This is the time of year when our seniors get the mail for their parents religiously. They are getting acceptance letters in the mail from colleges now. (Please pray that God would give them and their parents guidance as they consider their options.)

Veritas works hard to prepare students for life, but preparing them for further study—at college and university—is important as well. Back near the beginning of our school, parents wondered whether colleges and universities would accept students from a small Christian school like ours. Now, people do not wonder about that any more. Here is a brief and incomplete list of schools where graduates from Veritas have been accepted:

Princeton, University of Saint Andrews (Scotland), Grove City, Hillsdale, University of Pittsburgh, The University of Southern California, The University of Arizona, Elizabethtown College, Temple, Penn State, Virginia Tech Honors College, Carnegie Mellon, Syracuse, Millersville Honors College, and F&M.

This list is just a sampling of schools that have sent acceptance letters to our graduates.

We have been very successful in placing students at the college of their choice. Why? First, we give students a solid education. Today, in the halls I saw a student with a wrinkled brow and I asked what was wrong. "Homework," she muttered. It is true that students work hard at Veritas. They do not work hard for no reason. They are preparing for life. Every assignment, every test, every discussion, every event is refining them and helping them to be the kind of student that they will need to be at the next level.

Some things you might notice about our approach. First, we write essays and answers. We write them out. So many schools have switched to Scantron and multiple choice formats. These formats save time for teachers in grading. They are not, and cannot be, as challenging as having to express one's thoughts in complete English sentences. This factor gives our student great advantages as they seek admission and work at the next level. One of our alumni wrote to me during her first semester of college. The message went something like this (I am paraphrasing):

Mr. Fischer,

Yesterday, one of my professors assigned a 5 page paper that would be due at the end of the week. There is a lot of panic and crying in my dorm right now. I completed my paper today. I will go for a walk this afternoon. Thanks for the work that you made us do.

Sincerely,

Second, we help students go long. Our students complete a course of study that often time's puts them far ahead of the students that they are competing against. The reading list that they have completed is extensive. The level of math that they complete—about 50% of our graduates so far have completed Calculus II and about 20% have gone further than that. I hate making student slow down if they can go faster and further. We work hard to help every student develop his or her own gifts and abilities to the maximum for God's glory.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that we are going to get even better. Recently, we sent out a letter to families of our oldest students to introduce them to Maria Taormina. She is working with our administration as a guidance resource. She is working hard to get more and better information to high school students and their families so that they can make the best possible choices about college. We will be upgrading these resources on our websites and working with colleges to build relationships that will continue to help our students find the best home at the next level.