The first two college signs have appeared in the senior dining hall as of last week. It has become a tradition at St. George’s for seniors who have officially decided on a college to put up a sign in the windows of the senior dining hall.

Seniors Zach Obaji and Heather Schaefer are the first to have officially completed their college search. Zach will be attending the University of Alabama and Heather Schaefer will be attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

“‘When I was a little girl, I would spend my Saturdays in Neyland Stadium” said Schaefer. “Knoxville has always felt like home to me.” Schaefer was thrilled upon receiving her acceptance.

“When I first got my acceptance to UT I couldn’t believe it and immediately decided that was where I was going to spend my next four years.” said Schaefer.

While athlete commits like Connor Green, Roxanna Wood, and Justin Wertner have verbally committed to schools, their college process will not officially end until their signing and official acceptance to their schools.

Associate Director of College Guidance Beverly Brooks said that other seniors often worry and start to wonder if they are behind on their application process when they see the first signs appear in the senior dining hall windows. Despite all the worry, they are not behind at all.

“With more and more colleges rolling out decisions earlier to students, it is an inevitability that a handful of students would have heard from their top school by the end of September. It is important to know that, while this seems like the majority, it is a minority of our senior class” said Beverly Brooks. Many students will not hear back until the April 1^st, which is when colleges send out their regular deadline application decisions. After that, the students have until May 1^st , the final decision day, to let colleges know where they will be attending.  A lot of students will also wait and see how various scholarships will affect their college decision.

“You still may not hear about financial aid or scholarships until much later; if the financial fit of a school is playing a significant part in your college decision, then you may be a part of the late March-early April club–and that’s okay!” said Brooks

Also, even though Schaefer and Obaji have decided on a college, they must still maintain focus on schoolwork. Colleges do get a copy of students’ final transcript, a fact that many people tend to forget. The college guidance office does their best to deter the infamous “senioritis” for this reason.