get their work done, you should too,” Kohley said. “I think what I really struggled with is that I don’t work the same as everyone—no one works the same as everyone.”

Yet this was not Kohley’s greatest struggle. On top of the application process itself, Kohley mentioned the actual schoolwork she had. 

“I think teachers sometimes get desensitized to the college application process,” Kohley said. “You would think teachers would understand a little bit more, but senior year first semester was probably the largest workload I’ve ever received.”

This being said, both Kohley and Painter offered ways to limit the senior stress.

“I think working on stuff early is the best way to do it,” Painter said.

Kohley spoke on how she procrastinated with her submissions, and often found herself “writing and rewriting essays the night before” the application deadline. However, Kohley contrasted the stress with a benefit to the application process.

“It feels pretty good to see your hard work pay off, and to acknowledge the fact that you did something pretty cool,” Kohley said. “You can still enjoy [the process] as long as you make smarter decisions than I did.”

With both the pros and cons of the application process, the question remains: Is it worth it to prioritize being a student over a teenager?