'Clueless' students are grateful for guidance

High school senior Kevin Boyle is clueless. "I have nothing done on my college applications. I haven't taken any Achievements. I filled out like two applications," Boyle said nervously as he sat on the edge of his folding chair in Houston Hall Auditorium last night. "I don't know where I want to go, or what I want to major in." "Anything would help," the Cardinal Dougherty High School senior said. "I'm totally clueless." Boyle hoped to become less clueless about college by attending last night's Futures program, at which University students and administrators offered their assistance to Philadelphia high school seniors with questions about the application process. And many other students came not only with general questions, but with specific questions about the University. "I'm interested in Penn, but at the same time, I just wanted to get some application help," Boyle said. Nursing sophomore Rebecka Mowdy sat with Boyle and joked about the University's application. "We're trying to figure out why they ask these essays," Boyle said with a laugh. "I would have liked a little more help with my application," Mowdy, a Girls High alumna, said. "I basically did everything on my own." West Catholic Philadelphia senior Gion Jones held her essay in a folder under the table with both hands, waiting for a University student volunteer to give her advice. Jones said that she was "kind of scared" about the application process, and that she plans on applying to the University. "Hopefully, they'll help me out," Jones said with a smile as wide as the rim of her studded baseball cap. "It's just that I always go where I have extra chances. If I have an extra chance to do something, I'll take it." Saint Joseph's Preparatory School senior Bill Bandoch, when asked if he was nervous about applying to college, laughed. "Yeah. Oh, yeah," he said, adding that the University is "a pretty competitive school." Bandoch, however, exhibited some competitive tendencies of his own. "I figured I'd come here, and go right to the horse's mouth about Penn," Bandoch said. "Here at Penn, you figure you can get more about what Penn will look for in your application." His father, Bill Bandoch, said that, so far, the application process has not been horrendous. "You figure probably it'll start around the end of December with all of the required financial aid forms," he said. "So far, it hasn't been too bad." Bandoch said he came with his son to find out more about the process. "I wanted to get all the information I could find, I never attended college myself," he said. "I just wanted to see what we're going to have to go through."

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