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Class of 2012: Where Are the Y2s Going?

Saturday, June 09, 2012 By Hayley Barnett ‘12

Another year is coming to a close at BHSEC, and another senior class is leaving. But where are they going? Apparently, the difference between the Class of 2012 and the previous classes is that we’re going abroad. According to Ms. Cheikes, the CTO Director and college guru, six students are headed abroad (all to Europe), an unprecedented number. “The most we’ve ever had go abroad is four students” she says, “and usually if someone’s going abroad they have family there.” What else makes the class of 2012 different from the other classes? “This year we’ve had the biggest amount of applications to SUNY Binghamton, over 50” Ms. Cheikes tells me. Another SUNY, SUNY Stony Brook, got over 30 applications; however no senior plans to attend next year. Syracuse University also received 30 applications, and St. Johns received 20. Indeed, there are groups of 2-4 students going to certain schools, including Grinnell College, NYU Poly, Alfred University, and Hunter College. Regardless of similarities between students in application and acceptance, there is still a wide variety of schools the Class of 2012 is attending, 58 colleges and universities to be exact! Some of those schools include Yale, Johns Hopkins University, Wellesley, Cooper Union, Bard, Swarthmore, Union, Princeton, NYU and UCLA. So how was the college process for this year’s graduating class? According to Ms. Cheikes, certain schools were harder on their applicants this year, adding different plans and becoming more selective in their Early Decision plans and even Regular Decision plans. Naa Addico, the very first BHSEC Questbridge Scholarship winner (she’ll be attending Vassar College in the fall), says it was very hectic and very fast, as she applied early and most of her applications were due late October. Conversely, Jonathan Donovan stated that the process was relatively stress-free until the day all of the applications were due. Chris Rivera agrees, saying that he wished he would have paced himself with all of his supplements and his college essay. Nya Thompson went into the process very nervous from everything she had heard from previous Y2s, but realized it really wasn’t that strenuous a process. She does, however, have a piece of advice for future Y2s that her peers seemed to echo; “Start early”, she says, “And ask questions. There are a lot of opportunities you could miss by not speaking up.” As each Y2 class forges their way to colleges, new connections are made and schools that have never heard of BHSEC begin to take an interest. Schools like the University of Chicago, which has always had a special fondness for us, are joined in their respect for our students by new schools. BHSEC graduates continue to stand out once they reach university level. Take a pit stop in the CTO to see all of the amazing schools BHSEC’s 10th graduating class, the Class of 2012, got into!