Going to college is something that many seniors look forward to. However, very few are prepared for all that is required before receiving that letter of acceptance.
Let’s start at the beginning. Get teacher recommendations. Get a Naviance account. Figure out Naviance to assign the right teachers to the right schools. Get a Common Application account. Link your Naviance account to your Common Application account. Fill out the counselor brag sheet. Turn in transcript request forms. Pay five dollars for each transcript. Write 17 different essays. Apply for financial aid through the FAFSA. Pay money to send your college profile to get financial aid. Pay ridiculously high application fees for every school. Somehow get into the school you want to go to. Sounds fun, right?
As a senior this year, I had the pleasure of spending my first semester figuring out this tedious process. When I started, I thought applying to college would be straightforward. After all, I have two parents who speak English and have advanced degrees, as well as two older sisters who have gone through the same process.
However, I struggled. I didn’t even realize the counselor brag sheet existed and needed to be filled out until a few days before it was due. I panicked when I realized that different schools had different requirements for letters of recommendations, so I had to make sure my teachers submitted their recommendations in the right order, or the wrong recommendation would be sent to the wrong school. My mom, who was able to complete medical school successfully, ended up yelling at the computer because she could not figure out the FASFA.
I found the process near impossible, even with all of the resources I had available to me. Students with parents who have not gone to college might never know about filling out the FAFSA, which is an essential step for most families to finance college. We are given such little guidance that it is easy for one of these essential steps to fall through the cracks and have all hopes of college dashed.
Additionally, I cannot imagine having to figure out all of these accounts and forms if my parents did not speak English. If the FAFSA was confusing for my mom, who speaks English fluently and has done it before with my older sisters, how difficult must it be for a non-native speaker to figure out the process?
College is expensive, not only to attend, but also to apply. It took me a half-hour to calculate how much I spent because there are so many random fees from sending test scores to getting transcripts, but it came to a grand total of $900. Although fees can be waived, it takes another complicated process to be able to qualify. The money poses yet another barrier in the college-application process on top of the countless other obstacles already in the way.
Since we were little, we have been told over and over that college is the key to success. But if you are a first-generation college applicant or your parents do not speak English fluently, who is telling you how to get there?
