The Montclair High School guidance department has shared where the graduating class of 2013 will be in the fall and it’s impressive! Nine students will attend an Ivy League college, 10 students will attend the Seven Sister colleges, 21 students will attend Historically Black Colleges, and others are attending Juilliard, Pratt, the military and more.
“It has again been an exceptional year for our students,” said Scott White, Director of Guidance. “Approximately 80% of our students continue to attend 4-year colleges and 10% 2-year colleges.” White provided the following admissions report:
Nine students are attending Ivy League colleges, including Brown (2), Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard (2), University of Pennsylvania and Yale (2). Eighteen students are attending the Little Ivies, up from 13 last year, including Bates (2), Colby, Connecticut College (2), Hamilton, Haverford, Middlebury, Trinity (2), Tufts (3), Wesleyan (3) and Williams. Twenty-two students are attending the Public Ivies, including such universities at U. California at Berkeley (2), U. Michigan (2), U. Texas (2), U. Virginia and the College of William and Mary. There has also been an increase to 10 in the students attending the Seven Sister colleges, including Barnard (3), Mount Holyoke (2), Smith (4) and Vassar (1). In all, almost 15% of the class is attending Barron’s Most Competitive colleges, including such notable schools as Boston College, Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, U. Chicago, Emory, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, MIT, NYU (4), Northwestern, Oberlin, the U.S. Military Academy, and Vanderbilt (3).
There has also been an almost 30% increase in the number of students attending Historically Black Colleges (21) including Cheney (2), Delaware State (4), Hampton (2), Howard (3), Morehouse (4), Shaw, Spelman (3), Tuskegee and Virginia State. There has also been increased interest in the Colleges That Change Lives, with students attending Clark, Denison (3), Goucher, Hampshire, Hendrix, Juniata, Whitman and Wooster. Perhaps the greatest increase has been the number and range of students attending in-state colleges and universities. Over 100 students, up from 75, are attending in-state colleges. These were spread among 10 colleges last year and that number of colleges increased to 23 this year, with the most popular continuing to be Essex County College (31), Montclair State (12) and Rutgers (10).
There are a number of students pursuing professional degrees. Two students are attending the highly prestigious Juilliard School, with others attending the music conservatories such as Hartt and Berklee. Students are pursuing art programs including NYU Tisch and art and design colleges Savannah, Maryland, Parson’s and Pratt. Five students are attending colleges in Canada, Concordia and McGill (4). Four students will be going into the military and others will be attending technical schools such as Lincoln Tech and Hohokus/RETS. The most popular out-of-state colleges are a mix of small colleges and large universities, including Colorado College (4), Ithaca (5), Maryland (4), Michigan (4), Muhlenberg (4), Pittsburgh (4), Penn State (6), McGill (4), Miami FL (4), Michigan (4), Skidmore (4), Smith (4), Syracuse (5), Temple (5), Tulane (4) and Vermont (11).
It’s terrific reading of the successes of our students. Does the district track what happens to students once they’re gone? Perhaps, if not, it can start. Wouldn’t it be great to learn not just what people are doing immediately after HS graduation, but beyond? Grad school? How many become educators (or some other field of particular interest)?
I think we could use more news about our students’ successes, both in the schools here and beyond.
…Andrew
Your point is well taken!
This statistic is “intend to.” That is, 80% say they PLAN on going to a four year college. Whether they do or not is unknown.
The other, more disturbing statistic, is the percent that complete college. The usual measure is “complete within six years.”
Overall, the number is terrible: I’ve seen the number 58% used repeatedly. The rates for males and females differ dramatically, as do the rates for African American students.
Do Montclair students do any better, or worse? Who knows. It sure would be interesting to find out.
By the way, my college advising hero, Scott White, at the High School, brought this issue up years ago.