Thanks to mom, she applied to 19 colleges and lived

Mykayla Milchling, Staff Writer

Apply to college, they said. It won’t be that bad, they said. You’ll be fine, they said.

I am here to attest that applying to college is that bad and that, no, I am not fine.
It began at the beginning of this year when the guidance counselors stopped by senior English classes and explained how we should get the college application process started. After giving us the rundown of basic information, they opened up the floor for questions. How many schools should we apply to? About nine. Should we visit the schools that we’re applying to? Yes. When should we ask for teacher recommendations? Last year.

And in that moment, I knew I was destined for a massive burden of stress in the coming months.

I had no idea what colleges I wanted to apply to, how many I was going to apply to, and what teacher I was going to beg for a recommendation. Good thing I have a helicopter mom who took care of all of that for me.

After a conversation with my lovely mother, I was given a list of four teachers that I would ask for a recommendation, two questions that I would write Common App essays for and 25 schools that I would be applying to. Yes, 25. Her philosophy is that if I cast a wide net, I was bound to catch something.

Thankfully, after realizing how much it would cost to apply and send my SAT scores, I convinced her to cut it down to a “mere” 15 colleges. From there I began my journey.

It took me forever to figure out what I was going to do about my common app essay. Would I write two and see which one was better? Or would I write one and roll with it, in hopes that it would be good enough.

The process of deciding which option was better ended up being more cumbersome than the writing itself. After about a month of procrastinating, I ended up going with the latter to save myself some time and energy.

During my procrastination period, a few things happened. One, I was contacted by a few volleyball coaches who urged me to apply. Two, another college had captured my attention. So, my list went from 15 to 17.

Surprisingly, applying was the easiest part. A little tedious, but very easy. Honestly, writing your address 17 times gets pretty old.

But wait! There’s more! My amazing mother got a little too excited about a few new additions to our two-foot stack of college letters and brochures. So, once again, my list expanded. The final list includes 19 colleges, 15 of which I have applied to, and 7 of which I have been accepted into. My heart goes out to all of the seniors who have powered through this process just as I have.

The chances of me asking my mother to let me skip the last four applications are astronomically high. I am still working on them and honestly, the only reason they aren’t finished is because I was born into the procrastination generation. So we’ll see how that goes.

I’m not here just to complain about the college application process though. So help me, all of our blood, sweat, and tears will not be in vain.