Senior Morgan Wood walks into school acutely aware that in less than two months she will be graduating. As she enters her first period class she becomes overwhelmed with anticipation and excitement – the countdown has begun.

“I’m super excited that graduation is so close,” Wood said. “It’s a nervous kind of excitement. I’m about to go to college and be a grown up.”

Wood applied to Southern Methodist University, located in Dallas, and got accepted to SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

“When I got my acceptance letter, I flipped out,” Wood said. “I screamed and I called my friends, and they screamed for me, too.”

Wood plans to major in Music Therapy which entails using music to help people with a variety of different medical issues to improve their speech, social skills, dexterity, or a multitude of other things.

“I want to go to SMU to study Music Therapy because I know it will challenge me and I’ll get to help people with music and do something I love,” Wood said.

Along with SMU the United States Naval Academy regularly ranks on the Princeton Review’s 376 Best Colleges. Senior James McMasters was accepted to the Naval Academy in Feb.

“I’m nervous but excited,” McMasters said. “I know it’s going to be really hard, but that’s the kind of challenge I want. ”

Applying to the Naval Academy required not only an application to the Naval Academy itself, but an additional application to a member of Congress to receive a nomination. McMasters secured the nomination of Congressman Joe Barton.

“It was a long process,” McMasters said. “It was months before I found out that I had received Joe Barton’s nomination.”

McMasters will spend four years at the Academy before enlisting in the Navy for at least five years.

“I know I’ll come out of the Academy prepared,” McMasters said. “I’ll be ready to exceed and be successful.”