Covid Complicates College Process for Seniors

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Students at last year’s College day. This year, the day was done virtually.

Applying for college is stressful enough, but coronavirus has made the process even harder for some. 

From March to August, SATs were cancelled in a lot of places. Additionally, students could not tour campuses as freely as they usually do.

Trying to find an available date to visit campus is almost impossible because they can only have a certain amount of people on campus at one time,” said Kaitlyn Smith, 12, who is applying to Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University, and the University of North Carolina School of Arts.

From a guidance counselor’s perspective, Covid has made it harder to make sure students are applying to appropriate schools, filling out applications on time and thoroughly.

“It’s hard to engage them in the college application process,” Senior Guidance Counselor Mr. Robert Urbaniak said, “because they’re not all in the building so it’s not as easily accessible to you know, get

them and to engage them.”

Every year, Socastee High has a “college day”, which gives juniors and seniors the opportunity to learn about the colleges they want to apply to. Normally, college representatives come and set up “booths” at a mini-college fair in the library. 

This year, though, College Day was completely virtual due to coronavirus and students did not get as much one-on-one time with the college reps.

I thought college day this year was quiet, stressful and overwhelming,” said Senior Malak Osborn, who is planning to apply to CCU, Clemson, and the College Of Charleston. “In the past you had more options to actually have the college reps there to ask questions about different kinds of colleges.”

Coronavirus has caused some students to put off applying for another year.

COVID has completely changed what I wanted to do for college,” Senior Andrew Bartlett said. He decided to wait a year to apply to Coastal Carolina University for college. In the meantime, he will continue working at Walmart to earn as much as he can for college.

“I would much rather attend college in person than online,” he said. “It would be a lot easier to focus on.”