By N’Nia Brickhouse, Staff Writer
Would you drop everything to attend an early college four hours from home? Maybe not, but knowing that the North Carolina School of Science and Math ranked second on a list of best public high schools in the U.S. might change your mind.
NCSSM is the new home to multiple former First Flight students who chose to leave the beach two years early for the STEM-based residential high school in Durham. Each year, sophomores around the state can compete for admission to the residential program or online courses. Last year, a lot of residential applicants from FFHS were accepted.
Getting used to living on a school campus is a huge change, but it’s one that former First Flight student Paulina Goping prefers.
“I like it a lot. It’s definitely different from going to a regular public high school, but it’s really nice that your classes are really close to where you are,” Goping said. “There is a certain amount of freedom of just being able to go anywhere you want, basically, after class. All your friends are right there so it isn’t difficult to get in contact with people and do something.”
A worry some may have before moving onto such a big campus is trying to figure out where your classes are. Luckily, these juniors had the opportunity to look around the week before school starts.
“We moved in five days before classes started and there’s a few seniors already moved in on your hall called RLAs, which stand for Residential Living Assistants, and they show you around,” junior Lily Snow, who is also a former First Flight student, said. “Once all the juniors got moved in, they took us on a tour and we all had our class schedules and they showed us where the classes were. And then what makes it helpful is that the numbering system is very intuitive, like 305 is on the third floor.”
Another possible worry is the workload that accompanies going to a prestigious STEM school. With college level classes, it’s safe to assume the difficulty and amount of work are higher than an average high school class.
“Honestly, compared to everyone else and seeing everyone break down crying, I would say my workload isn’t that bad,” NCSSM junior and former First Flight student Colin Tran said. “I’ve been kind of blessed with teachers that are understanding that we need a social life with our academic life, but from what I’ve heard from some people, they have a lot. They’re studying all the time, like when you’re walking around campus, you’ll run into people studying everywhere.”
Before you can worry about the workload or getting around on campus, students who are interested in NCSSM have to go through a tedious application process.
“It’s time consuming,” Snow said. “It took me a long time to finish my application.”
There are multiple sections in the application, including basic information like your name and address. There are also essay portions to get to know you and lists for community service, volunteer work, and awards that you’ve won throughout your high school career.
For those interested in applying for the 2022-2023 school year, these First Flight alumni who are now attending NCSSM have a few tips.
“Don’t procrastinate,” Tran said. “Always start early, get on those essays, make a list of what you need to do to apply, and get on it.”
Snow suggested keeping a list of anything that could aid your application, and that nothing, not even participation awards, are too trivial.
“Don’t not put something on the application because you don’t think it’s good enough for the application,” Snow said. “If it’s something to be added to your application, put it on there.”
Goping recommended having your essays proofread by people you’re close to, and to make sure that you’re represented well in them.
“Definitely have your friends and family, maybe a teacher if you’re close to a teacher, read over your essays and give you good feedback of what they feel about it because your essays represent you and so you really want to make sure that they’re strong, and that they are portraying you as best as they can,” Goping said.
So, would dropping everything about your hometown to go to “early college” be worth it? The general answer from these NCSSM juniors is yes, yes it is.
“One hundred percent, I absolutely love it here in Durham,” Tran said. “It’s just a whole different experience that I honestly wouldn’t trade for anything.”
Sophomore N’Nia Brickhouse can be reached at 24brickhousenn92@daretolearn.org.
