These seniors are going somewhere.
Specifically, Bohdan Cherkai, Tristan Phelps, Dylan Hamilton-West, Kate Huey, and Mariana Thacher are going to Washington and Lee University, Menlo College, the School of Visual Arts, Pitzer College, and Scripps College respectively.
Bohdan was the first student committed to college in the Class of 2024, and admitted to a selective university with a full ride, no less.
Bohdan applied to Washington and Lee University, among other colleges, through a program called Questbridge, which grants its selected students a full-ride scholarship. For this program, Bohdan wrote countless essays.
“It was like a college application… on steroids,” he said.
On December 1, 2023, Bohdan said he might have checked his email 20 times that day, knowing the decision would come through. He finally got the email in the afternoon.
“And then it said ‘Congratulations’ and I was like ‘Yes!’ ” he said.
His application was binding. Whichever school Questbridge placed him in, Bohdan was required to attend. He scrolled down to find out which college he was placed in: Washington and Lee University.
“I was happy… This is the result of my work… My work paid off,” he said.
And being committed? “Best feeling ever,” said Bohdan. At Washington and Lee, Bohdan plans to study computer science, and has a wide selection of opportunities available to him including summer internships, study abroad programs, traveling to DC to work in a think tank, and much more.
On that same day, Tristan got an acceptance and a significant scholarship from one of his top schools, Menlo College, a college specializing in business. A lot of his family went there, and he feels the school is small enough for him to make an impact. He quickly accepted the offer. The application process is a long, torturous process, and being committed to college is a big relief for Tristan.
Two weeks later, on December 13, Dylan heard back from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City. His top school, Parsons, also accepted him, as did the Pratt Institute, but he decided on SVA instead because it was less expensive and had a better film program.
JOIN MARIANA AS SHE LEARNS HER ADMISSION DECISION FROM SCRIPPS COLLEGE.
Dylan says it will be easier to get into the industry quickly at SVA.
“A lot of film schools only have you start filming toward your junior year, and with this one, you start filming as soon as you get there,” he said. “A lot of the professors work at production companies, and it’s easier to get internships that way, and so have a name in the industry really quickly.”
The same day, after a swim lesson, Kate sat in her car with her best friend. Together, they opened her admission decision from Pitzer College. An Early Decision agreement bound Kate to Pitzer for four years if they accepted her. She liked the environmental focus of the school, the smaller community within Pitzer, and the larger community of the other four Claremont schools.
“It felt like the right fit for me,” said Kate.
And? She got in!
“And then it felt real,” Kate said. Regular decision acceptances can be exciting, but an Early Decision tells the applicant two things at once. Where they were accepted, and where they will spend the next four years.
“It felt like wow, I’m actually going to college, it’s real now,” said Kate. She is also excited to be joining the Claremont consortium alongside Mariana.
Mariana was cleaning her room when her watch notified her that she had an email. It was from Scripps College.
Mariana applied Early Decision to Scripps, her top school. Scripps was close enough to home to visit, it had a campus reminiscent of Ojai architecture, it provided a larger community of the five Claremont schools, while its smaller all-girls student body created a safe space to come back to.
If they accepted her, she would be bound to Scripps for four years. But before Mariana opened the email, she already had a good feeling about it.
“I just knew, immediately,” she said. “I got the email and I was like ‘Oh my god. This is it.’ ”
When she finally opened the email, her jaw dropped. She first told her brother, Andrew, who graduated from OVS in 2021.
“He was freaking out, and then my mom freaked out,” she said. “It was really surreal.”
Mariana had two words to describe committing to college. “Thank. God,” she said.
