During my freshman year at UC Irvine, the U.S. started COVID-19 shut-downs — confusing my already turbulent transfer process.

UCI decided to move to online school for the spring quarter. I said goodbye to my friends, packed up my dorm room in a day and drove five hours back to San Jose with my dad.

I finished out the 2019-20 school year at UCI, but I transferred to De Anza College the next year. I wanted to save money and felt UCI was not the school for me anymore.

Getting into De Anza was fairly simple. I was accepted right away and signed up for classes without issue.

Transferring from De Anza has been more difficult. It is hard to find the time and energy to apply during a pandemic.

I have taken four to five classes every quarter at De Anza, working on applications in between schoolwork. This experience is not that different from applying pre-COVID-19, but pandemic stress has reduced my willingness to do extra work.

This resulted in me filling in my personal information in record time, forgetting about my application for a few weeks, then working on my essay right down to the deadline.

It felt like I had to choose between good grades and a good application.

Transferring in such unstable times feels weird. Transferring is important to me but sometimes feels like an afterthought with everything else going on.

I wanted to go to Seattle University for so long, and now that I’m actually applying I barely have time to think about it.

Applying to college used to be exciting despite the work. The pandemic has drained the enjoyment and worsened the stress.

The pandemic has distressed me so much that major life decisions have become just another hurdle to jump.

After I turn in my last college application, all I have to do is wait. Thanks to COVID-19, I have already had plenty of practice.