Fort Worth Country Day’s Class of 2021
Kristin Larsen, Director of College Counseling
The 86 members of a small, yet mighty, Class of 2021 not only handled the college admission process successfully, they did so during a year that posed extraordinary challenges. “The pandemic caused tectonic shifts in the college admission process,” said Heath Einstein, Dean of Admission at Texas Christian University. “In a flash, students were homebound, unable to engage with their college search in traditional ways.”
Despite seniors’ normal concerns about “getting in,” the COVID-19 pandemic added an additional and unwanted layer of uneasiness. With so much uncertainty regarding the fluctuating state of public health, students and their college counselors were required to make weighty decisions based on imperfect knowledge. Nevertheless, the seniors rallied, demonstrated courage — one of FWCD’s core values — and pressed onward. They submitted 580 applications, were accepted at 121 colleges and universities, and have enrolled at 47 different institutions across the United States. To date, 56% of the class will attend out-of-state colleges and universities. Forty-four percent of the class will attend Texas colleges and universities.
Texas A&M University, the University of Oklahoma, and The University of Texas at Austin continue to dominate Fort Worth Country Day’s “Top 3” list of highest enrolling schools. This year’s top spot goes to Texas A&M and its 10 soon-to-be Aggies. UT Austin moves from third to second place with nine new Longhorns, and, slipping from first place to third, the University of Oklahoma welcomes eight new Sooners.
Choosing an additional 40 different institutions suggests that Falcons continue to stretch their wings and attend a wide variety of colleges and universities. They will join eight campus communities for the first time in at least 15 or more years — Colby College, Creighton University, Haverford College, Loyola University Chicago, Middle Tennessee State University, Oglethorpe University, Providence College, and the University of Utah — or follow in the footsteps of recent FWCD graduates, in the last five years or more, who have attended Boston College, California Polytechnic State University, Loyola Marymount University, University of California Berkeley, University of California San Diego, and the University of Houston.
Two seniors are responsible for adding three Ivy League institutions, Dartmouth College (2), Harvard University and Yale University, to this year’s college acceptances list. This fall, a total of 10 Falcons from the classes of 2018-21 will attend six of the eight Ivies: Brown University, Cornell University, Harvard University (2), Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University (4).
Two seniors applied to and were accepted at a handful of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including Florida A&M University, Howard University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Prairie View A&M University.
Four seniors will become collegiate athletes at their respective institutions, which include Colby College (crew), Haverford College (field hockey), University of Chicago (cross country and track and field), and Washington and Lee University (swimming).
Affordability, especially in this pandemic-affected year, remains a top concern for many FWCD families, and 65 of the 86 seniors were awarded more than $11.5 million in merit-based scholarships and awards (76% of the class). Forty-five of these students will attend colleges and universities where they will utilize more than $2.7 million.
As always, Fort Worth Country Day senior Falcons are an impressive group and continue to soar higher.
