The college admissions process seems like it will never end. Now this could just be my pessimistic outlook as a high school senior in the middle of the chaos, but there is no stress like college application stress.

I mean there’s essays, and short essay questions, and standardized testing, and teacher recommendations, and interviews, just to name a few things. All of this effort and energy put into trying to get colleges to like us enough to say “yep, we want them”. Teenagers go through weeks of sleepless nights, trying to perfect themselves into the perfect well-rounded student for each college they want. 

Of course when I talk to anyone already past the application trauma, their first rebuttal is the classic “colleges want to see your true self, and if you aren’t accepted then that means you weren’t a good fit for them or it wasn’t meant to be.”

And yes, to some extent I’m sure that’s true. But, at least to me, that makes no difference when looking at the common understanding of college admissions. What difference does it make if colleges claim they want your true self, when all people talk about is how to make their true self seem 10x better? 

At some point, you have to wonder if it’s at all worth it. In other words, should I abandon this material world in search of a cabin in the Swiss Alps? 

Every day I get closer to saying yes to the aforementioned question.