Fall semester for high school seniors is all about college. Whether it is choosing colleges, touring colleges or actually applying to colleges, we consume ourselves with this process. We spend days writing and rewriting essays because we know this is our one chance to prove ourselves. We are no longer just high school students, but college applicants; where did the time go?

I often wonder if this is all worth it. I spend my afternoons and weekends working on homework and college applications, and often the latter comes first. When did this process become so consuming and stressful that the future is more important than the present? How do we escape this cycle?

But when I truly think about it, I remember that I’ve spent the last three years preparing for this. I chose my classes freshman year so that I was challenging myself. Although I am often told that freshman grades don't matter, I wanted to be able to take more difficult classes in the future. This cycle continued; each year I added classes and extracurriculars to my schedule, hoping that they would keep me on the right track for college. Before I knew it, I was picking between the SAT and the ACT. Which test would portray me as a better student?

So now, a year later, I feel attached to this application process. I have spent too many hours to not make every application its best. I have continuously pushed myself in classes and on standardized tests, so this is my last sprint in a long, hard race. I struggle to stay sane as I try to manage the abundance of essays, my only shot at showing my personality to colleges.

But the real flaw in this college application process is evident in everything I’ve said so far. We are too competitive. If every student feels the need to take the highest-level classes and hire a tutor for their standardized test, then every student is increasing their chances to get into top colleges. But, if the scores of the average applicant increase, the colleges raise their standards. They are only seeing the perfect students we present ourselves as, so they can’t know that this process is slowly killing us all. Our parents spend thousands of dollars to make us stand out; but when everybody stands out, does anybody really?

So, where is the solution to this systematic flaw in college applications? Right now, I don’t see one, but I know that everyone will get into college somewhere they will love and all this work and stress will be worth it. We will survive, so for right now we just have to stay sane. So to any of my fellow seniors, this may just be the most stressful year of your life, but in just over six months, we will be into a college and six months later, we will be starting a whole new chapter of our lives.