With 2024 fastly approaching, Tahoma seniors are reaching the end of their childhood education. Many of us are off finishing college applications and paying the fees, but do all of us really know where or if we want to apply to college?

Our Tahoma seniors make up a large portion of the school population with over 600 students in our graduating class.

An article published by The Seattle Times written by Monica Velez stated, “high school graduation rates have increased by about 6 percentage points over the last 10 years, bringing the 2022 graduation rate to 82.3%,” meaning that out of the 600+ Tahoma seniors, about 500 of them will follow through with graduation.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, out of the students that graduated in 2021, about 62% went straight to college meaning it will be about the same percent this year.

Over the next few months many applications and fees are going to be due, but before we can know when to get those done, we have to know where we want to go.

Some popular colleges that are in Washington are, University of Washington, Washington State University, Central Washington University and many more, which many seniors plan to apply to for cheaper tuition and good opportunities close to home.

When asking Cole Childs, a Tahoma senior, which schools he would be applying to, he mentioned, “Central, Eastern, Montana State, and Seattle Central,” after saying he would apply to “all of them, or any that will take me.”

However, not all students want to go to college, or they want to take a gap year. When asking Dolly Powers if she would be applying to colleges she said, “no I won’t be going to college, school just isn’t really for me, but maybe one day I’ll go to a trade school.”

The 2023-2024 school year is going by fast for us seniors, and soon we’ll walk across the stage, and decide what we’re doing in this next portion of life, moving up and out of high school.

We can only hope for the best for all Tahoma seniors and their futures.