College Matriculation

Big draws, impressive accomplishments, and new schools

The39 members of the Class of 2024 had wonderful options of schools to attend and eventually settled on a list of 22 excellent college choices.

Fifty-four percent of the class chose to stay in Texas to continue their studies, and three quarters of that percentage (16 students) are attending one of three schools. The most popular destination was Texas A&M University where six students chose to enroll, including Billy Neylon who received a full NROTC scholarship from the United States Marine Corps and Jonathan Zabolio who was the recipient of the Brown Foundation full scholarship. The University of Dallas enrolled the largest number of students from a single Cistercian class where Santiago Barajas received the full-tuition Scholars of Excellence scholarship, two students are recipients of the tuition remission employee benefit, and John Paul Jacob is studying in his propaedeutic year at Holy Trinity Seminary—Cistercian’s

first graduate to enroll directly into seminary after high school. Additionally, although the University of Texas saw a record 73,000 applications this year, four of our eight accepted students enrolled at UT in business, computer science, and Plan II majors.

After being named one of only 150 Coca-Cola Scholars (from an initial applicant pool of over 100,000 students), Rithvik Gabri chose to enroll at Stanford University along with classmate Ryan Fang. Owen Putnam and Zeb Minear were granted appointments to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Patrick Garda was selected from over 1,000 applicants to claim one of ten available spots as a Lyceum Scholar studying a Great Books curriculum at Clemson University. And Charlie Humphreys was recruited to play on the offensive line at Yale University. Two students are attending schools where no Cistercian student has enrolled in the past: Ben Refakis to the University of Arizona and Nick Schieferdecker to San Diego State

University. Additionally, two students are attending schools that have not enrolled a student in over 25 years: Dominic Halbmaier at Benedictine University and Thomas Sfikas at Colgate.

In terms of majors, 13 students are studying computer science or engineering, 12 in physical sciences or healthcare studies, and nine have enrolled in business programs. The remaining five have enrolled in coursework to study philosophy, theology, English, and psychology.

“The irony is not lost on me that the English teacher Form Master would have a class full of STEM and business majors,” says Gary Nied, Form Master for the Class of 2024 (and 2009), “but it has been so good to hear from them in their first few weeks of school about how well they are adjusting to life in college and how happy they are at the schools they chose to attend.” •

Class of 2024 College Destinations

Auburn University

Baylor University

Benedictine College

Clemson University

Colgate University

Furman University

Indiana University

Northwestern University

Rice University

San Diego State University

Southwestern University

Stanford University (2)

Texas A&M University (6)

Texas Christian University

United States Military Academy at West Point (2)

University of Arizona

University of Dallas (6)

University of Michigan

University of North Texas

University of Notre Dame (2)

University of Texas at Austin (4)

Yale University