At MTA, seniors reserve the last two periods of each day for electives, where they can choose from a range of courses including various APs, advanced Spanish, Entrepreneurship and Sugyos in Maseches Brachos. But by far, the most popular choice is for seniors to take a course or two at Yeshiva University. Each semester many MTA seniors take at least one YU course.

These courses offer many opportunities to MTA seniors. They can find out what it means to learn on a college level, satisfy YU core requirements, sample a major they might wish to choose or simply learn about an interesting topic.

The final results from the fall semester are in and MTA students did exceptionally well. Over 80% of the students earned an A, with their GPA as a group over 3.65. And they did not take easy courses to earn those grades. Among the courses that MTA students earned an A in were Multivariable Calculus, Constitutional Law, Epidemiology, Architectural Design and Biology Principles. The last of these was particularly impressive, because Biology Principles is the gateway course to the pre-med and pre-dent programs, which are among YU’s most challenging and competitive. Part of the reason why YU students have such a high rate of success in acceptance to medical and dental schools is that students learn in their first year, when they take Principles of Biology, whether they can handle that demand.

Yaakov Erdfarb and Yitzi Rosenbluth not only sat in biology class and lab with students two or three years older who knew they needed an A to proceed in their chosen programs, but they held their own and grabbed two of the few A grades given in that class.

This semester Yaakov and Yitzi and more than 30 other seniors (plus underclassmen who are so advanced as to meet the college requirements) are back at work. By the time they finish 12th grade, they and many of their classmates will have the equivalent of a full semester’s college work already completed. This means that they’ll be able to take a lighter load in college, or have time for another minor in an area of interest.

MTA is incredibly proud of these talmidim and their success, and wishes them hatzlacha raba in the spring semester.