Senior Class Balances Workload with Early Application Process

Senior Nick Diao sits at his desk and drafts and edits college application essays. As midnight rolls by, Diao eventually begins to toil away at his academic assignments due the next day. Although this may seem like an unusually strenuous night of work, it is a regular occurrence for Diao and others who must balance their senior fall workload and early applications simultaneously.“Working on the application on top of everything else made the process incredibly trying and time consuming and brought about quite a deal of sleep-depravity,” Diao said.As the November 1 deadline for Early Decision I approaches, members of the Class of 2015 are scrambling to put the final touches on their applications, which has resulted in sleepless and stress-filled nights for many.“Seniors are attentive to their grades and are completing their applications,” Dean of Students Melissa Mischke said. “They are not dropping the ball because they have their early apps, they are just doing both. In true Exonian fashion, they are working quite hard right now.”Director of College Counseling Betsy Dolan said that CCO often encourages students to apply early because of trends nationwide.“More universities and colleges are using Early plans for enrollment management. That is, they are trying to control the amount of students accepted in order to control the size and design of their entering class. This, is in addition to trying to predict yield rates. Early Decision (ED) is one of the best ways to manage enrollment, because it is a binding agreement,” Dolan said. “Because some colleges are using Early plans as enrollment tools, we do encourage students to consider Early, if it is appropriate.”Dolan also commented on the “non sibi” philosophy of the CCO, which dictates that “the College Counseling Office assumes that a student accepted under an early admission plan (at a college with a national admit rate of less than 10%), either Early Decision or Early Action, has been admitted to their first choice school and therefore has completed the application process and will file no further applications.”

“We created the philosophy because so many students were/are looking at the same schools, and we did not want students, or their parents, trophy hunting,” Dolan said. “Every year, we evaluate the philosophy to determine whether or not it serves our students. Historically, we found that students who applied Early and then applied to other institutions, ended up matriculating to their early school. Additionally, we found that our students are advantaged when we can say, they will enroll to a REA school.”Foreseeing the pressures of senior fall, many seniors began their applications over the summer, which has lightened but not eliminated the added stress.“Just when I think I am almost done with an app, there is always something else around the corner,” senior Montana St. Pierre, who has applied to six colleges, said. “I started the process early by asking all of my teachers for recommendations in the spring and by familiarizing myself with various application and essay prompts. The apps and essay themselves consume more time than I thought.”St. Pierre continued, noting that there were some unexpected difficulties from his application. “Choosing an appropriate topic for the essay is hard enough, but having to escape the Exeter narrative structure is harder,” he said. “Between filling out apps, drafting countless essays and school—homework, clubs and sports, something usually has to go, so it usually means something from school or sleep.”Senior Kiyomasa Kuwana, who finished most of his applications before the start of the school year, has also noticed his free time dwindle down as the deadline draws near.“Working on some of the supplements and the Common Application essay over the summer allowed me to focus more on academics this term so far,” Kuwana said. “College applications take some priority over the weekend, so the weekdays do not get too busy. Because I have only 12 days left before pressing the submit button, I am starting to feel a little more stress regarding the applications.”Senior Stephanie Chen, who has already finished the Common Application essays, also utilizes weekends as a time to catch up on the application process. “I try to do as much as I can on the weekend. As much as I wish I had not been working on college apps, Family Weekend was a great time to

finish up some supplements,” she said.Others try to make headway simply whenever an opportunity presents itself. “It has been pretty hard to balance the workload,” senior Jad Seligman said. “Ideally one should put some time aside each week but I have just been doing as much as I can when I can.”For the few seniors who have wrapped up allportions of the early app, the Regular Decision deadline has already appeared on the horizon.“I am done with all my early applications, but I still have quite a bit of work left for my Regular Decision supplements,” senior Augustus Gilchrist, who is currently attending the term-abroad program in Stratford, England, said. “The fabled ‘senior workload’ has sort of been a non-issue here, though there is nothing more stressful than being deep in the Wi-fi-less English countryside and knowing you have essays to work on.”Regardless of their headway with early applications, most seniors agree that the College Counseling Office has been extremely informative and beneficial during the application process.“CCO has really helped me hone down what I need to do,” Chen said. “In my experience, CCO helps you as much as you want to be helped. My counselor has been great in answering my questions and giving me advice on my essays and schools.”Kuwana has had a similarly positive experience, and his counselor was able to facilitate the college process even before school began. “I talked with my counselor mid-August and he helped me with my Common App essay,” Kuwana said. “The CCO does an excellent job reminding students of upcoming events and scheduling interviews and individual appointments.”For those who have a particularly busy fall term, CCO has been instrumental in overseeing their progress. “CCO is really helpful in keeping me on track especially since I have a heavy workload with getting my Classical Diploma this term,” senior Rachel Baxter said. “I am definitely feeling pressure but not tons of stress—just enough to keep me working.”Although most seniors have at least two scheduled meetings with their counselors in the fall, they have the option of dropping in CCO whenever they please for quick questions or advice, an option students have been more than happy to utilize.“Last week I stopped in the office every day to ask questions, and everybody including my counselor, Mrs Bergill, Mrs. Semprini and Mrs. Kingsley are very receptive and do not seem to be annoyed by me yet,” St. Pierre said.