Student Competition For College Applications Is Fierce And Secretive, Students Say

Seniors at say students in this year’s graduating class have applied to as many as 16 colleges across the county, while the school combats accusations of placing undue pressure on students to succeed.

College applications were due in late fall for many Churchill seniors, who now anxiously await the results of their efforts. For some students the process of choosing the right school for secondary education became a fierce and secretive competition.

"Everyone's trying to figure out their competition and how they measure up against each other,” said Churchill senior Sarah Reitzes. "It's trying to keep tabs on what everyone else is doing; Is this person going to get in over me.”

According to Reitzes, students applied to as few as four to as many at 16 schools. “People are concerned that they don't just have one safety they need 6, or they apply to all the prestigious schools they can think of.”

When deciding where to go to school, officials encourage students and parents to look towards a good fit, rather than being seduced by a brand name, according to Beverly Lubenetski, head of the Churchill counseling department.

"The counselors hear frequently that students feel pressured to take honors and AP courses because they want to 'get into a good college,'" Lubenetski said. "When pressed to elaborate on what a 'good' college means, the students do not have the knowledge base to really know, other than the 'brand name' schools about which they hear, such as Harvard, Yale and other [Ivy League schools.]"

Recently the school has been under fire for helping to cause some of this unnecessary stress by . , recently ranked as a top performer in AP testing, say they are doing what they can to address stress and have created a page on the school website for students to communicate any feelings of stress.

The page outlines common symptoms of stress, such as irritability and emotional volatility, unexplained fears or anxiety, social isolation and difficulty sleeping. The page encourages parents and students to communicate stress concerns with school faculty and counselors, and is one of several efforts to combat student stress instituted this year, .

Reitzes said she kept her college applications to a minimum with strict criteria but declined to say where she applied.

Joe Haynes, a senior at Churchill said he also worked his choices down from a broad list to a select six.

“Having such a small number of schools that I applied to was a great choice, as it really lightened my workload,” Haynes said. “I would talk to some people that would apply to 12+ schools and have to write seven or eight different essays, and the whole process was a bigger deal for them than it was for me.”

Regardless of the amount of applications to complete, the worry over getting into a good school and finishing college applications in time had kids downing caffeine and missing out on sleep, students told Patch.

“I would say that for the first month of school, I had to do as much work for college apps as I did for any other class. It was like taking another class,” Haynes said.

Churchill PTSA President Geri Shapiro has been through the college admissions process three times with her kids and says she has learned not to interfere with the process, other than limiting the field to five schools.

"I offer support and a little nagging, but really they do it themselves," Shapiro said. "They have to feel like it is their decision, because it is."

As Churchill's matriculation rate remains constant, according to school officials, more and more students are looking into state schools for financial reasons.

"More students are adding public state institutions in their lists, for economic reasons,” said Luana P. Zimmermann, Churchill's college and career information coordinator. “We’ve seen an increase, a slight increase, about half of the senior class applies to the University of Maryland.”

Trying to figure out any game to college admissions only adds to the stress, and may be counter-intuitive in the end, Shapiro said.

"I have had [children] turned down by a safety school and then accepted to one with a much better ranking. I gave up trying to make sense a long time ago," she said. "I just tell them what ever schools that do not accept them lose, because they do not see their full potential, like I do. But I am their mom. I am truly biased." 

 

What do you think of student stress and achievement in our schools? Are they worked too hard? Too little? Just enough?