It’s a game that involves more than 20 million players across America. A game that can last for years. A game that can cost thousands of dollars.

“I hate that I’m playing the game,” junior Alisha Lewis said. “But you have to play the game to win the game.”

That unspeakable yet ubiquitous game is college admissions, which in many ways is the most high-stakes activity high schoolers compete in.

Freshman William Suppiger, the brother of a senior who will attend a four-year university as a recruited athlete, observed how unpredictable and fickle colleges can be throughout the recruitment process.

“I guess I can lower my expectations for college and applying, so that definitely helped,” Suppiger said.

In spite of all the work to be done, sophomore Charlotte Altieri said that she has enough resources both at home and at school to support her college preparations — her school guidance counselor helped her find a French class to take over the summer so she could free up room in her schedule for Yearbook, which she was more interested in.

Junior Jeff Asa-Hauser said PHS is well-endowed with resources about college, especially in the form of  teachers and Wellness Center staff to speak to in times of stress. These resources are especially relevant junior year for Asa-Hauser, who feels pressure to perform well in schoolwork and standardized tests.

“There’s almost an expectation that you’re going to go off to an Ivy League or an elite school somewhere,” Asa-Hauser said. “The best times in my day were often just being down on the field with the [lacrosse] team and not having to think about school or college.”

Asa-Hauser said that Advanced Acting’s production of “Plays and Thank You,” accurately equated the drama of college announcements to the momentousness of live breaking news coverage on TV. He himself remembers reading through the college matriculations list in the annual final issue of the Piedmont Highlander.

“It should be more of a happy thing. It should be, ‘Look where this person’s going, that’s a great fit for them,’ or, ‘This person’s going to be so happy at this school,’” Asa-Hauser said. “Instead it’s like, ‘Oh, which kids are going to Cal this year, how many kids got into Stanford?’ and that kind of thing.”

College applications are on people’s minds, which prompts them to take actions advantageous to college applications, but students don’t usually initiate conversations about them, Altieri said. So, whenever college does come up, Altieri may find out about accomplishments she’s never heard of before.

“A lot of kids are doing a lot of stuff outside of school that kind of surprises me when they talk about it,” Altieri said.

Lewis said she prefers not to bring up college with others if she can. Sophomore Will Dalton, however, said that it’s valuable to talk about preparing for applications.

“It’s nice to see what everyone else is thinking about and what they’re doing,” Dalton said.

College conversations are much more valuable when they center less around grades and more around what kinds of places are the best fit, Lewis said.

“I wish that people would talk about the difficulties in the process and the bumps that everyone hits along the road,” Asa-Hauser said.

Stress can have positive results such as increased motivation, Asa-Hauser said. He tried the Rebuilding Together Oakland project with Piedmont Community Service Crew because he needed service hours, but ended up finding the activity enjoyable and rewarding. Without that external expectation, he wouldn’t have discovered something so personally fulfilling.

“I’m grateful for the push in some senses,” Asa-Hauser said.

Another guiding influence in Asa-Hauser’s high school career is his private college counselor. In the past few years, more of these consultants have begun arriving in the Oakland area, said college counselor Barbara Austin of College Quest, LLC in Oakland.

Most of those interviewed started meeting with private college counselors their sophomore or junior year, but the process can begin as early as freshman year, as it did for Asa-Hauser. He met with his consultant for the first time February of his freshman year.

Junior Rohan Saha said he doesn’t have or need a college counselor. The recruitment process for crew has just began for him and his involvement is fairly self-directed, Saha said.

Still, a college counselor can expose every path students can take through the college preparations process and suggest the quickest and easiest ones, Austin said.

“It’s kind of making me feel more confident, just breaking it down into steps and making it not seem like such a [monumental] task to apply for college,” Asa-Hauser said. “I’m able to map out what I want to do and when I should take tests.”

Austin said students can improve their extracurriculars the most when they continue to challenge themselves at what they’re good at and make a tangible difference in what they care about. Examples of this suggestion include taking leadership roles in personally satisfying activities, or even taking care of family when parents are working.

In addition, Austin asks students what they would change about their school if they were principal. Then, she encourages students to attempt to take the initiative to make these changes, as one of her students did when she held a fundraiser to pay for textbooks her school needed.

Altieri’s counselor has helped her choose summer programs and classes that interest her. Dalton also discusses academics with his college counselor, but Dalton said his counselor emphasizes the weight of the class the most, which he doesn’t necessarily agree with.

“If you’re not trying to be a chemist or something, you don’t have to take Honors Chemistry,” Dalton said.

Weight is less important than whether a class is genuinely interesting, Asa-Hauser said.

“Very few people get an A in APUSH, but I’m more interested in learning about the American history that’s covered in that class,” Asa-Hauser said.

College acceptance rates are down, but students our age in our area have always done test prep as long as she can remember, Austin said.

“I’m really happy that I got it done early,” said Lewis, who prepared for the ACT last summer.

Asa-Hauser and Lewis, both juniors, have also visited colleges to better inform their application process. School visits can all begin to seem the same when only considering what is presented on university-sponsored tours, Lewis said, while spending time in the neighborhood is much more telling.

“The vibe of the area is more important,” Lewis said.

This kind of advice is more readily available to younger siblings, such as Altieri, whose two older sisters have both matriculated to four-year universities. Although Altieri said she does feel she’s expected to follow suit, which is a high standard especially since they both got into their schools in early admissions programs, the pressure is tolerable.

“I enjoy a lot of my classes and I do enjoy school, so it is a goal to get to a four-year college,” Altieri said. “I [think of the] family expectation just as an end line of a point I would like to reach.”