COLLEGE TOUR

Every year, Suncoast provides a college tour for the juniors who are interested in applying to in-state universities. Students visited the University of Central Florida (UCF), University of Florida (UF), Florida State University (FSU), Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), University of Tampa (UT), University of South Florida (USF) and University of North Florida (UNF) this year.

The tour provided an incredible amount of opportunities for the students to receive information on how to apply for their school and the requirements for each program. The students ate lunch on the campuses and was exposed to a day in the college life. This event gave an advantage to the students who were not able to visit the colleges on their own time.

Each year, the college tour is more and more popular, and the students are fired up as April 2 arrived. Suncoast provided 200 spots available for the juniors and seniors this year. Evidently, the tickets sold out the same day they were available for purchase. The spots for the tour have never been filled that quickly, not even when the school first began to provide the tour for the students.

“I am excited to see what each college has to offer, the different fields they have and the performances they provide for the visitors,” Junior Emadjyn Jenkins said.

This year, they withdrew the visit to Stetson University and Florida Polytechnic University and added the visits to Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of North Florida. Some of the seniors who went last year on the college tour expressed outrage with this news, because those were colleges they wished to visit before they applied. Senior Jeremiah Schoen got accepted into FGCU, and accepted his seat for this upcoming fall but had to visit on his own time.

“I think it’s a good opportunity to visit a lesser known college so people can be more exposed to places other than the main colleges of Florida. I just wish I had the opportunity to visit FGCU more thoroughly with last year’s college tour,” Schoen said.

The college tour helped the majority of the seniors who went last year choose the college they wanted to attend. It also gave them all the information they needed in order to meet the requirements for a particular university.