Signing in as a first-year, one account, dozens of questions, and endless corrections. This past semester, seniors across the campus logged into the Common App, transforming their years of achievements into applications.
Each click of ‘submit’ brought them one step closer to a life beyond high school, a step closer to achieving their future goals. Seniors complete every step in the application, including their financial aid. Senior Mia Luna spent months modifying her Common App application to ensure it was perfect for the colleges on her list.
“Financial aid didn’t really change my outlook on colleges, but it did change my outlook on ‘how am I going to pay for this?’” I still applied for the colleges I wanted to apply to, but it adds to the stress of the extra applications for scholarships, so I can make sure I get some help paying for my education,” Luna said. “The hardest part of completing the Common App was definitely the essay. My California applications required four essays. Also, the activities section for Common App was difficult to fit everything into such a small, limited amount of words because those words characterize you.”
(Photo by Elena Verdugo.)
Hours of preparation of personal essays, Luna gave it her all to make her application perfect. Along with her senior, Abigail Perez, she spent hours preparing until the last second of the deadline for New Mexico State University.
“Making the deadline overall was a little difficult because I tend to put things on hold,” Perez said. “Once I got accepted, I felt relieved and happy because now I have an actual opportunity to do the things I want; also, being able to study in a new place expands my opportunities.”
Students often struggle with beginning personal essays, and seniors have turned to Samantha Jones for review and guidance.
“A moment I know an essay truly reflects a student’s voice is mainly when you read the essay, and it is telling the story with a placement I can see them being in the school. For instance, if one of the essays I read was talking about the career they wanted once they told their story,” Jones said. “I could see them sitting in that classroom knowing that they would bring value to that content, to that subject, to that major. I think a lot of students don’t realize that the essays for college are about what value you bring to the school and not necessarily a story about your life.”
