THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 1, 1995 TAG: 9505010039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 185 lines
Today is the day thousands of local high school seniors must decide their futures.
Will it be Yale or U.Va.? JMU or NSU? ODU or TCC?
In April, students got their letters from colleges (fat meant good, skinny bad) informing them whether they got in. By today, most schools are demanding a reply from the students, committing their lives for the next two to four years.
For some seniors, it's been a fairly easy choice, with few surprises. For others, it's been a nerve-racking journey, full of unexpected dead ends and clearings.
What's helped make up their minds? Sometimes a friendly letter from the school. A phone call returned (or unanswered). A good word from a freshman or graduate. And, of course, money.
Lamont Johnson, a senior at Deep Creek High in Chesapeake, started out the school year thinking he'd go to North Carolina A&T for engineering. Now, he's planning a different major, at a different school.
It's a decision that the lawyers in his mother's office have ridiculed. But she knows it's right for her son.
In their Marina Point apartment, Johnson, a former football player and high-jumper with a 3.15 grade point average, barely says a word about college. He lets his mother, Velma Crockett, do most of the talking.
Crockett, an animated woman who is divorced, speaks readily about her son's strong points - and weaknesses. ``He's a very good student and respectful - anybody can look at his academic record and see there's not a problem with that. But there are some areas he's irresponsible with, like managing money.''
He's also been, both mother and son admit, a bit ``passive'' in the college search. So mom has taken the lead, scouring pamphlets, making calls. She talks about the colleges ``we applied to'': A&T, James Madison, Virginia Tech, U.Va., some others in North Carolina.
In April, Johnson learned he got into A&T, but the day he got his acceptance letter he realized he had been deluding himself about his career plans. Sure, he's good at math, but he wasn't sure he could commit to engineering. It was just something he'd been saying to please Crockett. So forget A&T and Tech.
Now what?
No problem. Johnson also got into U.Va. and JMU. So much for the tough decision. Mr. Jefferson, here he comes. It's Charlottesville for the next four years.
Not so fast.
There was something in that JMU acceptance letter that intrigued mother and son. Johnson had been accepted into a six-week Summer Transition Program, where he'd take classes and, even more important for Crockett, learn to live on his own.
``There's so much he's going to learn,'' says Crockett, a legal secretary with the Portsmouth commonwealth attorney's office. ``How to manage his money, being responsible for getting his laundry done, making sure he eats balanced, nutritious meals.''
She's particularly concerned about the money. Johnson has a part-time job at a pizza place. But Crockett shows his bank statement as though it were a criminal's rap sheet. Petty withdrawals almost daily.
``He felt like he was a millionaire if he had 5, 10 dollars in his pocket, just to play games or buy snacks. . . . But I'm not going to be there (next year), and he's going to have to learn how to stretch out 25 dollars a week.''
Johnson got more letters from JMU, including one in mid-April inviting him to the Ebony Exposure festival for black students, with games, a concert and comedy show. Crockett got a good feeling. It was like: ``We know you're interested in attending our college. If you're in the area, stop by.''
She called a counselor with James Madison's multicultural office. ``She was very, very nice and patient; she answered a lot of my questions. Several times, I tried U.Va., and I never could get through to anyone.''
Johnson, 18, was sold, too. ``JMU offered me the most information; they seemed most interested in me attending.'' Besides, U.Va. ``is kind of big. I could be in a class with 300 students; I'm not used to that.''
Of course, not everyone agreed with Crockett and Johnson, especially some lawyers in her office who are U.Va. grads. ``They said, bring your son into the office; he has to go to U.Va.''
She asked them to trade places with her. ``I'm the parent; I know my child's weaknesses, and there's one college that seems to satisfy your concerns and another that's popular. Which one would you choose? And they said, `Send him to the school that's more popular, stupid.' ''
She worries that, with no four-year degree of her own, she may not have the know-how to make the correct decision. But deep inside, she feels it's right.
``Maybe I am being stupid, but I want him to get the best experience possible. I'm not sending him to college just to study quietly. I'm thinking about him as an individual, and JMU just made me feel comfortable.
``I know him, and I know what's best for him, and sometimes the best is not what everyone else thinks is best.''
Not everyone's passing up the state's flagship university and the prestige that accompanies it.
Nicole Abramova, a 19-year-old at Norfolk's Granby High, is headed to Charlottesville. She's impressed with the location and the large number of faculty with doctorates. She had thought about New York University, but ``NYU is in big New York. It would be a lot of fun, but it would distract me from education. After four years, I can have some fun.''
JMU, however, continues to be a popular draw.
Christopher Cobb, an 18-year-old at Norfolk's Maury High, is passing up Virginia Tech to go there. He's taken with the ``gorgeous quads,'' ``friendly atmosphere'' and small class sizes: ``It's not big enough that you can get lost in, but it's big enough that you feel you're out of high school.''
For similar reasons, Mary Washington College is winning students' hearts.
Like Johnson, 17-year-old Jennifer Hughes is rejecting a more prestigious school - in her case, the College of William and Mary - to attend Mary Washington. She finally decided Tuesday.
``I just had a good feeling about it,'' says Hughes, who goes to Tallwood High in Virginia Beach. ``I really liked the people there. It seemed good academically, and I could experiment with a lot of different things. William and Mary is really good academically, but I wasn't into the whole sorority-fraternity thing.
``I tried to picture myself going to each of those places. When I pictured myself going to William and Mary, I couldn't feel as excited or comfortable.''
Stacey Levine, 17, a Maury student, also wanted to go to Mary Washington. She's on the waiting list. She's sent her acceptance letter to George Mason, but she's still waiting and hoping.
``I don't feel as stable'' as other seniors, she says. ``They're filling out what dorms they want to stay in, and I'm still in the background.''
Devon Paige, 17, from Booker T. Washington High in Norfolk, also is in limbo. She sent her $25 deposit to the University of Virginia, but is awaiting word on a full scholarship at Spelman, a prestigious, historically black women's college in Atlanta. If she gets it, maybe she'll switch.
It's a tough choice: U.Va.'s a strong school, ``it's culturally diverse and it's in my home state. At Spelman, I would get a lot of ethnic and racial support - it's more of a nurturing atmosphere.''
But she's not rushing to the mailbox every day. ``If I get it, I get it,'' she says with the cool pragmatism that eluded many seniors in April. ``If I don't, I don't. U.Va. and Spelman are both my No. 1 colleges. I don't favor one above the other.
``One thing I hate is making decisions. A part of me is hoping the decision is made for me.''
Colleges might have lush green lawns, mesmerizing professors, the most sympathetic counselors imaginable. But often, it comes down to dollars and cents.
And with the skyrocketing tuition of recent years, guidance counselors say, many seniors have had to set their sights lower.
``I see more students having to look at in-state rather than going out of state,'' says Jim Breckenridge, guidance director at Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach. ``And I see more students going to two-year colleges because you're going to spend about $1,400 a year, significantly less'' than at any four-year college.
Andrea Harley is one of those students who's had to defer her dreams.
The Princess Anne senior had her heart set on Longwood College in Farmville. She wants to be an elementary-school teacher, and ``it's supposed to be a very good teachers' college.'' With a 3.3 average, she got in easily; the bad news was her financial-aid package: Longwood would give her only $2,600 in loans and $1,000 annually in work-study and grants. Longwood told the Harleys that they would have to provide $7,600 a year, according to her mother Ruth, a homemaker.
``I always thought she'd be able to get whatever she wanted to get,'' says Ruth. ``I had no clue we'd have to come up with $7,000 or $8,000 a year.''
Her husband, the operations manager of a tugboat company, just can't afford it. So the Harleys offered their daughter a choice: She could stay at home and attend Old Dominion University for four years. Or she could go to Tidewater Community College her first two years and then transfer somewhere out of the area. She chose TCC.
As part of the arrangement, the Harleys are planning to move, too.
To help pay for the final years of school - as well as to pay off other bills - the Harleys will sell their house and move to an apartment. In the living room, the china is stacked on the dining room table. In the kitchen, Ruth and Andrea Harley talk about the future.
Ruth says it's not so terrible. She hears the teaching is great at TCC, and ``for the money, it's a good deal.''
The 18-year-old looks as though she's still in mourning. ``I really hate it,'' she said. ``I worked so hard for 12 years, and I have to go to TCC.''
It's not that Andrea's a snob. She just wanted to go away to school.
She still catches visions of the campus life denied to her - at least for now. ``You always see it on TV: The perfect college experience. It's time for a change. I want to meet new people, do different things. It would be a whole new experience.''
Ruth says, ``I know she's disappointed, but it'll work out for her.''
``Yeah, it's better than nothing,'' Andrea says. And frowns. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
Lamont Johnson, 18, a senior at Deep Creek High School in
Chesapeake, and his mother, Velma Crockett, who helped him make up
his mind about which college he will attend later this year.
KEYWORDS: COLLEGE UNIVERSITY TUITION by CNB