Published: January 07, 2009 11:58 pm      

College 101 Night

provides students, parents much-needed tips as they face higher ed application process

CUMBERLAND — A couple of years ago when he was an upperclassman at Allegany High School, all Brian Mathews knew was that he wanted to go to a big college and study business.

Financial aid form? Never saw one. Application essay? Never wrote one.

Now that he’s getting ready to start his second semester at Penn State University, Mathews is ready to share everything he’s learned about how to make it into college.

Tonight, he’ll sit on a panel with about a dozen other recent graduates for College 101 Night, an informal, two-hour get-together for Allegany County high school students and their parents.

“We want to give parents and students a firsthand view, based on personal experiences, of what it’s like to look for a college,” said Erin DeLong, a member of the Allegany High School Academic Endowment Fund, which is hosting the event.

“How to fill out financial aid forms, make college applications, visit colleges, write your essay. All of the different components.”

Last year, about 100 people attended the first College 101, including Bretta Reinhard, who remembered being “terrified and overwhelmed” trying to help her son Robert apply to colleges.

“You cannot do too much,” said Reinhard, who will sit on tonight’s panel. “You cannot do it too soon.”

Robert Reinhard, who will also be a panel member, has made a “good transition” to Wake Forest University, where he’s a freshman this year, his mother said. The university is one of more than 50 schools represented by a pennant on the wall of Allegany High School’s cafeteria.

“We just wanted to put up something to let the kids know that what they’re doing right now matters,” said Laurie Marchini, an Endowment Fund member who helped tack the pennants to the wall last summer.

Among schools represented are Penn State, Clemson, Shenandoah, Lake Erie College, Syracuse, University of Richmond, Emory, Virginia Military Institute, U.S. Naval Academy, Indiana University, University of Tennessee, University of Maryland, West Virginia University, and of course, Frostburg State University and Allegany College of Maryland. More pennants are on the way.

Painted on the wall beneath the pennants is a question: “ALCO Alums Call These Schools Home ... Where Is Your Future?”

“You know, we want them to make the connection that what they do in high school, it can close doors for them, but it can open doors for them too,” Marchini said.

Going straight to college isn’t the only option, either. Bishop Walsh High School graduate Kelly Walbert was accepted at American University in 2007, but took a “year off” to teach and travel in South America.

“I didn’t know anyone who’d taken a year off,” said Walbert, 19. “In the U.K. it’s a big norm. I met loads of British people who are my age taking a year off. .. .I thought it would be a good idea to let people know there are other options.”

Mathews, who wore a blue Penn State sweatshirt Tuesday night during a briefing about tonight’s panel, said all the effort involved in getting into college was worth it.

“I love it,” he said.

Contact Kristin Harty at kharty@times-news.com.