Over its year of dominance, COVID-19 put a damper on many things Shorewood once took for granted. However, one process continued free of major roadblocks: college applications.

For many seniors, applying to college is the culmination of four years of hard work and dedication in high school. Since college is the place where they will spend four or more years of their lives, seniors focus on looking for schools that have their prefered characteristics: size, location, available academic programs, etc. However, unique to this year, another important factor to consider was the school’s handling of COVID-19.

“A good indicator for a school is how they dealt with the pandemic,” said Joseph Madell, incoming Freshman at Macalester College. “A lot of colleges, they didn’t communicate well with their students. That’s an indicator of how that college is run, how well their administration deals with stuff like that.”

In normal years, prospective students can take student-led tours of campuses, participate in in-person information sessions, and see what the dorms and dining hall are like. However, these in-person opportunities have largely been cancelled. This made it especially difficult for seniors to get a feel for the campus and envision themselves living there.

“There were some schools that were kind of just like knocked off [my list]… just because I couldn’t visit them, and I feel like a big part of my decision was just the way that it felt to be on campus,” said Clare Wisotzkey, senior and incoming freshman at the University of Washington.

As finding out about colleges in-person was more difficult due to COVID-19, it was also more difficult to differentiate between schools. To remedy this, some seniors applied to many colleges to keep their options open when the time to decide arrived.

“I applied to 10 schools, and I just applied to schools all over the country,” Wisotzkey said. “I wanted to have options and that was mainly what COVID changed.”

While guided in-person tours were cancelled, prospective students could still walk around most campuses by themselves. Most schools provided a self-guided tour using Google Maps, or a list of featured campus locations. At the same time, most colleges offered virtual tours and information sessions for prospective students who were not able to travel to the campus. However, these virtual options were not always the most helpful resources for seniors.

“The thing about all the virtual things is that all the colleges want to show you the best parts of their university,” Wisotzkey said. “That’s why I kind of found it hard to understand how it would feel like to be a student there.”

“There’s just something about seeing a dorm in person and being on the campus in person that makes it so real, and that’s just something you can’t get through a computer screen,” Madell said.

Normally, standardized test scores are a big part of the application process. The ACT, SAT, and AP tests all play a major role in determining which applicants are admitted to a college, especially in selective schools. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these test score requirements have been dropped at most schools. While these changes were made due to the pandemic, many will stay in place until 2022, affecting this year’s juniors as well.

“[Standardized tests] don’t measure anything other than how well you can take the ACT or the SAT,” said Ellie Sweet, junior. “I think it’s good that schools are growing away from that and I feel like the pandemic has pushed them.”

For juniors, exploring what colleges to apply to has also been extremely difficult. While information is always available online, many feel that the pandemic has postponed their start to exploring schools through in-person tours.

“I haven’t been able to tour as many schools. I feel like I would’ve liked to go this spring break to tour some schools, but I wasn’t able to go because I wasn’t fully vaccinated,” Sweet said.

Overall, the college application process during the COVID-19 pandemic has been unlike any application process in the past. After going through it in the midst of the pandemic, many seniors feel like they could have done some things differently. Additionally, some hope that juniors, who will go through the same process next year, can learn from the seniors’ experiences to improve theirs.

“Ask for help,” Wisotzkey said. “Ask people who have already gone through the process, ask your parents, ask your siblings, ask your counselors because people will help you. You’re not alone in the process, the entire senior class is going to be doing the exact same thing as you.”

In addition to using their resources to better find out information about schools and the application process in general, seniors hope that juniors do not stress over their applications.

“It’s out of your control once you press that submit button for your application. Just let it go, what happens happens and you’ll be happy where you end up,” Madell said.