How Has Covid 19 Affected The College Application Process?

It’s December now and that means that it’s time for seniors to start submitting their final applications for college. But for this year’s seniors, that process may not be as easy. With Covid and the uncertainty it brings, colleges have had to make some adjustments to the admission process. Most haven’t had any in person visits for future students which has made it especially hard for seniors who are looking to go to a certain school next year. They may know the name but they may not have any idea what that college is like and if it is the right fit for them.

Then there’s the way that Covid has affected classes and standardized tests. Some students may not have any standardized tests scores depending on which state they’re from. Shutdowns meant that schools weren’t allowed to administer in person tests forcing some students to apply to colleges without any scores. Colleges have had to adapt because of this and many colleges have chosen to be test optional this year. This means that the colleges would only be looking at high school transcripts for admission. For some students this may have thrown a wrench in their plans as far choosing certain colleges over the others. I sat down with three elder seniors to see how Covid has affected their college selection or admission process.

I first talked to Jake Vollmer. I asked Jake if the test optional has affected which colleges he applied to, and if because of that he had higher hopes of getting into a college. “No not really. I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to apply even with Covid. I’m pretty happy with my test scores so even for the test optional colleges I still submitted my scores,” said Vollmer. I asked Jake if not being able to visit come colleges has affected his decision when it came time to apply. “That has played a bit of a role because the biggest thing is figuring out if that college fits you, what’s around the campus, the people and the culture there, and when you don’t get that in person it’s really hard to make a decision,” responded vollmer. Next I sat down with senior Jacob Abrams.

I asked Jacob the same two questions. “My test scores weren’t terrible but they weren’t exactly where I wanted them to be, for some of the more prestigious colleges I opted to not include my test scores,” said Abrams. “Yeah, it was tough not being able to actually get a feel of what life is like on campus, for some of the colleges I applied to it’s going to be tough making a decision of where I want to go if i get accepted because I haven’t been to the college in person yet.”

Finally I sat down with senior Nathan Evans.

“Colleges going test optional hasn’t affected my decisions at all, I knew where it was I wanted to go and I feel good enough about my test scores and transcripts that I will be accepted into all of the colleges I applied for. For me it wasn’t to much of a problem when colleges started shutting down, I had a list of where it was I wanted to go and I visited them last year before everything was shut down, so in that sense it hasn’t had much of an affect on my decisions,” responded Evans.

It seems that this pandemic has affected everyone differently when it comes to applying this year, we’ll have to wait and see what the future has in store for this years senior class.