Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993 TAG: 9303090097
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
LOOKING FOR THE LETTER
EVERY high school senior dreaming of college waits for it.Nerve-wracking days come and go before The Letter arrives. The teens bite nails. Chew pens. Ransack mailboxes daily.
By now, most seniors have received The Letter from at least one of the colleges they have applied to. Some are still waiting to hear from their top choice while others are still waiting for Any Letter.
Robert Susil may be one of the luckiest students around. The Blacksburg High School senior applied to Princeton University in October and got a reply in early December. The Letter started simply: "Yes," typed at the top. "That was a pretty good feeling," Robert said. He's lucky because the new year hadn't yet arrived and he knew he was accepted by one of his top choices.
Having received The Letter, Susil now faces another problem: how to pay for it all.
"Money is such a big factor," he said. Annual tuition at Princeton is $18,940, plus $5,710 for room and board.
A top swimmer for the Blacksburg High swim team, Susil is looking at possible swimming scholarships to help.
Most colleges respond to seniors by April, but each school handles the application process differently. Radford University has a rolling admissions policy. As applications arrive, acceptance or rejection letters go out, Admissions Director Vern Beitzel explained. Beitzel has received about 5,000 freshman applications and has accepted about half that number.
So far, more than 15,500 applications have rolled into Virginia Tech's admissions office. Most acceptance letters will be mailed by April 15, said Susan Bambach, admissions director.
Tamika Gunn, a senior at William Fleming in Roanoke, said the school that gives her the most scholarship money will be her top choice. She applied to Hampton University, James Madison University and Spelman College in Atlanta. She received The Letter from Hampton just over a week ago, but she wasn't worried about being accepted. Her guidance counselor had boosted her confidence by saying that any school she applied to would take her, Tamika said.
Still, when the large envelope arrived, "I really felt good."
Tamika is entering essay and public speaking contests for scholarship money and has already won $250 for college for an essay she wrote on racial injustice.
"I am going to college no matter what," she said.
Blacksburg High student Suzanne Moore is looking at both merit and basketball scholarships. So far, she hasn't decided which school she really wants to attend. She applied to seven, including Tech and Hollins and Roanoke colleges.
Tech accepted her for its architecture school. She applied to Tech first, sending her application before Dec. 1 so she could pay the cheaper $10 application fee. After December, the fee went up to $25.
Blacksburg High counselor Shelley Blumenthal said that he has noticed more concern about finances among students. Because of that, many are choosing to stay closer to home. More, too, are choosing community colleges for two years, then transferring to a four-year school, he said.
Sharon Agee of Christiansburg hasn't heard from any college. "It kind of upsets me, like I'm doing something wrong," she said. "I go home and check the mail every day."
Sharon applied to six schools, including Tech, UVa and Madison. She hasn't decided which school is her top choice because she hasn't visited any and wants to see their campuses before deciding, she said.
When The Letter finally arrived in Amy Atkins' mailbox, the Salem High School senior felt as though an incredible weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
"I never really thought it would be this much of a relief," she said. "Teachers, counselors and parents put the pressure on you. From junior year they're pushing."
She has yet to hear from UVa, her top choice. "That's the big one," she said.
The UVa application was difficult - she had to write five essays - but she completed and mailed it early. She visited the campus one weekend in September and immediately felt at home, a factor that ranks high with finances and location, she said.
"My heart is with Virginia, but I think I'd become a Hokie" if UVa doesn't accept her, she said.
Amy Weddle of Patrick Henry High applied to UVa early but got a letter back in December telling her she was "deferred," which means the school will reconsider her application this spring. She and some friends who had received similar news from Georgetown University had a deferment party to ease the pressure.
Competition between students gets fierce in the senior year because everyone is applying to the same schools and for the same scholarships, she said. Some pull out their grade point averages and compare them to the last decimal point. When a friend was accepted at UVa, Amy Weddle said, "you turn it inward [asking] `what am I lacking?' " rather than focusing on the friend's success.
The whole process of applying to schools is stressful and expensive, Amy Atkins said. Before she'd been accepted anywhere, she'd spent more than $100 to apply to four Virginia schools. The UVa application was $40.
The biggest stress is completing the forms, John Michael Knowles said. The Christiansburg senior said he would have started applying in August if he'd realized all the work that was involved. He applied to seven schools in Virginia and North Carolina and has been accepted to most of them.
Once the college entry applications are completed and mailed (postage adds to the expense), students must complete applications for financial aid and scholarships. And then wait.
"Let fate do its thing," John said. "No matter how smart you are, you don't know if you're gonna get in."