The college application process is a very important part of many student’s lives. Throughout middle school and high school, we are told to get involved, get good grades, and be the perfect student. But is that realistic? How is a teenager supposed to go to school for seven hours a day, go home, do all of their homework, and also keep up with any job, sport, or club they are in? Colleges expect at least a few clubs on someone’s application. As a highschool student myself who is in multiple AP classes, and has two jobs, I find it hard to keep up with school and still have time for myself. A lot of the time, I find myself rushing throughout the day, as there is not enough time in the day for me to go to school, go to work, and still be a teenager.

Now, just because I think this way, doesn’t mean it is a reality for most high school students. Some thrive when participating in extracurricular activities, and they enjoy filling their free time with extracurriculars. Some people have been participating in these activities since they were young.  As my friends and I have navigated high school, we have talked about this topic, and how realistic it is. All of my friends participate in different extracurricular activities. Some play sports, others are involved with school clubs, and some even play instruments. We have all agreed on one thing about school and getting involved, it is hard to keep up with.

I have always wondered too, how much do colleges really look at how involved you are? Does it really matter what club you participated in throughout high school if you have great grades? Or what if you don’t have good grades but are heavily involved, what will colleges think about that? While filling out the common application, I was a little surprised that there is such little information and space to fill out when talking about extracurricular activities. Since it is talked about so much by teachers, parents, and administrators at the school that it is so important to get involved, it was a bit shocking that there was a word count limit when you filled out your activities. It also surprised me that the only other question was to describe what you would do when participating in that said activity.

There isn’t anywhere to show how much work we have put into these activities, and how much of our personal lives we are sacrificing to partake in these activities. Some students solely just to put on their college applications. In the end, we as a society should figure out a new solution to help make it easier for them to participate in whatever activities they want to without having to worry about it affecting their schedule too much.