The month of December has been stressful as seniors start making their decisions on college plans and filling out the FAFSA. With the semester wrapping up, many students are trying to rush through this holiday season.
The class of 2025 is slowly entering their way into the 2025 year. FAFSA is one of the requirements that must be filled out in order to graduate from Carterville High School. The FAFSA also known as, “Free Application for Federal Student Aid” which allows students to get federal grants, work-study funds and loans for college. As a person fills out the application, an account is created for the student and their parental guardians. The process takes 1-3 days as your own social security number is processed through the state to verify the correct person who is creating an application out on FAFSA. Senior Alyssa Nausely talks about her experience filling out the FAFSA application as she states, “It was very easy to fill out. It seems like a long process to fill out but in the end, it’s easy. With the money that I get, I will use it for my future college education.”
As the FAFSA form gets completed, the next step towards a senior’s future is college. This can be a major decision in a senior’s life as it shows what they want to be in the future. Many students have decided on which major they want to focus on along with the school they will be attending. Senior Avery Meyer has decided to stay in the Southern Illinois area by attending Southern Illinois University of Carbondale next fall. Meyer has been on the Carterville cheerleading team for many years. She decided on SIUC as she says, “Growing up, I attended games and other events on the SIUC campus, and fell in love with the beauty and culture of SIU. My family are all Saluki alumni, and I look forward to carrying on the tradition!”
Another Senior Carson Banks has decided to stay around the region and attend Southeast Missouri State University. Although Banks thought about staying close to home and attending SIU, he decided to pick SEMO because he “really liked the SEMO campus, because I get to get away from the Southern Illinois Area and experience a new area/town.”
Although many decide to stay around their homes, Senior Anna Hendricks will be attending Liberty University. She says, “Liberty University is a Christian private university, and I will be doing my studies online. I have ultimately known for a while that this was the school I wanted to get my education with. I want to be an elementary teacher, and I feel like this university will give me the degree that I need, while staying true to my values.”
With the last couple of weeks of the first semester, seniors are rapidly approaching their last few months of high school. Make these last few months the best and make sure to get all of high school classwork finished before the seniors walk the graduation stage.
