COLLEGE DECISIONS

Details on college decisions and scholarships for the class of 2023

TOP: Seniors Lauren Mueckler, Mary Margaret Mann, Emma Eaddy, Kate Daniels, Olivia Mart n, Nettie Phill ps, Maggie Watson L bby Tompk ns and Mae Ketchum pose at the Hammond gates BOTTOM LEFT: Sen ors Simon Lumpkin Josh

Pr o eau and A den Maragh smi e together n their University of South Carol na shirts BOTTOM RIGHT: Seniors Smith

Sul ivan, Brendan Kane, Erwann Monnet Yague, and Adela M ke l smi e together n the r col ege shirts All photos courtesy of Hammond College Counsel ng (Instagram, @hammondco legecounse ing)

Hammond School’s 57th graduating class, the Class of 2023 graduated on Saturday, May 27, 2023 at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Columbia Initially planned for Edens Stadium, the ceremony was moved to the church on Wednesday because of heavy rain forecasts for that weekend Rain forecasts also dampened traditional post-ceremony pictures, many of which were taken indoors. Charlie Todd ‘97, the founder of an improv comedy group in New York, was commencement speaker The class was accepted to 95 colleges in 27 states and the District of Columbia, and will matriculate at 27 colleges in 12 states and the District of Columbia 75% of students will attend in-state schools while 25% will attend out-of-state schools.

In a year of decreasing acceptance rates among American colleges and universities, Hammond students had much to celebrate. Luke Weinbach was admitted to four of eight Ivy League schools: Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, and Yale Luke also received the full cost-of-attendance Stamps Scholarship at the University of South Carolina as well as the B.N. Duke Scholarship from Duke University, a full cost-of-attendance scholarship offered to nine students from the Carolinas each year He is Hammond’s second recipient of the B N Duke in recent years; current Duke junior Dami Olatosi ‘21 also received the scholarship. Luke will matriculate at Yale in the fall, the first Hammond student to choose Yale since 2015

TOP LEFT: Sen ors Walker Wi liams and Magg e Watson chalk their decision to attend Auburn Univers ty TOP MIDDLE: Seniors Toby Brock and Jacob Dunn chalk their dec s on to attend the University of South Carolina at Beaufort TOP RIGHT: Several seniors chalk their decis on to attend Col ege of Charleston MIDDLE LEFT: Several seniors "chalk their decision" to attend the University of South Carolina MIDDLE: Seniors Omari Bennett, Landon Verano, Jayson Roberts, T-Byrd, A dan Canzater, and Amari Evans sm le together n their co lege sh rts MIDDLE RIGHT: Sen or Raymond Cao chalks his decision to attend the Un versity of Michigan BOTTOM LEFT: Lux Qin cha ks her decision to attend Georgetown University BOTTOM MIDDLE: Several seniors chalk the r dec sion to attend Clemson University BOTTOM RIGHT: Ol via Martin and Mae Ketchum "chalk" the r decision to attend the Un versity of Alabama BOTTOM: Evan Todd, Thomas Epps, Alexander Garside, Leon Chen, and Luke Weinbach pose in their college shirts Photos courtesy of Hammond College Counseling (Instagram, @hammondcollegecounsel ng)

Aside from Weinbach’s Duke scholarships, the Class of 2023 received a total $6 million in merit scholarships Kaycee Tompkins received the Colonial Scholarship at the College of Charleston, a fulltuition scholarship awarded to three students each year CJ Davis received the Griffith Scholarship at Presbyterian College, a full costof-attendance scholarship awarded to two students each year. Both will matriculate at those institutions this fall Evan Todd was one of six students to receive provisional acceptance to Baylor College of Medicine as well as a merit scholarship through the Baylor2Baylor Medical Program, which he plans to pursue at Baylor this fall

In-state colleges, especially South Carolina, Clemson, and Wofford, remained popular choices among this year’s seniors Despite those schools’ increasing selectivity, Hammond students who applied to them were largely accepted; several Clemson applicants were also accepted to Clemson’s bridge program, which allows students to matriculate at Clemson after a year at Tri-County Technical College Out-of-state colleges were less popular among this group of seniors, but they are still a diverse group: large public universities to small liberal arts colleges, Connecticut to Alabama to Michigan to California If their time at Hammond is any indication, these 75 alumni are sure to make their mark at their respective universities and in the greater world