Towards the end of last year, when COVID suddenly hit, Mira Loma’s seniors missed out on loads of activities including senior ball, SAR, etc. Academically, though, they were okay. They had already taken their SATs and completed their college applications.
This year is a completely different story. Students in the class of 2021 are scrambling to finalize their applications, and the added stress of a global pandemic has had varying effects.
Has COVID Impacted Applications and Popular Colleges
In a survey conducted of 26 seniors from Mira Loma High School, an overwhelming 84.7% either agree or strongly agree with the statement “COVID has affected my college application process”. Only 7.7% say they disagree and another 7.7% feel neutral. Despite having to adapt to changing circumstances, seniors still remained ambitious in their coices for college. Respondents were asked to list at least 5 of their top college choices. The graph below shows the colleges/universities seniors in the survey are applying to, if more than one of them listed the same school.
Top-tier UC colleges, such as UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, were among the most popular. Even private Ivy-leagues, such as Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell were among their picks. Others still wanted to apply to private California colleges, like Stanford and the University of Southern California.
Extra Curricular Activities
Students were also asked about how COVID may have impacted two main components of college applications. The first was extracurricular activities. Interestingly, only half of the students surveyed felt that COVID took away extracurricular activities that were crucial to their application.
Sujana Sreenivasan said, “I wouldn’t say Covid-19 has affected the college application process itself, from my end, most of it would be happening this way with or without the pandemic. As for extracurriculars, I had a research internship at a university lab this summer which had to be cancelled because of the pandemic, and I felt that this was a pretty big opportunity I missed out on.”
Aditya Seth, another student who agreed that COVID took away extracurricular activities said, “Roller Skating Nationals and World Championships were cancelled [and] FBLA states and nats [national championships] were cancelled”.
Conversely, 30.7% of students thought that extracurricular activities were not impacted at all by the pandemic.
Tara Gokul, a student with this opinion stated, “I’m also lucky that my extracurriculars don’t require too much contact as I continue most of them online”.
SATs
Second, was the SAT, which stands for “Scholastic Aptitude Test”. Students were asked whether or not they were able to take the SAT, which is usually strongly recommended – although not always required – by most colleges. 50% of students said they had taken the SAT, 34.6% said they hadn’t, and out of the remaining four respondents (who had attempted to but were unable to), two individuals had to reschedule their SAT dates. Below are some of the responses received from students, pertaining specifically to missed SATs.
In fact, the test cancellations ended up being something quite common, though it was a hindrance to most. “I missed the SAT that was scheduled for March 14 which would have been my second time testing, and I think it would’ve given me a chance to score higher than I did previously. I also would’ve liked to have my IB test scores available to include on my applications”. Another student explained that “I was supposed to take the regular SAT with essay, an ACT, and 2 SAT subject tests. I was planning on raising my SAT score [by] at least 100 pts, but every testing center has closed. I also spent a lot of my summer studying for these exams, so it was disheartening to see that testing centers were not open.” Both students were sure to emphasize how the application, by including the SAT, may have enabled them to achieve better.
For some, the burden went beyond simply their applications – it was financial as well. “I took an SAT prep course (cost my family a couple hundred dollars) and my SAT has since been postponed more than 4 times,” explained one senior.
Students mentioned that they couldn’t apply to certain schools because they were unable to take the SAT. Annika Brekke stated,“I am unable to apply to private universities due to my inability to take the SAT safely”.
On the contrary, others stated that they chosen not to take the SAT because it was unnecessary for their application. One student, who did not wish to share his name, said simply, “I’m not taking standardized tests”. This personal choice, though, was not tied to the existence of COVID.
Overall, many seniors expressed frustrations with the impact of COVID on their college application process. Nevertheless, students’ persistence and dedication during this time are highly commendable.
Be First to Comment