Photo Credit: Maddie Norwood[/caption]Union Jacks. Tea. The Tube. Bad teeth. Doctor Who. Phone boxes. These quintessentially British things are what first attracted me to England in 2013, when I traveled there with theatre students and teachers from OHS and C.W. Stanford Middle School. My experience was incredible, and I can still vividly remember the sights I saw. What attracted me most was the culture. The British are sophisticated and refined, with a history that dates back more than a millenium. While America hasn’t even been a country for 250 years, England was founded in 927 AD. Numerous philosophers, thinkers, and artists have lived and died there, so where better to study for my undergraduate education?
My parents, friends, and teachers all have the same reaction at this point. Study? In England? For college? They laugh, mistakenly thinking I’m joking. Immediately, their main concern is tuition rates. However, applying to five colleges only costs $37 and the actual cost of college is slightly less than the tuition for my top U.S. college, New York University. Plane tickets are a concern, but video calling and social networking has made it easy to talk to family without actually coming home.
Financial issues aside, the benefits of a British education are undeniable. I applied to majors relating to political science. Studying this topic in a foreign country would provide me with a unique perspective that my classmates back in the U.S. would not have. The political system of the U.K is vastly different than the American system, so I would gain a ton of knowledge about politics that I couldn’t get in the U.S.
I applied to the University of St. Andrews, the University of Surrey, King’s College London, the University of Manchester, and Oxford University. Oxford, one of the highest-ranking schools in the world, is the one I wanted to go to the most. Even if I end up not being able to afford it, just saying I got into Oxford will be worth it.
As one would expect, applying to Oxford is much more difficult than applying to the other colleges. While the actual application is the same, because the UK uses a system similar to the Common Application, I have to be interviewed, take tests, and send in written work. Oxford requires U.S. applicants to score a 5 on three AP exams. I only have one 5 so far, meaning the most I can hope for is a conditional offer.
The two types of offers one can get from a U.K. college are conditional and unconditional. The former means that the applicant must meet certain criteria to be accepted into the college. The latter, rarer than the first, is unconditional acceptance--the applicant is accepted without meeting any more criteria. In a way, this is similar to U.S. colleges having the right to revoke their offers.
UCAS, or the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, is a surprisingly easy system to use. Like in the Common Application, users just enter their basic information, test scores, et cetera. Unlike in the U.S. system, there’s only one essay that applicants have to write, no matter how many colleges they’re applying to.This was one of my favorite parts about applying to the U.K.
Whether I can convince my parents to let me go to the schools I applied to is uncertain, but, even if I can’t attend them, I’ll be satisfied just having been accepted to a few.
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The varsity Lady Panther soccer team played Oxford Webb, a conference rival, Wednesday, April 10. The Panthers survived with a clean escape, gaining their first conference victory. The JV and varsity teams traveled to Eagle territory to play Eastern Alamance on Friday, April 11. Both teams came out with a loss after a hard-fought game.
Wednesday the varsity team kicked off an intense match against the Oxford Webb Warriors on their home turf. They came away unscathed with a 7-0 win. The Panthers scored two quick goals within the first 10 minutes of the game, and by the end of the half they had six goals, four of them scored by the Shinnick sisters, Rachel Shinnick with one and Becca Shinnick with the other three. Ashley Badstein, the starting keeper for OHS, had a shutout in the first half, and Becca Shinnick also had a clean break in goal in the second half, tipping the ball over the goal on a close shot from the Lady Warriors.
The Warriors held strong in the second half, only conceding one goal in the last 20 minutes of the half. The Panther’s seventh goal came from Kaela Lane, a junior, who finished a cross from out wide and headed it over the keeper into the goal. The game concluded at a win, 7-0, for the Lady Panthers. This is the third conference game that the Panthers have played, however this is their first conference victory. Rowan Jaynes, a sophomore center defender for the team, said, “I thought that we were very well prepared for this game. We were able to work on the things we needed to work on and build as a team.”
Friday the OHS Panthers suffered a tough defeat against Eastern Alamance. The JV team started, coming out with a strong offensive force. After 20 minutes of evenly matched competition, the Eagles squeezed through the Panther’s back line, scoring three goals, making the final score 3-0. In an interview with Maggie Asuncion, starting center mid for the OHS team, she said, “Our goal as a team is to win our final game.” Instead of dwelling on the defeat, they are focusing on improving for their final game against Cedar Ridge.
Following the first match, the varsity team kicked off at 6:45. Before the start of the game, Eastern Alamance held a moment of silence for Desmond Piccini, a student from their school who had recently passed away. In honor of Piccini, Eastern wore blue bows in their hair, and the OHS Panthers played with green wristbands on. From the very beginning, the game was full of physicality and fierce competition, with both teams fostering a rivalry. Eastern went ahead in the first half, scoring off of a cross with a header into the corner of the goal. The score remained stagnant until the final third of the game when the Eagles finalized the score at 3-0 with two additional goals. The Panthers, who had prepared for a rematch after an earlier defeat in the season, played a solid game, although the score didn’t reflect their effort.
At the end of the week, the Panthers came out with a conference victory, further pushing them ahead in the playoff standings. Although they suffered a tough loss from Eastern Alamance, they are deciding to focus their efforts on improving for the upcoming conference games.
Photo Credit: Brianna Hales[/caption]Originally the men's and women's basketball games were scheduled for Tuesday, February 11 but were moved to Monday, February 10. Both JV teams played at 5:30 pm and both varsity teams played at 7 pm. The games were moved because of the speculation of snow for Tuesday night.
The women's game was at home against Northern Vance High School. This was their senior night so thank you to everyone who came out and supported your lady Panthers.
The men's team played away at Oxford Webb High School. Their senior night will be this Friday, on Valentine's Day, against Cedar Ridge High School at 7 pm. The tickets will be $5 and the game will be held in the big gym at OHS.