Over the past months in chapel, college guidance counselor Ivy Brewer announces and congratulates the seniors. She does this by informing the rest of the upper school about the colleges the seniors had been accepted into, as well as the scholarships that went with the acceptances. Brewer also announces the seniors who had been given offers from colleges for sports. Ther Kotchasanmanee is one of those students, who has received more than 30 offers from different colleges for her outstanding golf skills. On the other hand, we have scholarships for academics, as shown by Julia Beauchamp who was offered a 156,000 dollar scholarship to Saint Louis University. That scholarship is one of the highest dollar scholarships the seniors in the 2024-2025 class have been awarded.
Beauchamp shares how she felt when she realized that the hard work she had put in truly did work out for her.
“I felt really good, because the whole college application process is just a lot,” Beauchamp said. “So when you do it well and it pays off, it feels really good.”
Although Kotchasanmanee had many accomplishments during her golf career, she elaborates what her top moment was when she was proudest of herself.
“It was two years ago when I got recruited by a lot of colleges. About 30 to 40 colleges offered me a scholarship,” Kotchasanmanee said. “Princeton is also one of the colleges who gave me an offer to play golf at their college.”
Both Kotchasanmanee and Beauchamp were asked what their top picks for colleges are at the moment.
“Funnily enough, currently UGA (University of Georgia) because in-state tuition is just really good and it is just a great school,” Beauchamp said. “It is subject to change but that is my current pick at the moment.”
Kotchasanmanee gives us her top five colleges that she had during the process of deciding where to go.
“Princeton is one of the top five colleges for me,” Kotchasanmanee said. “My top five colleges were UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), USC (University of South Carolina), Oregon, Princeton and Georgia,” Kotchasanmanee said. “I picked Princeton because I feel really good about their campus and I feel like it is my place. Overall Princeton is my ideal campus and that is where I want to go.”
Beauchamp expressed what excited her most about the idea of growing up and going off to college.
“Just the idea of new experiences and meeting new people,” Beauchamp said. “I am also excited to be able to do more independent things.”
After being asked what she thinks landed her these offers, Kotchasanmanee is challenged to think of the truth about why these colleges want her on their team.
“I think it was because of all of the hard work that I put in with golf. I am not going to say that I am a great player, but I think I am that one player that stands out more than the others,” Kotchasanmanee said. “I think I got an offer because of my superior skills in the sport of golf.”