If your teen is a high school senior, chances are right now your house is buzzing with talk of college essays, deadlines, and test scores. But for many students, the biggest stress actually isn’t finishing everything on time or whether their stats measure up — it’s wondering whether the applications will show colleges who they are beyond the numbers. Today’s teens are asking: Will my real value as a person even be visible to admissions officers?

“I started seriously thinking about college in sophomore year, and now with the ACT, it feels like everything about me comes down to numbers and scores,” said Juliet, a rising senior and member of the SheKnows Teen Council.

That fear isn’t unusual. In a recent SheKnows Teen Council survey, nearly half of teens (43.75%) admitted they do certain ac

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