Seniors across the nation hurriedly dashed their fingers from one end of their keyboard to the other, as they attempted to finish their college applications in time for the November 1 deadline.

The days prior to this deadline are arguably the most busy days of the year for high school counselors, as they face a deluge of seniors finishing their college applications at the last minute.

“There’s a lot of stress on the November 1 deadline, because everybody’s trying to meet a deadline and then they’re all coming at the last minute, and I have to write a recommendation to go with all of the Common Application applications, and you want to present a good application, so that recommendation takes a lot of time,” said Fr. Robert Tillman, S.J.

All of the applications coming in at the last minute creates a logjam, but even so, Tillman, Creighton Prep’s Director of College Placement, dedicates hours of his own time towards getting students’ applications completed on time.

“I spend one to two hours for each student. I have about 60 seniors, so that’s around 60 to 120 hours in total,” said Tillman.

The counselors, however, are not the only ones who spend copious amounts of time perusing applications.

“Including the essays, I’ve spent around 10 to 12 hours on my applications,” said senior Matt Coffey, who has already applied to Boston College, Notre Dame and Villanova.

The creation of the Common Application has made life much easier for seniors applying to college, since the website allows students to fill out the criteria that is universal amongst colleges on the Common Application, meaning that instead of rewriting the same information multiple times, students only have to write it once.

“Because of the Common App, I’ve saved two hours per college,” said senior Joe Reyes.

Given the number of applications that are reviewed, many college admissions teams face the most daunting task of all.

“The workload is pretty incredible during application season. We will likely receive eight or nine thousand early action applications by our November 1 deadline and we need to have them all reviewed in a month so we can notify students of our decisions in December. But this is not the only thing the staff is handling – we need to continue to provide information sessions and tours six days a week, answer phone calls and emails from prospective students and families, meet with members of the campus such as faculty and staff, as well as a hundred other things. ‘Busy’ might be an understatement,” said Matthew Boyce, the Director of Enrollment Management at George Mason University in Virginia.

The stress of the application has even had deleterious effects upon a few people.

“I have lost so much sleep because of this! Honestly, I’ve gained weight, I’ve gained five extra pounds, just because of college applications,” said Reyes.

A lot of this stress is rooted in the essay questions that many colleges require.

“Colleges ask some very difficult questions and you’re given a word limit, so you’re trying to find something that’s not trite, but at the same time, you want to keep it short, keep it under the word limit. If you let them all wait up until the last week, they can sneak up on you and stack up on you, because it’s a lot of essays to write if you don’t space them out ahead of time,” said Coffey.

On top of that, students have to focus on their academics throughout their entire high school career so that they can get into the college they dream about.

“Academics are paramount. I tell students and families that three-fourths of the decision comes from grades, rigors of courses, grade trends, GPA then we would consider test scores, though there are many institutions across the country who are allowing students to apply without test scores. Once we gain an understanding that a student meets our expectations from an academic preparation standpoint, we can gain a more well-rounded picture of the student through the rest of the application materials – essays, recommendations, list of extracurricular activities, etc.,” said Boyce.

The application season has proven to be hectic for yet another year, as seniors and counselors all rushed to complete the applications, while admissions officers are now hurrying to get through all of them.