Ranking Parts of the College Application Process (Abby Lee Miller Style)

By Sofia Timpone

Jun. 1, 2026

When I think back on my 18 years of life and rank the memories I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had the privilege of living, the college application process comes in dead last: Every. Single. Time. I wouldn’t wish the college application process on my worst enemy. Yes, it was that bad. Anyways, to celebrate my recent graduation I’ve decided to rank parts of the application process. Here goes…

“On the bottom, Paige [Waiting for Decisions]. You were good [awful], I’m waiting for you to be great.”

Score: -1/10

Don’t be fooled: waiting for decisions is far more agonizing than completing the applications themselves. You’d think that having your applications done and submitted would be relaxing, but it’s not. 

I thought I’d take time to get back into old hobbies and read books on my to-be-read list, but I didn’t. Instead, I spent my days spamming Ivy Hub’s college rejection simulator. (Juniors, thank me later.) “Five reps of Brown University rejections and then I’ll start writing my other supplemental essays” became my motto. It’s safe to say that I ended up doing far more than five reps of rejections every day and wrote zero supplemental essays before decisions came out.

“And next, Kendall [Filling Out the Same Personal Information for EVERY. SINGLE. SCHOOL]. You didn’t stick out to me.”

Score: 2/10

It’s August 1, 2025. The Common Application just opened for the 2025-2026 college application cycle. Excited, I make an account. I’ve been waiting for this. I then spend the next five hours adding schools to my list and writing my address and parents’ names 600 times. 0/10 — do not recommend. Juniors, you’ll know what I’m talking about soon enough. Good luck.

“Next, is Brooke [Writing the Personal Statement]. When are we going to see you stand out?!”

Score: 3/10… until I felt inspired — then, it became a 10/10 experience

My personal statement writing timeline:

June: Sofia comes up with a fun personal statement idea.

June: Sofia decides to not write about said fun idea.

July-September: Sofia writes approximately ten really bad personal statement drafts, each not about her original fun idea.

End of September: Sofia remembers her original idea. 

October: Feeling inspired, Sofia writes her entire personal statement in two hours while sitting in her car at Sapphire Point on Swan Mountain Road. Can you guess what topic she chose? Answer: the topic she came up with in June. 🤦🏻‍♀️

In all seriousness, try to write your Common App essay during the summer. Just know that if you’re not feeling inspired, you won’t be able to write anything decent. Writing my personal statement was very fun once I chose a topic I cared about, but (until then) the process was not fun… at all.

“Next, Nia [Asking for Letters of Recommendation]. You’re third on the pyramid, you were third overall, high score.”

Score: 5/10

95% out of your control, but 100% your fault if they don’t get submitted on time… Asking for letters of recommendation wasn’t hard. Making sure they got submitted on time? Extremely hard.

As a people pleaser, the guilt I felt at having to ask my teachers to submit their letters of recommendation was agonizing. 

“Do you mind submitting my letters of recommendation by the deadline? If you can’t, that’s totally fine. I just won’t apply to college. It's fine. No you’re fine!” 

- Sofia Timpone, an avid people pleaser

“And Mackenzie [Organizing the Activities List]. You did a great [okay] job.”

Score: 6/10

While not my favorite part of the Common application, I have no real complaints about organizing the activities list, besides the fact that the extremely low character limit makes you overthink everything… 

And, on top of the pyramid, going three for three, once again, is Maddie [Writing the Supplemental Essays].

Score: ♾️/10

“What brings you joy?” “What three words best describe you?” I couldn’t have asked for a better set of supplemental essays to write. Truly. I wrote supplemental essays for a handful of schools and had a blast drafting every single one of them. No complaints here.

In the end, the college application process (while extremely grueling) helped me learn new things about myself and (parts of it) weren’t too bad after all. The ranking remains the same, though. I said what I said.