Credit: Bella Schreiber

WSPN’s Bella Schreiber discusses the financial strain of applying to college.

Your eyes glaze over as you open your fifth “why us?” common app essay of the night. You’re tired of repeating the same process over and over again, and you feel like you’re running a race with no finish line. Almost nothing could make this worse. Almost.

For senior fall, I have been juggling countless tasks, trying to stay afloat in what seems like a whirlpool of work. From trying to excel in my academics to crafting well structured college essays, it seems endless–not to mention the difficulty of maintaining a healthy social life throughout this taxing process. What I didn’t expect to worry about, however, were the expenses of applying to these colleges and how they keep accumulating.

Something I knew I’d face is the inevitable fee of actually submitting your college application. Whether you apply through the Common App or the university’s website, almost every college application you submit costs $50 on average. At the start of my process, I wasn’t too worried about that number. While $50 isn’t cheap, it’s also not a crazy amount, so I pictured myself dropping $100 or so and moving on. What I failed to consider is how fast the fees add up.

Currently, I’m planning on applying to eight colleges. If each college follows the $50 average cost, I will end up spending $400 on applications. Not only do I need to come to terms with the substantial amount of money I am losing, that is only the cost of applications. In theory, I could be rejected from every school I applied to and need to spend additional money for more applications.

Of course, I can’t ignore the additional fees behind sending in my test scores. Whether it’s sending in an American College Testing (ACT), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or Advanced Placement (AP) test score, it will cost money to send it to your schools. Keep in mind, as always, that you don’t pay one fee to send them all out–you pay a fee for each college you send to.

Don’t forget, you also have to pay money just to take each of those tests. Add on the costs of any tutors or extra help you might have needed prior, and the fees continue to pile up.

Only accounting for academic fees, I am now down hundreds of dollars. While there aren’t many more costs that I’m required to pay for, the damage has been done. I, like many other seniors, want to be able to enjoy my last year with my friends. From going on a “senior trip” to going out to dinner on the weekends, I feel pressured to spend money in order to enjoy the social aspects of my final year.

Showing school spirit by going to the football games costs money. Each class event costs money. I’ve been required to pick up more shifts at my job, which has in turn given me less time for the millions of assignments pressing down upon me.

The cost of senior year is not something that is talked about enough. To say the least, the ugly truth of these expenses hit me like a truck. While I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford these luxuries and the enormous cost of college in itself, so many others may be prevented from attending the schools they love.

With the stress and difficulty of college and senior year, can’t this be the one thing that we don’t have to worry about? Getting into the colleges you deserve should not be related to your financial status, but about your achievements up until this point.