Ten seniors have been admitted early action, early decision (ED) and rolling admission to colleges around the country, including three from the Ivy League.
Students that are accepted early decision must attend the college they applied to. (Early action plans are non-binding, meaning that students that are accepted to a college do not have to commit to that college until the reply date, May 1.)
Aishwarya Nadgauda was admitted ED to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Penn became Nadgauda’s first choice when she attended a summer program there.
Nadgauda already knew that she wanted to study engineering, but the summer program had both business and engineering, which appealed to her, she said.
Nadgauda also discovered that the university had an undergraduate dual-degree program, so she could earn degrees in both business and engineering.
Emma Williams was admitted ED to Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York.
Williams first became interested in Cornell because her father is an alumnus.
When Williams would visit her family in New York, her father would give her a tour of the campus, “adding things he remembered from his time there and funny stories about him and his roommates,” Williams said.
However, Williams didn’t really start to love Cornell until she started to look at colleges more seriously.
“I fell in love with Cornell on my own rather than through my dad,” she said.
When Williams opened her email on Thursday, Dec. 11, she didn’t believe the result for a couple of minutes, she said.
“I kept reading ‘Congratulations,’ but it didn’t sink in until the third or fourth time,” Williams said.
“I started screaming, laughing and crying all at the same time. It was insane. I couldn’t catch my breath for at least five minutes,” Williams said.
Alex Bushberg was admitted ED to the University of Puget Sound, with a $12,000 merit scholarship.
Bushberg chose Puget Sound because of its strong computer-science program.
He also liked the campus, especially because it is close to Seattle and only an hour away from the beach and the mountains. And he has a cousin who lives in Seattle.
Melissa Vazquez was admitted ED to Washington University in St. Louis.
Washington was Vazquez’s first choice because it has a good philosophy, neuroscience and psychology major.
The school also has great food and dorms, and it is the right distance from Vazquez’s home, she said.
Vazquez visited and spent the night at the university, and “got a great vibe from the campus.”
She was also able to sit in on an English 1 class, which had only 10 students. This attracted Vazquez to the university because English 1 was the only class that the university requires every student to take.
Vazquez said that she was really excited when she was accepted.
“I just kept smiling, but I kinda knew that I had gotten in before I opened the letter because (the letter) was a small package, and it had a sticker on it that said ‘#washu19’,” Vazquez said.
“I figured that it would have been pretty mean if they had put a sticker on the letter for someone they had rejected.”
Claire Pinson was admitted early to Harvard University.
Ryan Hoddick will be attending High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, which was his first-choice college.
He is the first student from Country Day to apply to High Point.
Keegan Crain has been admitted to Iowa State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Nevada, Reno, Boise State, Arizona State University and the University of Akron.
Crain’s top choice was Purdue University because it has a great engineering program and because he has extended family near the school and a long legacy of Purdue alumni.
However, because he was not accepted to Purdue, Iowa State in Ames became his new top choice. However, he will not decide which college he will attend until he hears from Michigan State University, he said.
Lauren Larrabee has been admitted to Whittier College and St. Mary’s College of California.
She also applied ED to Occidental College, but will not receive her results until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
Caroline Mehta applied ED to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., but hasn’t yet received her results.
Skovran Cunningham was admitted to Loyola Marymount University, University of Denver, Santa Clara University and Fordham University.
Cunningham was deferred from Tulane University, which was his top choice. He will not decide on a college until he hears from Tulane during the regular admission season, he said.
