While college application deadlines arrive, Morton West seniors continue to feel their fear rising.

Seniors are scrambling to produce the perfect college essay, crouching over their laptops filtering through every application. “It took me hours to complete an essay and multiple days of proofreading to get it to be as perfect as I possibly could, not yet including the entire application process” mentioned senior Evelia Villalobos. While every application is frustrating, it is a necessary step in the journey to college. The quality of a student’s college application is the deciding factors as to where the first four years after high school will be spent. Many students put the thought of these applications aside.

However, the time to submit your college applications has arrived. When Morton students were questioned about the status of their college applications, half replied saying they made the deadlines for the schools of their choosing. However, the other half replied saying they failed to complete their applications. Some seniors like Synthia Gaytan stayed on track, “I was ready to just jump in and begin applying to get that out of my way so I wouldn’t have to worry about it afterwards. I would say I was pretty up to date with deadlines and the whole application process.” As a majority of seniors spent their time as Gaytan did, staying on track, trying to portray themselves as the perfect student,  the struggles they are finding themselves in are buried deep inside.

On the other hand, other groups of seniors dealt with challenges. “The prompts were confusing sometimes…questions on the application weren’t always straightforward either or the website wasn’t compliant” said Pamela Diaz. The college journeys of some students weren’t as effortless as others. Despite these hardships, all the work  pays off in the end when the acceptance letters are delivered.

Regardless of these obstacles, these seniors are able to say they survived their very first college journey.