Saturday, the 21st of May, marked the last official day that the 111 members of NIST International School’s Class of 2016 were students at the school. With their IB exams complete and diplomas in hand, they were ready to take the first step in a new and exciting journey. However, the bittersweet graduation ceremony was not the final farewell. Just over a week later, they received a much grander sendoff after their last assembly, as the entire school turned out in an annual tradition to cheer and celebrate the accomplishments of this unique group of graduates.
Though they share a common bond through our community, the paths of the Class of 2016 will now be incredibly diverse. With acceptances continuing to appear daily, the departing seniors have already been offered places at more than 300 universities in over a dozen countries, from the United States and United Kingdom to the Netherlands and Germany. More impressively, the offers they have accepted include a large number of elite universities. Of the 94 students who have made a decision, a full 50% will be attending institutions ranked in the top 100, an incredible number considering over 17,000 universities exist worldwide!
Their fields of study will be equally broad, from biochemistry at Imperial College London to theology at the University of Cambridge, biomechanical engineering at Georgia Tech to international relations at New York University, computer systems at the University of Melbourne to human diversity at Leiden University, and biosciences and medicine at the University of Hong Kong to arts and language here at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. Among the others that the Class of 2016 will attend are Dartmouth College, the University of Wisconsin – Madison, University of Edinburgh, University College London, Kings College London, University of Toronto, McGill University and several other well-known institutions.
Yet what distinguishes this class is not merely the caliber of their academic accomplishments, but also the impact they have had on others in and outside of the NIST community. Many of the graduates helped create service groups in the school that transformed the village of Maeramit in Omgoi, launched a non-profit sustainable coffee company, and supported members of the community through microcredit loans and scholarships. Their passion for learning and working with others to create positive change has made a mark on the school – one that will continue to influence future students.
NIST’s mission is a simple one: to inspire growth, empower individual excellence and enrich lives. It’s difficult to look at the young faces of the Class of 2016 and not see the embodiment of those ideals. As they begin the next chapter of their lives, we hope the NIST spirit will be carried with them. Congratulations and best wishes for the future! Once a NISTie, always a NISTie.
Class of 2016 University Acceptances
| American University | Loyola University Chicago |
| Arizona State University | Maastricht University |
| Assumption University | Mahidol University |
| The University of Arizona | Marist College |
| Australian National University | University of Maryland, College Park |
| Babson College | Marymount California University |
| University of Bath | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Berklee College of Music | McGill University |
| University of Birmingham | McMaster University |
| Birmingham City University | University of Melbourne |
| Boston University | Michigan State University |
| Brescia University College | Middle East Technical University |
| University of Brighton | Middle Tennessee State University |
| University of British Columbia | Monash University Malaysia |
| Bryn Mawr College | Monash University |
| California College of the Arts | Mount Holyoke College |
| California Institute of the Arts | University of New South Wales |
| California State University, Northridge | New York University |
| Carl Benz School of Engineering | Northeastern University |
| University of California, Berkeley | University of Northern Colorado |
| University of California, Davis | University of Oklahoma |
| University of California, Irvine | University of Ottawa |
| University of California, Los Angeles | Pennsylvania State University |
| University of California, Riverside | Pepperdine University |
| University of California, San Diego | Philadelphia University |
| University of California, Santa Barbara | Plymouth University |
| University of California, Santa Cruz | Pratt Institute |
| University of Cambridge | Purdue University |
| Carl Benz School of Engineering | Queen’s University |
| Carleton University | Rhode Island School of Design |
| Chapman University | Ringling College of Art and Design |
| College of Charleston | RMIT University |
| University of Chichester | Rotterdam School of Management |
| Chulalongkorn University | University of San Diego |
| University of Cincinnati | University of San Francisco |
| University of Colorado at Boulder | Santa Clara University |
| University of Colorado at Denver | Sarah Lawrence College |
| Concordia University | Savannah College of Art and Design |
| Cornish College of the Arts | School of Oriental and African Studies |
| Dartmouth College | School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
| Deakin University | Scripps College |
| Delft University of Technology | Simon Fraser University |
| University of Denver | Singapore Management University |
| Drexel University | University of South Carolina |
| DSK Supinfocom (Pune) India | University of South Florida |
| University of East Anglia | Stenden University |
| Ecole Hotelire de Lausanne | Stetson University |
| University of Edinburgh | University of Sussex |
| Emily Carr University of Art and Design | Syracuse University |
| Emory University | The University of Texas, Dallas |
| Erasmus University College | Thammasat University |
| University of Essex | University of Toronto |
| University of Exeter | Trent University |
| Florida State University | Tufts University |
| Fordham University | Umea University |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | University College Roosevelt |
| University of Groningen | University of the Arts London |
| The Hague University of Applied Sciences | University College London |
| Hanze University of Applied Sciences | University of Wollongong |
| Haverford College | Utrecht University |
| Hogeschool Rotterdam – Rotterdam University | Vassar College |
| University of Hong Kong | University of Victoria |
| The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology | University of Warwick |
| Hotelschool The Hague | Waseda University |
| IE University | University of Washington |
| University of Illinois at Chicago | Washington and Lee University |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Wellesley College |
| Imperial College London | Wesleyan University |
| Indiana University at Bloomington | Western University |
| University of Kentucky | Wilfrid Laurier University |
| King’s College London | College of William and Mary |
| University of La Verne | University of Wisconsin, Madison |
| Leiden University | Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
| London School of Economics and Political Science | York University |
| Loyola Marymount University |