College Bound: Students Receive Early Acceptances

Taylor Cockrum

Senior year is the year of all years. It’s the year that everyone waits for and one thing that makes it so special and memorable is the college application process. Senior year is when most people send out applications for college and start a new page in their life. Here are a few of Mansfield High’s amazing seniors who have already gotten accepted to their colleges.

“I have been accepted to Texas Woman’s University, Sam Houston State University, and Southwestern Oklahoma State University,” said senior Taylor Cockrum. “My top choice is Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. I plan on majoring in music therapy which is a fairly uncommon major so that was the original reason I looked in SHSU. I visited the campus this summer and loved it and the people there. It was a huge relief and weight off my shoulders when I got my acceptance letter. I know I still have a long way to go with scholarship applications and music auditions, but getting acceptance letters makes you feel like the last 12 years of school actually had a purpose and that all your hard work is finally making sense and paying off.”

The application process is extremely nerve wrecking, it takes up all thoughts and students are unable to rest easy until they get an answer. Sometimes the first answer isn’t one of acceptance but that doesn’t mean students stop trying.

“I applied and got accepted in SFA. Getting accepted was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders,” said senior Lataja Burt. “I would check my admission status every day to see if they made a decision yet. I got a rejection letter from another university previously and I was so discouraged, but I kept on applying and to get that acceptance from SFA made me so happy!”

Many students applied to many colleges at a time. Although they may not hear from their preferred choice at first, they didn’t get discouraged.

“I applied to the CIA, the Culinary Institute of America. It’s the college I dream of going to!” said senior Lizzie George. “The campus is beautiful, the teachers are highly qualified master chefs that give each student the highest chance for success, and they give out a lot of financial aid to help lower the overall tuition cost. Although I did get into the CIA, the first acceptance I actually got was from UNT. It felt amazing to know that I got accepted.”

Some seniors, like Nick Thomas, were very nervous to apply but that didn’t stop him.

“I’ve wanted to go to UNT for 3 years now.” says Thomas. “It is such a good music school and when I applied I felt really nervous but once I was accepted I felt really accomplished and relaxed.”

Applying for college is never easy for anyone. It’s stressful but there’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishment once there’s an acceptance response. So congratulations to all seniors who have applied or have been accepted!