College. A word dreaded by all seniors; the one word almost guaranteed to arise in every con- versation. Light workloads notoriously accompany senior year; this assumption lies to each batch of new seniors.

To reach this stereotypical “fun” senior year, students go through the hardest process of their lives: college applications. College applications are bad enough on their own.

Students have to write essays, essentially trying to convince colleges of why they are the perfect candidate, create resumes summarizing all of the marvelous things they have done for their school and community, and other tedious tasks.

The part most people seem to overlook before they start the process themselves is the pressure one simple question causes, “What college are you going to?”

Seemingly harmless, right? Well, when parents, family, and other adults begin asking this simple ques- tion stress builds. Some students find it intimidating to tell adults their plans, worried of their judgment and critique. Others find it plain annoying to keep answering this question repeatedly.

The worst part of college applications, however, comes from students querying their peers as to where they want to go. All seniors go through this same, energy sucking process.

If it leads to personal stress and worry, why do students need to prod into others’ lives and in- crease their anxiety?

At this point in the year, a mere month from finding out about early decision and early action acceptances and two months from the final deadline for regular decision applications, students turn vicious.

Students get overly competitive; they need to compare them- selves to others based on what colleges they apply to. Mention an Ivy League and a snarky eye brow raise and pursed lips comes as the immediate reaction.

With multiple students vying to get accepted into the same college, tension builds. People play dumb, innocently mentioning, “Oh, you applied to that school too…” Internally, they start creating a list to compare themselves to their newly labeled enemy. Who has better test scores? Who took more AP classes? Students think of everything in order to reassure themselves that they will be the college’s choice candidate.

It’s a perverse cycle. When students deflect their peers’ prying questions people find it rude and alarming. Are people not saying because they are applying to the same school?

If everyone goes through the same process and everyone openly talks about it, why can’t that per- son just come out and say where they applied?

It’s personal. No one should feel pressured into telling where they applied. It is uncomfortable and unnecessary for everyone, even people that students might not talk to, to know where that person is applying.

The light at the end of the tunnel comes when people finally start getting accepted into their colleges. Hopefully, at that time the conversation turns from jealous and stress inducing comparisons to relieved congratulations.

Both adults and students them- selves need to stop badgering se- niors on the topic of college. A tremendous amount of pressure and stress plagues seniors apply- ing to college and these intim- idating and personal questions unnecessarily heighten anxiety. Seniors should tackle college ap- plications independently; if they decide to share their top choices fine, if not, patiently wait until they decide to talk about it.