Will This NEVER End?

It feels like my 17-year-old son has been applying for college for about 23 years.

When did this process become so hard?  And how?  And why?  This kid hopes to go to college in the autumn.  Will all the paperwork be finished by then?

I was talking to some women recently about how arduous the process seems to be and asked them if they remember it being so difficult when they were high school seniors.

Granted, we all graduated from college in the last century, but we're middle-aged not from the middle ages.  We remember that we applied, were accepted or not, let the university know we were coming, and off we went.

My son has applied to four schools and has been accepted by one, so far.  He will hear from the others in April.  By the last count, we figure that he has written at least 12 application essays.  He filled out something called the Common Application last fall which is intended to be a time-saving form for students applying to more than one college.  It must be fairly new, since he has three older siblings and we've never encountered it before.

And while, in theory, this application is supposed to save a student time and standardize the application process, it's ended up being essay-hell.

The Common Ap required two essays, okay, fine, makes sense.  But then each school required at least two additional essays, another required an honors program application essay, and then there was the music program application essay and he still has three more colleges to hear from.

Will it ever end?

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