By Julia Hahn, Columnist

Applying to college may be one of the most stressful times of any person's life. It takes up countless hours of time, requires students to write essays, get letters of recommendations, dig up every last minute of community service, and present all of the awards received in the past four years.

                  But one of the factors that seem to make applying to college the most stressful is not even writing the essay. It's filling out the first few boxes of the application. You know the boxes that say what your ethnicity is, whether you're male or female, or if you have had any family members that have attended that certain college. Although these early steps of the applications seem so insignificant and not nearly as time consuming as others, they are perhaps a few of the most crucial points that colleges look at.

                  Considering that students will spend so much thinking about their college essay, is it really fair that a student's acceptance depends on what color their skin is, what sex they are, and whether or not they have alumni in the family? Most people would agree that it's really not. Getting into college is one of the most crucial times of a young person's life, the last thing that the application process should be is political. The college a person goes to and what they study has such an impact on their future that the application process should be purely based on what goods that person brings to the table.

                  For example, a person's grades, SAT scores, and essay should be valued so much more than whether or not their parents went to the same school they're applying to. In the long run, what benefits does that person truly bring to a school? What if that school is denying a truly brilliant mind because they let an alumni's child in instead?

                  Another factor that should not be as important as the mind a person has is their ethnicity or sex. We all understand that colleges need to reach certain quotas involving racial and sexual equality. It's also understandable that if a college does not have a lot of ethnic diversity it does not look as appealing. But should it really be an unwritten rule for all high school students that a black male will beat out a white female for the same spot based on the simple fact that he is a black male? Once again, this doesn't seem very fair.

                  It is true that people have been complaining for a while that people with superb athletic skills have been favored over people with shining academics, but at least this argument has the presence of qualities that a person can bring to the table.

                  Most people can't help their gender, where their parents went to college, or the color of their skin. A simple solution to this problem could be to just get rid of those early boxes on all applications. The admissions board for a college shouldn't need to know such trivial details.