After unconventional high school years, here’s where Sioux Falls seniors are going next

Students from the graduating class of 2021 will take their South Dakota roots across the country — and world — when they start college in the fall.

We got data from 630 students between Sioux Falls’ four largest high schools — Lincoln, O’Gorman, Roosevelt and Washington — and, oh, the places they’ll go.

But not everyone is choosing the traditional four-year college path. Some are going straight into the workforce or taking a gap year, and many are choosing technical or community colleges.

“Students are becoming more mindful of the cost of college,” said Kara Spieler, a counselor at Roosevelt High School.

The trends of a gap year or choosing a more affordable higher education option started before the pandemic, Spieler said, but in several ways the college selection process was unique this year. Campuses pivoted to virtual tours. Recruiters weren’t allowed into school buildings, and students put off their decisions amid all the uncertainty in what was to come.

Where are students headed?

Of the students polled, their post-graduation plans will take some as far as China, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Students are also spanning all corners of the United States, from Alaska and Arizona to New York and Georgia.

Others are headed to Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

Not all are going so far from home, though.

About 60 percent of those included in our dataset will stay in South Dakota, and 20 percent will stay right here in Sioux Falls at Augustana University, the University of Sioux Falls, Southeast Technical College, the Community College for Sioux Falls and Stewart School.

Lily Holcomb is one of those staying in Sioux Falls. A Roosevelt High School graduate, she’ll spend next fall at Augustana pursuing a major in exercise science.

Holcomb said she worked with Augustana’s choir director during her time at Roosevelt, and she wanted to be able to continue her passion for singing in college. She also made a connection with the university’s cheer coach and plans to cheer on the Vikings.

Augustana “offers everything that I will miss most about high school,” she said. “Overall, I knew I could continue to do what I love.”

Ceres Tuttle chose to go to South Dakota State University next year because it’s where her dad and grandparents went to college, so she has heard about it her whole life.

“I considered a couple other different schools, but I decided on SDSU because it’s away from Sioux Falls, but it’s also easy to come back on the weekends if I want,” she said.

Sioux Falls graduates who don’t stay in South Dakota will head out to at least 38 states.

The official count of where Sioux Falls seniors go post-graduation won’t be available for at least another year because the district data is usually a year behind, officials said. However, individual schools send surveys to students, which were compiled to provide the numbers here.

After South Dakota, the state with the highest number of Sioux Falls grads was Nebraska, followed by Minnesota and Iowa.

Abigail Turner is one of only a handful of students going to New York in the fall, and she thinks she may be the only person in town headed to the American Musical Dramatics Academy.

The decision to go so far from home was a difficult one, but Turner ultimately decided she wanted to see how she fared in a big city as well as position herself for as many opportunities as possible as she pursues her dreams of starring on Broadway.

“The thought of going is still scary,” she said. “I’m still excited, though, because it’s something that I’m passionate about and I want to do.”

What was different this year?

For the students pursuing Ivy League or other highly competitive schools, the process really didn’t look much different from usual. These are the students who are usually right on the ball with applications and who generally make their decisions earlier on.

For everyone else, though, decisions tended to be delayed, Spieler said. There are still students now who she’s working with to put in college applications to start in the fall.

Part of the challenge was the end of their junior year, which was held virtually as the pandemic hit South Dakota.

That’s the time period in which many juniors begin thinking about college. They connect with recruiters who come to their school to show them the various options available to them, and they start to set up campus tours.

None of that happened for the class of 2021.

Even in the 2020-21 school year, when students were back to in-person learning, recruiters for colleges and the military were not allowed in schools to limit the potential spread of COVID-19.

“National Guard was super active in the building in previous years,” Spieler said, adding she was surprised to see so few students choosing the military as a post-grad option.

And when it comes to the workforce, not many students appear to be taking advantage of the demand for workers, either, though it’s possible those choosing work instead of school were less inclined to participate in the polls schools sent out.

Some students, like Trey Horner, started with a career in mind and then made their decision accordingly. Horner will attend South Dakota School of Mines and Technology this fall to study mechanical engineering.

“I found out about the program in Rapid City and loved the area,” Horner said. “I just wanted somewhere good for engineering. I didn’t care where.”