4 U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER News Features MARCH 1989 High costs aside, private schools still attract students By Linda Milch receives more applications each year, Va., and the Universities of Virginia with public schools, but with the Ivy The Daily Texan U of Texa n and the $12,750 for tuition and fees is and Michigan. League. U. of Texas, Austin worth the private attention and close- Gary Ripple, dean of undergraduate "If a student has to decide between Admissions directors from some of knit environment offered. admissions at the College of William & Amherst or a public institution, ni* the nation's most prestigious private "You're dealing with a group of peers Mary, agreed. "We take some great kids and a half times out of 10, he'll choose universities disagree on whether they who challenge you more than a state away from those very outstanding pri- Amherst," Martinez said. are losing applicants to public schools school," Anthony said. vate universities," he said. She said Amherst could be considered because of high tuition costs. But academically competitive public Ripple added prestige and selectivity more cost-effective than a public uni- Several directors of private institu- schools have their cost advantages. in school name has become unduly im- versity because there is a greater possi- tions said that despite the rising costs, Anthony said no admissions official portant. "Parents are really paranoid bility of financial aid. their schools have been experiencing a would want to say, "Sure, come to Col- about name brands, rather than being Amherst and other private institu- steady increase in the number of appli- gate, spend another $10,000 a year." at the right place for the right reason," tions' concern, however, is the rising cants and are academically competitive Anthony said competition for good ap- Ripple said. tuition and costs that threaten to reach with the Ivy League. plicants comes not from New York state Ana Martinez, associate dean of more than $20,000 a year, squeezi Tom Anthony, dean of admissions at institutions but other public schools, admissions at Amherst College, Mass., out middle-income families, Martin Colgate U. in New York, said his school such as the College of William & Mary, said her college's competition is not said. Blacks excel academically, intellectually at predominantly black universities iV t ;s By Susannah Wood Columbia Daily Spectator Columbia, NY Black students at predominantly black colleges show almost 50 percent more intellectual and academic de- velopment than their counterparts at largely white institutions, according to Dr. Jaqueline Fleming, author of Blacks in College. Fleming based her assertions on her seven-year study of more than 3,000 col- lege students in four different states. Fleming discovered in her study that there was a large gap in academic de- velopment in the black students at white colleges. Students at black schools are much more likely to describe themselves as competent by their senior year than those at white schools, she said. Fleming cited three pressures on blacks in college that hinder their academic development: pressure to be- come involved in campus life, pressure toward academic achievement, and pressure to establish meaningful rela- tionships with faculty members. "A unique pressure for black students at white schools is faculty-related pressure," Fleming said. According to Fleming, black students at white colleges are much more likely to report unfairness in grading and lack of interest in their work by professors. They also find it more difficult to estab- lish informal relationships with profes- sors outside the classroom than their white counterparts do, she said. "Minority students are faced with a curriculum that ignores their existence; the teachers are ignoring them as well," she added. Fleming offered three suggestions to black students at white institutions to help them meet the pressures they en- counter: become leaders in campus acti- vities, find a mentor and concentrate on becoming academically confident in one area. "The challenge for minority students is to try to get the best of both worlds," said Fleming. "The challenge for the school is to cre- ate an environment where this is possible." SCA MPUS Q UOTABL ES "The days of ring-around-the-collar are still here, and still nobody has asked why he doesn't wash his neck." -Dr. Jean Kilbourne, speaking on women's role in advertising at West Virginia U.K Gregory Moore, The Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia U. "Vietnam was our first TV war. Many journalists reported irresponsibly ... Certain TV personalities had more influence on the public than the news announcements." - Gen. William Westmoreland speaking at James Madison U., Va.E Kari Burr, The Breeze, James Madison U., VA "What this (television and movies) has done to us is to make us think that our lives are not good stories. Lives are not supposed to be stories - stories are supposed to be stories." -Author Kurt Vonnegut speaks at Temple U., Pa. U Jonathan Berr, Temple News, Temple U., PA "I'm finding that nothing in my life ever is or ever has been planned. I never expected to live. I was always expecting to eat a can of tuna fish with botulism in it. So everything's been a surprise as a result." -Actor Spalding Gray talks about life.E Sarah Haines, Columbia Daily Spectator, Columbia U., NY shows "that (CU-Boulder Chancel- lor James) Corbridge is sincere, and we appreciate his efforts." Oliver said if CU is committed to increasing minority retention, there would be more financial aid available. "I'm getting half the aid I did when I came here." Oliver said she has known of many Hispanic students who started a semester and signed up for deferred tuition, but had to leave school becauseoftheirtuition bills. The lack of exposure to other cul- tures is evident in both the student body and faculty at CU, Martinez said. She has had teachers "slip" and make discriminating com- ments. Many at CU "are insensitive to our feelings because they don't understand the (Hispanic) history and culture." Denver North High school did not adequately prepare Oliver for CU either academically or for the white culture she found at the uni- versity. "It was just awful when I got here. Ijusthated it. I didn't think it would be so white. CU is not di- verse, and not receptive to people who aren't white." Living in the dorms shoved Oliv- er into a white world "of drugs and money" she had never seen before. She said there were students get- ting an allowance of $500 every two weeks. ".It's a whole different world here," she said. "They haven't seen poverty, and when they do, they have their own ideas of why it hap- pens, which is usually to blame the victim." School was difficult at times when teachers expected Martinez to know things she hadn't been ex- posed to. And Oliver said she was "upset at North for a long time be- cause I thought they threw me to the dogs. But I vowed I would graduate if it was the last thing I did. April Long, who is Chinese, graduated with a degree in econo- mics in August. Long credited CU's Opportunity Program with giving her writing and math skills. Pia Kelly, a member of the Black Student Alliance who will gradu- ated with a degree in English, said CU offers services such as peer counseling and tutoring that are not always used. "My first semester here I flunked trigonometry because I wasn't 6 aware of what was offered. People need to keep their eyes and ears open, and take advantage of what is offered before complaining about what isn't there." Oliver encouraged prospective minority students to "keep fighting to get in" to CU. CU has done well in recruiting minorities, Long said, adding that there are two ways graduation I rates could be improved: money and atmosphere. "Makingus feel at home is a big part of it."