How seniors are dealing with college application season

Published November 30, 2023 at 8:20 AM EST

A student takes a test. (FG Trade/Getty Images)

High school seniors nationwide are pulling together their college applications and sending them in for the early decision window that closes soon.

Saniyah Lovings is a senior at South Mountain High School in Phoenix. She’s applied to Howard University, Yale University, Texas A&M, Baylor University and Santa Clara University. She is interested in political science, psychology and pre-law.

Alex Christopher is taking a cooking class at Milford High School and Applied Technology in Milford, New Hampshire where he’s preparing for a career in the restaurant industry. (Courtesy of Alex Christopher)

In Milford, New Hampshire, Alex Christopher is a senior at Milford High School and Applied Technical Center. He’s planning on a career in the restaurant or hospitality industries and just put in applications at Johnson & Wales University, the Culinary Institute of America in New York and Southern New Hampshire University.

Both Lovings and Christopher feel motivated to attend one of their top schools. They’ve collected their test scores and crafted the perfect admissions essay, all in time for early-action deadlines.

Saniyah Lovings: “I want to go to college just so I can go and find me, get out of Arizona and figure out who Saniyah is and make a life for myself.

“For the career path that I chose, you have to go to college, there’s no way around it. So just to get a jump on my career, and figure out who I am, and be the person I want to become, I need to leave and go further with my education and just live life.”

Alex Christopher: “I feel like a lot of it comes from my gram; she wanted me to pursue it. Getting all set in culinary doesn’t necessarily need a degree in anything to be successful in it. It just makes it a lot easier to get hired at places that have higher requirements instead of just like a local diner. Getting hired at a recognized restaurant makes everything in the industry just that little bit easier.”

Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Welch adapted it for the web.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.