With the end of the year quickly approaching, seniors are preparing to move onto the next chapter of their lives. Although this may have not been the ideal year, seniors have not let that stop them from visiting colleges and working hard toward their goals. With that in mind, where does that leave the Class of 2021?
Throughout high school, students work hard to acquire the best grades possible. Typically, colleges focus on a student’s grades and achievements in order to help them decide if the student would be a good match for their school. Of course, this process can become quite lengthy and stressful, as it can determine one’s entire future.
In pursuit of his future, senior Daniel Alvarez chose to attend Elmhurst University in the fall of 2021. Alvarez plans to major in Secondary Education and minor in Psychology to achieve his dreams of becoming an elementary school teacher. Before taking the next step in his life, Alvarez had to endure the lengthy and stressful process of submitting his application. “The application process was like a leap of faith that would determine my entire future. It made me have anxious feelings because the schools that I applied to were the only ones that I wanted, so if I got rejected, I wouldn’t know what to do,” said Alvarez.
As expected, it would be completely normal for a senior to be anxious about their college application. Luckily, out of the 464 seniors at Addison Trail, the average number of college acceptances was 2.8. This number concludes that the average senior at Addison Trail has a pretty good shot at attending one of the colleges that they desire. However, not all seniors have to choose between a few different colleges to determine where they will be spending their next four years.
After applying to only one college, senior Israar Ahmed was accepted into Yale University on Dec. 16, 2020 and immediately accepted their offer. Ahmed plans to attend Yale in the fall of 2021, where he will be majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics. In hopes of one day becoming a civil law attorney and enter a political office, Ahmed said that many aspects factored into his decision. “I chose Yale because I believe it has the best community, environment, education, and opportunities that I can thrive in and learn from to achieve my career goal. I first heard of Yale when I moved to Addison in 2009 because the street that is half a block down from my house is named Yale Avenue and I’ve always kept that connection in mind.”
As Addison Trail prepares to welcome in new freshmen, we are also losing some extraordinary seniors. Many of our seniors plan to do wonderful things in their futures, and getting accepted into college is the first step of a very long journey. It is a relief for the Class of 2021 to know that all of their hard work has finally paid off. Luckily, many seniors have also taken the second step of their next journey: knowing what they plan to do with their college education.
