THOMASVILLE — Next year, the 37 students in Brookwood School’s class of 2020 will be spread far and wide, from Georgia to Texas to Virginia to Argentina. 

This accomplished group, which includes star athletes, award-winning artists, lead ballerinas, entrepreneurs, political volunteers, and humanitarians, emerged from the college admission season with 127 acceptances to 52 colleges. They will be attending 19 colleges in nine states, and one student will be taking a gap year in Argentina. Ninety-five percent were accepted into their first or second choice college. 

When asked about her college process, Brookwood senior Madeline Gordon, who will be attending Emory University in the fall, had this to share: “The college process for me was hectic because I applied to more schools than most of my classmates, but looking back now, I wouldn’t change anything. Knowing I had lots of different possible paths to take helped me keep my stress levels down. If I could redo anything about the process, I would tell myself to be more open-minded and to not rule out places until I visited, because I didn’t end up falling in love with Emory until my campus visit.” 

Given that Brookwood’s class of 2020 is so diverse in terms of their academic and extracurricular interests, it is no surprise that the schools that they will be attending are equally wide-ranging. While many students will be attending Georgia’s fantastic state institutions, including the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology, others will be attending small liberal arts colleges, such as Davidson College (North Carolina) and Sewanee: The University of the South (Tennessee). Additionally, a number of students will be attending mid-sized research universities, including Southern Methodist University (Texas), Emory University, and the University of Mary Washington (Virginia). Their intended majors also represent a wide variety of disciplines from business, to religion, to communication disorders, to mechanical engineering. 

Senior Lilly Jackson will pursue a gap year in Argentina before matriculating at Grinnell College in Iowa in the fall of 2021. 

“I decided to take a gap year because it will allow me to experience being an exchange student in Argentina without missing out on any of the special moments you make with your friends in high school,” she said. “A break before college also will allow me to practice making new relationships and putting myself out there without feeling the pressure of an important school year.” 

“This class of seniors has so much to be proud of,” said Kim Lord, director of college counseling. “They were incredibly thoughtful about where they applied to college, and each student came out of the process with multiple options that fit their needs, interests and aspirations. The college process requires a lot of self-reflection and fortitude; this class really worked hard to put in the time and energy needed to identify and apply to the right schools for them. Now that the process is over, their enthusiasm about their college choices is well deserved and also contagious; I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in the upcoming years.”