“Are you applying early decision anywhere?”

“Early action?”

“What are your stats?”

 “What schools have you been looking at?”

Cherry Hill High School East is notoriously known for its overachieving and over-competitive environment. While the strong passion and interest East students have can drive them to be their best, college application season often becomes very intense due to the added pressure of competing to enter some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

The lengthy process of submitting college applications is a large stress on its own for seniors. But, with the constant verbal combat between students about who has the best application, East students often feel an augmented pressure to find a way to stand out from the rest of their peers.

As a result, many students get involved in extracurriculars for the sole purpose of enhancing their application. They make a colossal effort to get involved and build their way up to being on the board of an extensive list of clubs. While there are students who get involved with clubs that they have genuine interest in, there are many who get involved as a way to simply get closer and closer to curating their idea of a perfect college application. 

College application season brings together all of the efforts high-achieving students have taken in regards to their academics and extracurriculars. Students know their own statistics and extracurriculars, but specifically at East, they often take wonder into other people’s accomplishments too. The competition between students with extremely high grades and similar interests in colleges is often evident. Whether it’s spreading around SAT scores, class rankings, or GPA, students, at times, unnecessarily go to the next level to find out everything they can about other students in attempt to use information they find to their advantage when applying to colleges. 

This feeling of intense competition reoccurs each year, reminding students of the immense pressure that surrounds them at Cherry Hill East. No matter the school people are looking at, there’s the chance that they will be consumed by the badgering of questions during the time of college application season at East.