Middle schools helping students prep for college

University of Nevada, Reno representative, Tia Mathis, speaks to eighth graders at Schofield Middle School about college and what students need to do now to prepare themselves for high school and college.

By Jeff Pope

Friday, Oct. 24, 2008 | midnight

Eighth grader Sidney Cimorelli studies hard to try and earn straight A's this year.

"It'll look good when I'm applying for college," she said.

Her classmate at Schofield Middle School, Jenna Lilly, has talked with her parents about scholarships and loans to pay for college.

"I've been researching colleges and talking with them about what I want to major in and how (a degree) would benefit my life after college," she said.

Middle school is the right time to start planning for college academically or financially, said Schofield librarian Ruth Dyer, who organized the school's fourth annual College Week, Oct. 20-24.

Eighth graders met representatives from Nevada's colleges and universities to talk about college life and how they should prepare for four years down the road.

Schofield teachers wore shirts and sweaters from their alma maters while sharing their college experiences.

The cost of college can be discouraging for some. Scholarships, grants, loans and pre-paid tuition make college more accessible, said Christal Allen, admissions coordinator for the University of Nevada Reno, who spoke at Schofield on Oct. 20.

Tuition, books and room and board can cost about $13,200 annually at UNR, she said. Out-of-state-school tuition will be higher, making financial assistance one reason potential college students should work hard in high school from the start, she said.

"When I see students in high school and they want to apply for university, they want to go really bad and maybe they messed up their freshman year, their sophomore year and you can't go back and redo those years," Allen said.

By a show of hands, most eighth graders had not heard of Nevada's Millennium Scholarship.

The Millennium is an academic scholarship that pays a portion of the tuition for Nevada high school graduates who attend a college or university in state. It was created in 1999 to increase college enrollment in Nevada.

Recruiting in state also is challenging, Allen said. Nevada has one of the nation's highest high school and college drop out rates, according to the recently released 2008-09 Almanac, published annually by the Chronicle of Higher Education, a Washington, D.C.-based publication that looks at issues affecting higher education.

Nevada also ranks 47th in the country for the proportion of adults who hold college degrees.

"We have the challenge of high school seniors saying 'well, I can go valet and make $60,000 a year' and they can," she said. "That's why we decide to come into the schools earlier and help build the college culture."

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or jeff.pope@hbcpub.com.