This article was written by teen reporters from The Mash, a weekly publication distributed to Chicagoland high schools.
By Valerie Asimacopoulos, Maine South and Joe Hendrix, Daniel Hale Williams
Just mentioning college can evoke a wide range of emotions—excitement, fear, anxiety and giddiness. Regardless of how you feel about it, you’ve probably thought about the cost of attending your top-choice university. But current data shows that many students are asking another important question about college costs: Can I even afford to apply to all of my favorite schools?
While many seniors focus on the cost of college itself, some were blindsided last fall by the rising cost of applications.
Maine South senior Jake Ritthamel had trouble choosing just a handful of universities to apply to a few months ago.
“The fact that applications are so expensive discouraged me from applying to a majority of the schools I wanted to attend,” he said, adding that funds from his after-school job went toward applications. “Each school is looking for something different, and you never really know what that is until you apply.”
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With no sign of an application clearance sale anytime soon, there could be a more logical way to look at the process. Levin, from The College Board, recommends students apply to at least four colleges: one safety, two “good fits” and one “reach.” She said this formula seems to offer most students good results.
“Applying to a range of colleges provides students with options when the time comes to enroll—options for finding a college that is a good fit academically, financially and socially,” she explained.
Those Ivy League schools may be harder and harder to get into—but they’re also becoming more and more expensive to even consider. And although fee waivers are available to some, family income can restrict others’ access to much-needed aid. When all is said and done, a shot at higher education can make some students forget about the hundreds they dropped on college applications.
“I think the cost of college apps was beneficial in that despite how expensive they are, I was still fortunate enough to be able to apply where I wanted to go,” Martinez said. “Only time will tell whether or not one of those schools becomes the place I spend my next four years of education.”
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