By Gemard Guery – Staff Reporter

Seniors at Jonathan Law have begun the college application process.

This year, COVID-19 has drastically changed the college application process for the Class of 2021.  A majority of schools, including all eight Ivy League schools, have become test-optional and a lot of them have no intention of changing that for future classes.

While this has eased some of the annual stress that seniors have to go through, it has brought on a bunch of new worries as well.

“It’s strange because applying to college this year is so different, and with COVID, I am not sure how many students schools will take in,” senior Stephanie Caron said. “So I would say my worry is that my application is not the best it could’ve been if we had the chance to work on it more in the spring.”  

There is also the worry about acceptance rates. Due to COVID-19, many more students have made the decision to take a gap year which has already brought down acceptance rates tremendously.  

COVID-19 has also made this year’s pool much more competitive. Now that testing is optional, the pool has become much larger. Anyone can now apply and anyone can get in.

“I only worry that the application pool will be larger than previous years,” senior Angel Santiago said.

This is a very stressful time for seniors, but it hasn’t stopped them from aiming high.

“My top choices are Cornell and Dartmouth,” Santiago said. “I am also applying to Syracuse and the University of Miami.”  

Law’s seniors aren’t afraid to go far either.

“I am applying to UCLA, UC Berkeley, U Chicago, and Northeastern,” senior Ethan Harrigan said. “ My top choice is UCLA.”

While the seniors are excited to go to college, they’re still a little nervous.

“I honestly do not know how four years at Law went by so quickly, and I would be lying if I said I was not a little nervous for next year. But no good things happen without a little bit of nerves,” senior Stephanie Caron said.

Nonetheless, they are still excited to continue on their academic journey.

“I’m very excited to go to college but I’m even more excited to see where and what the next four has in set for me,” senior Alexis Broderick said.