With the start of the school year many seniors have already begun to worry about their future. In October, seniors Ana Ponce and Tyler Carter received early college admission acceptance letters for the fall of 2015. There were different factors involved in their acceptances.

“School involvement and your GPA can make you look like a very motivated and interactive person at your school,” Ponce said.

Ponce was accepted to Texas A&M Texarkana one week after applying and soon after, she was also accepted to the University of North Texas. Because of her GPA of 3.64 and her participation in extracurriculars like choir, Beta club, AVID and FTI, Ponce was accepted to not only two of her top five college picks, but also Texas Woman’s University. She will be the first in her family to attend college and said she is excited to have the opportunity. Although she is excited for college, she is unsure of where she will attend. Others however know exactly where their future lies.

“[Louisiana State University] is my number one school,” Carter said. “I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. It’s my dream school.”

Carter has been looking forward to being part of LSU for many years and said he will be there next fall. Because of his 3.45 GPA and involvement in Student Council and the Varsity basketball team, Carter has received $17,500 in scholarship money to help pay for his estimated yearly tuition of $20,564.

“[LSU has] the top petroleum engineering program in the country,” Carter said.

Carter will be the second person in his family to attend college and is delighted to have the opportunity to attend his top pick. Carter said his dad fell in love with the school long ago and the affection was passed down to him. However, his motives are not entirely biased, as LSU offers a better-than-average program in his career focus. Although Carter took both the SATs and the ACTs he submitted his highest ACT score of 31 to LSU.

Ponce is part of the AVID program and has been thinking about college for a long time. She said she is looking forward to attending a four year university. Ponce earned a score of 1450 on the SAT and a 24 on the ACT during the summer, and although Texarkana and TWU did not ask for the score, UNT looked at her ACT scores before accepting her. Ponce says she would like to become a special education teacher, and these acceptance letters are only making that dream seem closer than before.

“I [am] really excited because [nobody in] my family has ever gone to college and it [is] exciting to know I [have] the opportunity to go,” Ponce said. “[It was] worth all the time and effort in the end.”