(Nov. 22, 2011) — Senior Kevin Escobar has until the end of November to finish his college applications, just like many other seniors planning on going to a four-year college. For a handful of seniors, these deadlines are a time of stress, staying up until later at night, planning weeks ahead of time, and of course, loads of deadlines to meet. Aiming for colleges like UC Merced, CSUN and Pepperdine, Escobar says he has barely enough time to focus on his school work, personal statements and college applications at the same time. “I’ve been staying up until midnight working on all this,” says Escobar. “I have until [November 18] to finish four different apps, and I have two done. I’m really frustrated that it’s putting a lot of stress on my back. I can’t wait till the end of November when it’s all done.” Today, many seniors are planning on going to community college rather than taking the route Escobar is pursuing. Community college is less expensive, and some seniors use community college as an opportunity to skip the college application process completely. For many seniors, the idea of writing down a story of their high school life and achievements and sending it to many different colleges just seems not worth the effort. Senior Khalil Jammal plans to go to community college first, then transfer to a bigger four-year college like UCI or UCLA. “Those colleges have bigger departments in neuroscience, which is what I want to major in,” he says. “Only thing I’m going to apply for is community college, and because when you transfer out from a community college to a UC, it’s much easier to get into it than just straight out of high school. I’m going to community college first because you save money, not because I don’t want to do college apps or anything.” Many colleges participate in the Common Application (usually referred to as the “Common App”), which is designed so that instead of making ten different applications for ten different schools, for example, seniors only need to make one to send to many different colleges online. Senior Elijah Lopez, who plans to apply to Occidental College, believes that lots of people are taking the financially easy way and are getting the exact same rewards than those who paid much more money for a four-year college. “Thing is, lots of people are going for community college, and then you get the same GPA like if you attended a four-year college straight out of high school. I’d really rather go to a [four year college].” “I don’t understand why people have this crazy desire to go to a UC straight out of high school,” says Jammal. “Most people don’t even mention community college, but I think it’s just better for me. I get a lot of criticism for wanting to go to a community college and then transferring. Good luck to all those students applying to all those schools.”