Time's Up on Multiple-Choice Test for College

D.C. Senior Had to Weigh Aid, Location and Academics

Months of honing college essays, meeting application deadlines, filling out financial aid forms, all on top of a full class load that included Advanced Placement English literature, have led James Watkins to this moment.

He has been accepted at eight colleges, and they needed something only he can give them. An answer. Today.

His adviser at Thurgood Marshall Academy in the District was telling him to go to Bates College in rural Maine; it offered a big scholarship. But Watkins, who is African American, had his heart set on the historically black Clark Atlanta University, a little more than a mile from the city's bustling downtown. He liked Delaware State, too, but his friend told him he was "too good" for the school.

"What does that mean?" Watkins asked.

Like thousands of high school seniors across the country, Watkins, 18, had to decide where he would spend his college years. Many universities require students to commit no later than May 1. For students such as Watkins who are accepted into several schools, choosing among them is sometimes agonizing.

Should he take the money and go to Bates? Or should he listen to his heart and head to Clark Atlanta, which has yet to offer him any aid?

Watkins was proud he had so many options but confused about what to do. The deciding factors ranged from the serious -- questions of academic rigor and whether schools have his preferred major, communications -- to the more superficial, such as the quality of off-campus retail. He developed an affinity for Delaware State, he said, during a tour when he saw a Best Buy store across the street.

He also wanted a school where he would fit in, no worries. He wasn't overly concerned that Bates is 80 percent white, but he said that when he went to a local event for admitted students, he was one of two black students there, and he didn't feel totally comfortable.

He wears his long hair plaited into cornrows and favors hip-hop music, wanting to pursue a career in the music industry. He smiles warmly, although by his own admission, it can take some time for him to open up to strangers.

And there is the issue of money. Watkins was raised by his single mother, and based on his academic promise and financial need, he was selected for the first group of D.C. Achievers, a new college prep and scholarship program run by the D.C. College Success Foundation.

The program gives students as much as $9,700 a year in college scholarships for as long as five years to address a gap in the number of students going to and finishing college. Studies show that about one in 20 students living in the city's poorest neighborhoods will receive a college degree. Nationally, 23 percent of college-going high school students will graduate within five years, according to the report "Double the Numbers for College Success: A Call to Action for the District of Columbia."

Given that, financial aid was at the heart of the conflict between Watkins's top two choices, Clark Atlanta and Bates.