The college process for seniors this year has been more challenging than ever before, but how has this affected their college applications?  In a survey, the majority of students polled, have still applied.  

Seniors who graduated in the year of 2020-2021 got a taste of what might become the new norm with college applications. According to, “Five college admissions trends for 2021”, by Dr. Aviva Legatt, “The COVID 19 pandemic caused many students to consider a non-traditional start to college. The number of students who chose to take a gap year rose significantly in the fall of 2020.” Having students take a year break before college puts many of those students at risk of not going back to school at all. As more students take a break, schools are now offering students a chance that is new to this year:  test-optional applications. 72% of colleges and universities adopted test-optional policies this year, many plan on extending this policy for the next 1-2 years.

Although not everything is as great as it seems. According to “ivywise.com,” they stated, “2020 college admissions rates dropped as low as 4.9%,” this helps further explain students choosing to take a year break instead of going straight into   In a survey of 50 seniors, 42 say they have applied to college.

      “I feel nervous because I need to choose something that I enjoy doing, and I’m afraid I will just be wasting money just to go to school and end up not being able to find something I enjoy doing,” Morton East Andre Ramos said.

    “It’s boring and also it doesn’t feel good as I usually don’t have any idea what I’m doing or where to go to put college applications so it makes it feel more like homework than “life-changing” papers,”  Senior Christopher Estrada.

       “I feel like my college process has been a roller coaster ride, and trying to find the colleges that work for you. But once you actually get one over with, it makes it easier to get the rest over with,” Monica Castro said.