The Stuyvesant Spectator

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Despite Scheduling Conflicts, Many Students Register for College Trips

November 5th, 2007 · By JOAN PARK

One senior and three junior college visitation tours have been scheduled for this year.On the weekend of October 27, seniors participating in the two-day college trip visited Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University.According to senior class vice president Lauren Gonzalez, the administration chartered one bus to accommodate the 43 participating seniors and six of their parents. Usually, three or four buses are needed to accommodate students participating in the college trip.“This college tour has very bad timing,” senior Alice Xu said. “It’s the weekend before early applications are due and many teachers don’t know about it because not as many people are going, so they are bombarding us with tests that week.”Early Action/Early Decision applications for many colleges were due November 1.Senior class president Michelle Lee said she was “concerned a lot of seniors wouldn’t want to go on this trip because they’ve seen schools over the summer or they have SATs or ACTs to take.”The ACT testing date, October 27, coincided with the first day of the senior college trip.“We thought most seniors would’ve gotten [the ACT’s] out of the way by then,” Assistant Principal Guidance Eleanor Archie said. “We know some seniors have visited these colleges over the summer, but we have a large number of kids who are going.”Current seniors had only two college trips last year. “There were so many events planned out for the year [that] there was no way we could’ve fit in three trips,” Lee said.Archie, who organizes the college trips, was on medical leave. “Archie wasn’t here so we didn’t know what we could do about the schedule,” Lee said.Last year, Principal Stanley Teitel assumed responsibility for planning the last junior college trip. However, he was unable to be present in New York to oversee the trip from March 30 to April 1, 2007.“This college tour is something we promised last year,” Gonzalez said.The three-day college trip for juniors, scheduled for the weekend of November 9, will visit Yale University, Wesleyan University, Trinity College, Brown University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University and Boston College.Juniors will also have the option of visiting either Brandeis University or Wellesley College.The junior college trip coincides with the Bye Bye Birdie shows on November 9 and 10, a Model United Nations trip on the same weekend and the last football game of the year on November 9.“It’s up to people to choose what’s more important to them,” Kim said.Football player and junior Paul Park said he wanted to play in the game that Friday instead. “It’s the last time I’ll get to play with the seniors and it’ll be emotional,” he said.However, despite the scheduling conflicts, over 200 juniors have registered for the trip.Two other junior college trips have been planned for this year.The second tour, scheduled for the weekend of January 28, will visit Rutgers University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University and George Washington University. Juniors will select their last stop from Haverford College, Bryn Mawr College and Villanova University. The option of visiting the University of Maryland will also be made available to students.The third trip will be held in the spring. Stops include Vassar College, State University of New York Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, Colgate College, Hamilton College, Cornell University and State University New York Binghamton. Juniors will have the option of visiting either Hobart and Williams Smith College or Syracuse University.