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This is Brad Burton, teenager. He enjoys sports, has fun being 18 years old, listens when his two older sisters and mother Beth offer advice, and takes seriously his role as big brother to five younger brothers and sisters. This is also Brad Burton, student extraordinaire. He and others like him, the first freshmen of the next millennium, represent the changing face of college in North Carolina, and the course they're charting is far different from that of students of the past. They're smarter, for one thing. With a high school grade point average of 4.79, on a scale where 4.0 was once “perfect,” Burton is among the brightest. However, students like him also pose new challenges. Christoph Guttentag, Duke University admissions director, calls it “grade inflation” and says it has college officials fretting over how to fairly select the most qualified students. He says it also poses a real quandary for young people just beginning high school today. If their classmates are so good, what should they be doing to tip the college admissions scale in their favor in the year 2000 and beyond? That's a huge question at a school like UNC Chapel Hill, where Jerome Lucido, associate provost and admissions director, notes that the majority of this fall's 3,400 Carolina freshmen have averages exceeding 4.0. Applications accompanied by photos of the student, dressed from diapers to prom gown all in Carolina blue, no longer carry much weight. “We get those with letters that say, `I hope to still be wearing it next fall,'” laughs Lucido. “You'd probably better spend your time on that one last research paper.” Students in high school today can't expect competition in the new millennium to let up, either. After steady enrollments for years, says Dr. Gary Barnes, vice president of the University of North Carolina System, this fall's contingent of 155,106 students begins a growth swell that will reach 203,000 by year 2008. More students equate to even more competition. On another front, more students also mean college money is going to be spread thinner. Fortunately, Brad Burton won't have to worry about financial aid. A May graduate of Hoggard High School in Wilmington, his $52,000 Morehead Scholarship covers everything for four years at UNC Chapel Hill. Unfortunately, he's in the minority. “The good news is, there are plenty of loans available,” says Dr. Steve Brooks, executive director of the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority in Raleigh, the state's clearinghouse for student aid needs. The bad news is they're loans, not grants, as institutions continue to shift money from need to merit scholarships. “The richest families can afford full cost, and we take care of families without anything to contribute, but that leaves a large group in the middle,” adds Dr. Paul Escott, dean of Wake Forest University. Two-thirds of Wake's aid remains as grants, but Escott's concerns echo across the state's 16 public and 37 private campuses. The N.C. Association of Colleges and Universities, whose members represent those schools plus community colleges, found Tar Heel student borrowing increased 138 percent, from $226 million to $536 million, in the latest six-year period for which figures are available. The message to students and parents? Don't despair. As a proportion of family income, college costs remain lower than 20 years ago. But you should begin financial preparations earlier, and consider tax-favored savings, such as the state's new College Vision Fund. However, welcome changes are in the wind, too. For one, students two years ago began enrolling at community colleges under a revamped curriculum and semester schedule that permits seamless transfer to four-year colleges. They will appear this fall for the first time as juniors at their new schools. That opens the college door to thousands and will help close a gap in which, although about 65 percent of today's North Carolina high school graduates continue their education, the rate is still below national average. The narrower the gap, the greater the state's economic competitiveness. Dr. Tony Zeiss, president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, says a student like his son, Bryan, who lives at home and attends CPCC, can do that for less than $2,000 a year, including books and fees, before transferring to a four-year university such as UNC Charlotte. In that case it could cut the four-year cost from more than $33,000 to about $18,000. And the resulting four-year degree won't be worth a cent less. The College Board values it at $1.5 million over a lifetime, compared to less than $1 million for a high school diploma. The impending flood of students is good news for small colleges and historically black colleges, too. To keep up with the looming boom, the state is committing millions to upgrading seven of them, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, UNC Pembroke, Western Carolina and Winston-Salem State. They should be measurably better by the time today's high school freshmen are elbowing for campus room, says Barnes, and some of those schools already hold pleasant surprises. Walk across the Sandhills campus of UNC Pembroke with May chemistry graduate Ben Gersh. “I was surprised to find things here they don't even have in some graduate schools, like nuclear magnetic resonance equipment,” he explains, adding that he completed projects in electrophoresis and other areas on his way to becoming 1999 chemistry graduate of the year. Pembroke's enrollment of 3,000 will grow 40 percent under the expansion plan. This spring, its students gave the university the highest satisfaction rating of any in the state system. “You can meet professors in the cafeteria and they know you,” says Gersh, 22. “They ask you what you thought about their lecture, or you talk politics or sports. I loved the atmosphere.” Whether considering a large school or small, financing options, or possible majors, the most urgent question for the high school student today is: What should I be doing today to get into the college of my choice tomorrow? The answer, according to a consensus of admissions directors, is: Concentrate on becoming a complete package of leadership, community service and brains. But make no mistake. Grade inflation or not, a huge factor will forever be academics, including the honors and advanced-placement courses that are constantly pushing averages higher. An A in an advanced placement course is worth a 5 on the GPA, whereas an A in a regular course is worth a 4. “Long-term achievement and excellence in advanced studies is the best signal you can send about your readiness for college studies,” says Dr. George Dixon, vice provost and director of admissions at N.C. State University. With 27,000 students, NCSU is the largest university in North Carolina. However, there's increasingly more to it than that. Return to Yorkshire Lane in Wilmington to see why. There, Brad Burton rummages through mail on his desk for his final report card. He opens it to reveal A's for advanced-placement calculus, physics and European history; an A+ for English; and two more A's for Spanish III and weight training. At UNC Chapel Hill, however, officials say Burton's excellent grades alone didn't earn him the prestigious Morehead Scholarship. Fortunately, he took it to heart back in the ninth grade when his older sisters, already in college, suggested he build a little slack into his schedule. “They told me to be involved in sports and outside activities, and to leave time for fun,” he says. So, his schedule included the National Honor Society, Beta and Spanish clubs and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He was captain of the Vikings, his basketball team. And, he hung out a bit, too. Students like Burton are why colleges in year 2000 and beyond will increasingly look beyond stratospheric academics. How, for instance, do they evaluate a bright, hardworking student from a mountainous Mitchell County school too small to offer honors courses, compared to one from Charlotte's Myers Park High School with dozens, plus an International Baccalaureate program? How do they measure intangibles? “Are today's students really better prepared for college?” asks Wake Forest's Dean Escott. “Yes and no. They do take a lot more advanced courses and arrive with backgrounds unimaginable 15 years ago. But parents tend to push them and lavish so much attention on them that they haven't learned to cope with the little daily complications that come up in college.” Carol Kercheval, director of admissions at Raleigh's Meredith College, a four-year women's college, elaborates. “We like to see a student who took the strongest and broadest high school program available, but we also look for a student who showed she could manage her own time well.” It's the same on other campuses. At UNC Chapel Hill, Lucido expects applicants to “stretch themselves,” in high school. But he and other admissions directors also look for leadership traits, and the student who sacrificed all in pursuit of whopping grades might still get a rejection letter. Another memo to today's high school student from college deans and admissions directors: Don't forget to write. “Television seems to have eroded writing skills,” says Wake's Escott. At many schools, an essay, often autobiographical, is required and if written compellingly, it can inch the student forward in a crowded field. After all, admissions officers are human, too. “If you're sitting there at 11:30 on a cold February night reading essay number forty-nine of the day,” says Kathy Bray Merrell, associate dean of admissions at Davidson College, “a good one can really leap out and catch your eye.” Davidson will admit 460 freshmen this fall. Regardless of admission secrets, financing the diplomas of year 2000 and beyond will be a challenge. Reality check: The average private university this fall will cost $21,424 for tuition, room, board and the works, and the comparable figure is $10,069 at a state university. Thankfully, nobody pays retail. “Once they get past the sticker price,” says Guttentag at Duke, where 60 percent of freshmen apply for aid, “most families are pleasantly surprised at the actual cost.” Brooks, the state expert, agrees. “The message for the young person in the fifth grade who's saying, `What difference does it make if I make A's or C's or take a challenging math course?' is essentially that anyone who is academically qualified can go to college in North Carolina.” Here's why. College money will continue to come in only three forms — grants and scholarships, loans, and a relatively small number of work-study programs. What's changing is the proportions, with the shift to loans. However, even the priciest schools assume few families can afford full fare, and Dr. Hope Williams, president of the N.C. Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, points out that private schools, while more expensive, provide substantially higher aid. For instance, Duke, Wake and Davidson, all church affiliated, promise that the most academically qualified students will be admitted, regardless of money. “Only about 50 schools nationwide still do that,” notes Escott. Although the mix is shifting, Tar Heel students and families will find loans available, at low rates, through such agencies as the private College Foundation Inc., in Raleigh, which administers more than $140 million a year in loans through the Federal Family Education Loan Program. There are ways, too, to sidestep high costs. Students in cooperative education programs with local employers -- the average co-op student in North Carolina earned $8,000 last year -- offset large portions of their expenses, and most colleges offer work-study aid. Helps lies in unsuspecting places, too. Ask Catherine Yatko, a May graduate of Ashbrook High School in Gastonia, who received a $600 scholarship from the Homebuilders Association of Gaston County to attend Western Carolina University. Children of association members are eligible, an example of how hundreds of business organizations, industries, churches and civic organizations mete out millions in scholarships each year. Don't dismiss ROTC programs. Put it all in perspective, advise college officials. The majority of students who graduate next spring will owe about $15,000 -- the price of a Toyota Corolla that most would finance without blinking an eye. That's why Meredith's Kercheval and others say students and families should concentrate on fit, not finances. “To me, `UNC' was always Chapel Hill,” adds Gersh, the Pembroke student. “But I came to realize I would feel really out of place there — a little fish in a huge ocean. There was more of an at-home feeling here.” Students and parents may consider too, whether a single sex school like Raleigh's Peace College for women, or a historically black university such as Charlotte's Johnson C. Smith University, might be a good choice. On a recent afternoon in Biddle Hall, the stately, 1883 brick administration building of the Charlotte school, Dr. Dorothy Yancey, president, recalled arriving as a frightened freshman from an Alabama farm in the 1960s. This fall at freshman orientation, as she does each year, she will ask the school's 475 new students to look around. “I expect you,” she tells them, “to help each other graduate.” The message? “Parents should have some understanding of the environment their child needs,” she says. “Sometimes a single-sex, or majority black college can provide an environment where student self-esteem and self-worth are elevated for survival in a larger world.” The new community college transfer program is a step in the same direction, adds Dr. Elizabeth Johns in Raleigh, vice president for academic and student services of the N.C. Department of Community Colleges. In addition to cutting the cost of a baccalaureate degree — CPCC's Zeiss says it'll also save taxpayers millions in campus construction by relieving pressure on four-year institutions — Johns notes that transfer students have higher graduation rates. About 22 percent of community college students traditionally have transferred, a figure Barnes, the senior UNC system official, expects to soar. Under the new plan, they can carry with them 44 credit hours for designated courses. “It used to truly be a nightmare, not knowing what would transfer and what wouldn't,” adds Johns. Those students, many of them nontraditional scholars, will also become models to younger classmates as campuses of the new millennium increasingly reflect futurist John Naisbitt's prediction that today's student will change careers four times and have to retrain for each. On a recent Friday evening at Greenville Women's Clinic in Greenville, Brenda Jackson, 45, discharged her last patient of the week. She recalled digging up her 25-year-old transcripts from Bertie County High School in 1996 — “My daughter told me they were probably written on stone” — and heading off to Martin Community College for a degree in medical assisting. She thought back over a succession of deadend jobs. “When I graduated from high school, we weren't wealthy and college wasn't in my future,” she says. “Now, it has given me one.” Copyrighted material. This story first appeared in the September 1999 issue of North Carolina magazine.
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