Brandon Marinkovich ‘22, Sports Editor
Before decisions for the University of Michigan were released in late January, conversations sparked about the stress that can come alongside making a college decision. Seniors wait for seemingly never ending months and months, hoping to see an acceptance letter on their screen, with family members surrounding the laptop.
Many seniors who want to attend extremely selective colleges are rejected, accepted, or waitlisted based off minute details. Those who wish to attend prestigious schools are involved in various extracurriculars, like National Honor Society or Key Club. Students attend these clubs on top of striving for all A’s. Senior Ava Crumley commented how she was forced to sacrifice time with friends and family in order to succeed in her classes as well as in her extracurricular activities. Crumley said, “[Extracurriculars] didn’t affect my grades too much, but it affected my social life. I would see my teammates more than my own family and other friends.” Crumley is representative of SLHS’s top achievers, where some sacrifice had to be made in order to have a stronger application for colleges.
Senior Tom Cavanaugh, who submitted applications to various prestigious colleges, also spoke on how the application process itself is a very challenging time. Cavanaugh said, “I applied to 16 schools, so the college application process was more arduous than I originally expected. It took me weeks of losing sleep and working on applications for me to feel confident in my supplemental essays.” His experience shows how seniors who want to attend a top university are subjected to a physically and emotionally draining process.
The University of Michigan, which is many students’ first choice when it comes to colleges, has an alarmingly low acceptance rate of 25 percent. nearly 80,000 first-year students applied to Michigan in 2021. Only roughly 16,000 students were accepted into the school, with the acceptance rate being near 20 percent. To stand out amongst the 80,000, seniors at SLHS have had to do everything they can to build a strong and unique application.
The college application and decision process has proven to be a very hard and stressful time for seniors in high school. It takes an impressive resume to be accepted by one of these schools and it requires a lot of mental toughness and perseverance. Seniors who did get accepted to their top school in January should be proud of the hard work and dedication that required a large amount of sacrifice.
Lyon Life 