The Beginning of the College Search

Today I finally feel well enough to get out of bed for long periods of time. Toward the end of last week, I started having symptoms that suggested the onset of a cold. M-M had been ill earlier in the week, even stayed home from school one day, something she rarely does willingly. So I thought I had caught whatever had made her ill. I managed to make it to the end of the my work week, and although I didn't really feel well on Saturday, I carried through with our plans to visit the campus of Georgia State College and University in Milledgeville.

It was a beautiful day for a drive down to (or close to) the heart of Georgia. Once we left Interstate-20, we were in green rolling hills of pastures, Georgia's "Antebellum Trail." I had spent a week in Milledgeville several years ago while I was on the English faculty at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. I signed up for a week-long poetry workshop led by the poet Margaret Gibson; the workshop was part of a literary festival of workshops and events. I had a wonderful experience there and wish I had kept in touch with the interesting women who were part of that experience, but time, distance, responsibilities and personal challenges made it all too easy to drop our correspondence over too short of a time. However, my memories of that time surfaced when M-M's high-school counselor mentioned the college as a possibility for M-M's continued education. Georgia State College and University is the state's liberal arts college, a small college, but recognized as a good college. And since M-M wants to be an English teacher, this seemed as good a place as any to begin our search for a college in Georgia. The Hope Scholarship (tuition and many fees paid for students who maintain a "B" average or above) encourages us to give Georgia colleges and universities priority in our search.

We arrived a few minutes after 9 a..m.. People were already gathering on the lawn in front of Russell Auditorium and forming lines in front of the tables bearing big bowls of strawberries, platters of tiny muffins, and urns of coffee. We surveyed the crowd for a few minutes. Then I turned to my daughter and asked her, "Well, what are your first impressions?"

M-M hesitated for a moment. "It's very white," she said, "not much diversity." And so I had noticed, as well. Although the student chosen to address us later in the auditorium was African-American, most of the visiting high-school juniors were white. Of the 5,000+ undergraduate students, about 125 of them are international students. However, in these days of economic upheaval, parents are looking for colleges that offer the best opportunities for less money, and Georgia State College and University has been listed in the annual report of America's 100 Best College Buys, and Princeton Review has listed the college as a "Best Southeastern College."

M-M decided which sessions she would like for us to attend, and we divided up those sessions between us. For the next hour or so we attended separate sessions on financial aid, the college essay, the SAT/ACT, and a student panel. After those sessions we went to lunch in the student center and then walked around campus and downtown Milledgeville, comparing notes, making observations. We opted not to take the guided tours of campus, where parents and potential students clumped together in a big group around a GSCU student. We wandered instead, admiring the lovely green areas of the campus, the blooming dogwood and azalea. Downtown, we wandered into a gallery of pottery pieces and talked for a few minutes with the proprietor, a small, rinsed-blonde woman in her mid-forties to early-fifties who pointed out to us some of the empty buildings which were undergoing renovations. Downtown Milledgeville has a lot of empty buildings, a few restaurants and pool bars, a barber and style shop, a few businesses such as antique and junk shops. As one gets away from downtown one encounters the usual businesses of any town in Anywhere, America: Walmart, Walgreens (a new addition to Milledgeville), JC Penneys, fast food restaurants, Econo Lodges and such.

By 1:30 p.m., we had seen all we wanted to see that day, and I was feeling worse, so we headed north to Atlanta. Leaving town, we passed the sign to Andalusia, the farm-home of Flannery O'Connor, a destination for another day. M-M is still willing to keep an open mind about the college, but she is beginning to get a sense of the kind of university she would like to attend. And it seems to me that a diverse student body is one of the characteristics of that kind of university. The college M-M chooses will have to offer something very important to her to offset that lack of diversity. Her search has just begun.

Back home, I quickly succumbed to what must have been the flu, for I was in bed the rest of that day and all day Sunday, and for most of the day on Monday. Tom, returning from a quick trip out-of-state, where he delivered a car we bought for B (a 1993 Volvo--not a cool car but a practical car in terms of use and cost!), was also ill, though we think we might have had different contagions. Today I'm up and about, weak but gathering strength to return to work and play. The photos are pictures of my recently completed wool blocks for the quilts I am making for B and M-M.