Stressing over future plans has been a problem plaguing our fast-paced world for some time now and many choices along our lifetimes carry various amounts of stress with them. Some people find themselves worried about work the next day or possibly a big test, many others choose to spend their nights with a nervous twitch waiting for an important job interview or something likewise the next morning. Now, what if that big day of work the next day was going to affect the rest of your life? What if how your were perceived and how you relayed all the information that makes you shine was put on the chopping block to decide your future in that company? I imagine a night filled with nervous twitches would be an enormous understatement for many.
This poorly put together analogy between the working world and my high school experience should, hopefully, help to highlight the pressure put on students, specifically seniors, while applying for colleges and scholarships. With the added pressures of the new school year and all the expectations of being a young adult, our overall experience has been one filled with many sleepless nights and days at school filled with busy work going over various websites. Through our short time in school, our teachers have highlighted the specific websites that colleges are using for all applications, but these websites have had more crashes and bugs than could have ever been predicted.
The teachers and counselors that have been attempting to aide us through this maze of questionnaires have been just as stumped as the horde of students have been. The pressure to get these applications filled out correctly and completely and sent off is enough to whittle even the strongest willed student down to their knees in an agonizing attempt to fix a broken website. The fact that these unreliable websites are what will ultimately get us into college is an uncomfortable truth to be swallowed.
Through it all, though, the colleges relying on these faulty websites have been very receptive and understanding of all concerns and have even offered, or actually put into place, later deadlines to allow for late applicants to get their transcripts in on time. With the helping hands of various teachers, counselors, and concerned colleges there is no need for any students to spend anymore late nights cursing their computers as their websites crash once again, because no matter how much time it takes, it all pays off in the end when you’ve got that finished transcript looking plump and fat with every accomplishment from pre-k to senior year.
