The number of seniors graduating from Carroll County Public Schools this month planning to attend a four-year college this fall is in line with previous years.
“It?s usually between 46 and 50 percent of students,” said Judy Klinger, supervisor of guidance for the county school system.
The results of a questionnaire completed by students for the guidance office showed that of the 2,300 graduating seniors:
» 47 percent are going to a four-year university;
» 24 percent to a two-year or technical school,
» About 4 percent are going into the military
» 25 percent are entering the work force
Kelly Coons, a senior at Westminster High School, is among those students planning to attend a four-year school.
She is the daughter of Linda Kephart, supervisor of health and physical education for the school system, and Michael Coons, a history teacher at Francis Scott Key High School in Union Bridge.
As an aspiring lawyer, Coons, 18, said she will attend University of Maryland, College Park, this fall to major in English with a minor in rhetoric and a pre-law concentration.
“I like talking, and the whole aspect of justice and what?s right interests me,” she said.
Out of the more than 400 seniors graduating from the county?s largest high school, Coons was selected as one of the three student speakers for the high-school commencement ceremony June 10 at McDaniel College.
“The general theme of my speech will mostly be about our responsibility to ourselves, and what we do makes us who we are,” she said.
Popular college choices for students from her high school are University of Maryland, College of William and Mary, University of Virginia and Gettysburg College, she said.
“For the first time, I?m going to live in a new city,” Coons said, referring to College Park, outside of Washington, D.C.
“I can?t really tell you how excited I am.”
