The pressures of getting into college hangs over the heads of nearly every high school student. However, this stress seems to be heightened at Uni, where many students feel like they need to get into an “elite” college and cannot achieve their dreams without an Ivy League education. A survey on college opinions was sent out to the student body and 109 responses were received, showing a relatively accurate snapshot of the college climate at Uni.

Based on general trends from this survey, male students are more confident about their future and don’t feel like they need to pad their resume to get into their schools of choice.

Broken down by class, subbie year is when Uni students are the most confident about their future. Security decreases steadily to a low in junior year, where only 38% of respondents had an idea of what college they wanted to attend, compared to the 47% of subfreshman respondents.

Senior Grace Sumitro noticed the change in her thoughts on college throughout her years at Uni. “I used to think of it as a really competitive thing…but with my class especially I think we’re really good at accepting each other… like, hey, we’re here for you and we’re all going through this together.”

However, some students still see the college process as high-stress and very competitive. “I think that sometimes the students can make it a good college climate but sometimes they also contribute to the problem,” said junior Erin Minor.

Many Uni students feel a lot of pressure from their parents to get into or attend a prestigious, big-name university. “They expect me to get into a good school because I got into Uni…The whole notion of, if you’re able to drive yourself this hard in this school then you should be able to bring yourself to a good college,” said Sumitro.

Though students feel a lot of pressure both from themselves and from their parents, there also seemed to be a general consensus that the SSO significantly improves the Uni college climate. “The SSO is super helpful with college…I think they make the college climate at Uni a lot more pleasant,” said junior Henry Kraatz.