With the end of the school year approaching, many seniors are hearing back from the colleges of their choice and beginning to commit. Although many college decisions are still coming out, the seniors’ excitement and anticipation is building up as their futures await them.
“Where are you going to college?” is one of the big questions that plagues just about every senior and is about to be asked on repeat as seniors begin deciding on their college of choice. The main factors into deciding where MRHS seniors go is based upon three things: majors available, location, and tuition cost. Although there may be many more factors, these are the most important for students when deciding where to go.
“It’s really about finding a community that you can see yourself in, so that comes down to location, that was proximity to a city for me, the cost and weather, looking at clubs and organizations and programs the school has that you may be interested to join, and it’s also really important to makes sure they have the major they want,” voiced Samantha Silver.
Additionally Ryan Pethick added how, “The strength of the programs that [the college] has is important, as well as the opportunities you get from being there.”
Another huge aspect of choosing a college is whether or not students are in sports and hope to become collegiate athletes or if they want a big sports culture at the school. Knowing whether or not students decide on playing a sport in college can move the commitment process up a year or two, pushing student athletes to begin looking at colleges starting as early as sophomore year.
“I committed to the University of South Dakota to play soccer in April 2023, during junior year. After meeting the coaches, my teammates and other students, it felt like a good fit for me and it also supports my career goals of doing something in environmental engineering,” stated Anna Hendrickson.
Once students figure out where they want to go, the big decision is how they want to apply, the options being Early Decision (ED), Early Action (EA) or Regular Decision.
“I applied in a combination of EA and Regular Decision, because I didn’t want to apply ED and have to be committed to a school. I didn’t really have a specific college in mind that I knew I wanted to go to, so I wanted to keep my options open…and after I get all the decisions back it will be easier for me to to decide where I want to go,” Suhas Chokkaku
As ED is a binding agreement, if the student applies and gets accepted they must go, sometimes despite financial difficulties. Although a more positive side to applying ED is that it tells the college that the student really wants to go, sometimes increasing the chance of getting in as opposed to applying Regular Decision.
“I was hesitant to Early Decision and ultimately didn’t decide on it until closer to the deadline, but it’s always been a dream of mine to go to UPenn and I didn’t want to waste a chance by not submitting Early Decision,” expressed Archana Ponnada.
A great option that many students are beginning to consider is transferring. If students don’t get into the colleges of their choice in their first round, they can transfer after the first semester or year of college, allowing students to go to the colleges of their choice, and oftentimes enabling them a higher chance of acceptance.
“It’s a good option to transfer because it gives me another chance to get into UMD, because I really liked the environment, so I think I will try to transfer there after my first semester,” explained Jasmin Kirkland.
Still, some colleges have yet to release all of their decisions and seniors across the country are awaiting their final decisions.
“I went into the process not having a specific school I wanted to go to, so I’m still figuring out my values for college and figuring out where I’ll be best going,” revealed Silver.
Since the beginning of the school year seniors have been working through their college application process and now that the process is beginning to come to an end, seniors are deciding where they want to spend their next four years, stepping into the first chapter of their adult lives.