by Ryne Weiss, Academy Avatar
With Gatton Academy students well-integrated into college life, it can be easy to forget that really, they are still high school students. The seniors know this all too well as they begin the arduous college applications process.
“It can be the most exciting time of your life, or the stress can make you pull your hair out,” says Dr. Pokey Bowen, the Gatton Academy’s assistant director for counseling services. As the staff member who oversees postsecondary admissions, he deals with managing academy students’ questions about the application process, and helping them cope with the seemingly endless amount of stress it brings.
Dr. Bowen is correct: this year’s application process looks to be a terribly exciting one, as the Class of 2010 has the ambition to send several of their ranks into the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)–a school already home to two Academy alumni–is becoming popular place for Academy applications to land. Cody Feldhaus (’10, Boone County) has his eyes on MIT.
“MIT is one of the best, if not the best school for the STEM fields, specifically engineering,” Feldhaus noted. “Choosing it was an easy and natural choice.”
Ballard Metcalfe (’10, Henry County), is also interested: “For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be an engineer, and MIT’s engineering is second to none.”
Sarah Pritchett (’10, Clark County) is also exploring options in the northeastern part of the United States.
“In Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences they have a number of different environmental majors,” Pritchett said. “They have so many that you can declare your major ‘Environmental Undecided’. I also like that they offer 60 languages. These things and many others have made Cornell my first choice.”
Anna Walter (’10, Boone County), like many students, is taking advantage of campus visits to help determine which school is the right fit. “University of Delaware has a top ranked chemical engineering department,” Walter said. “I visited and the vibe just felt right.”
Not all students are certain of her plans, though. Jordan Jones (’10, Kenton County) is still in the process of narrowing her options.
“I’m looking at Brown for their program in liberal medical education and Washington University in St. Louis,” Jones explained. “I’m not sure of what I want to do, much less where I want to go, so it’s going to take a lot more thought.”
Thomas Delomas (’10, Fayette County) also has yet to make a decision. “I’m applying to a number of schools that interest me, such as Dartmouth, Cornell, Purdue and University of Indiana,” Delomas added. “I’m going to wait to see what the offer me before I make any decisions.”
While most application deadlines aren’t until the New Year, a few students are eager enough to be applying early. Zac Forshee (’10, Simpson County) and Rohith Palli (’10, Fayette County) are applying through Yale University’s early action program, where they will find out if they have been accepted in mid-December.
What makes them so certain of their choice? “Yale is generally regarded as one of the top institutions for undergraduate education and to apply early allows me to be considered for admission twice, which seems like a win-win situation to me,” says Forshee.
For Palli, the students he met on campus were equally impressive. “I visited the campus and fell in love with it. The students I spoke with thoroughly impressed me with their wide range of knowledge and general amiability to a stranger that had just started to talk to them.”
In the past, the academy has sent students to such prestigious schools as MIT, Virginia Tech, Smith College, New York University, Vanderbilt and William and Mary College, as well as having students accepted to Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Washington University in St. Louis.