[speaker001:] okay well having uh personally uh helped uh two children attend or or to select colleges one of them not very successfully I'm not sure if I'm any authority on this topic at all
[speaker002:] well which colleges did they go to
[speaker001:] well a daughter uh went to the University of Virginia that was a good selection she
[speaker002:] that's a beautiful school beautiful school
[speaker001:] yeah really is and she was she was very very happy there and very and very successful in what she picked to do so uh she's just graduated from there so that was a good selection uh our son has this kind of you know he's well he started out going Stephen F Austin and that turned turned into you know flunking out because of of of uh too many parties going on then he stayed out of school for a while then he went to Richland for a couple of years and then he went to to DePaul in Chicago which would have been great but uh it was so expensive so now he's now he's back
[speaker002:] well I guess the question then becomes how did you all make the selection or did you just let them do them by themselves
[speaker001:] well in in that case with him uh he kind of made the selections by himself and I think that we should have given him more direction and he was our first you know so we we didn't have quite the insight that uh that we would have had if he'd been our second like we did with Karen so uh but I I think you know I just in terms of of what happened I think that first of all I'd I would know the reputation of the school and uh for more than just academics but you know if it's a party school or not although I think every school is a party school to some degree personally
[speaker002:] well that's true of course uh you know for me my son he's only six and but I had the experience with my sister going to school and she was I treated my sister almost like my daughter because she was nine ten years younger than I was and it's
[speaker001:] right uh-huh right
[speaker002:] and she ended up going to the University of Oklahoma
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I can say that because it was a big well known school it had a well known education and it was a wonderful education but yet it was a small school
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] whereas I went to the University of Texas which was you know a million people go there
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] I think that for me it's going to be one of those things yes I want to make sure it has a good education but I also want to keep it small enough that you can enjoy it because Texas to me was almost too big
[speaker001:] yeah I've heard that from people who have gone to Texas yeah I went to uh Iowa State which is also a big eight school like Oklahoma
[speaker002:] it's way too big yes yes I'm I'm quite aware
[speaker001:] yeah and uh when I was there it was maybe eleven or twelve thousand people which was just a great size I thought it's it's
[speaker002:] Texas only had fifty five thousand when I was there
[speaker001:] oh gosh that's just awful
[speaker002:] and for me I had to admit the one thing that I lacked was the uh interaction between uh students I knew everybody within my dorm but that was it
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] because the school was just too big and whereas my sister when I went to visit her she knew everybody on the whole durn campus
[speaker001:] yeah yes that that's true it makes a lot of difference and uh
[speaker002:] so uh course now we're we're already telling our son you know Texas uh Oklahoma's good and Arkansas is good now of course Texas is good only because you know
[speaker001:] uh-huh you went to school there yeah right uh-huh
[speaker002:] I went because I went there of course but uh we're going my parents let me choose on my own and I want to pretty much allow him to choose on his own but I kind of keep an ear open as to what he's doing
[speaker001:] uh-huh sure oh yeah yeah well our daughter chose uh Virginia because she didn't want to go to school in Texas I mean she just sort of didn't want to go to school here
[speaker002:] well I was when I was in Louisiana in Shreveport I would go to any school except LSU I did not want to school in the in the same state
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah same deal yeah and uh in fact she was accepted at two schools in Texas uh Rice and Trinity but she decided she wanted to go out of state and uh Virginia was uh you know in the east it wasn't a you know it wasn't an Ivy League school but it was well it's quite a bit further and it was uh of the state schools that she could have gone to it was one of the cheapest yet one of the best too you know with the academics and the tradition and everything that is there uh she made a really good selection we thought and so uh she pretty much made that herself herself but she did have some others in the wings you know there's another school that she she would have have gone to if she hadn't been accepted there so uh I don't know I think it really depends a lot on the child because our daughter is was just a lot more levelheaded about her process the process
[speaker002:] luckily I still have twelve more years to worry about it
[speaker001:] yeah so uh but you know I guess you have to really look at your finances and uh Texas has such a bargain in education I mean
[speaker002:] right now they do now if the uh legislature has their way they're going to raise the tuition in in double
[speaker001:] yeah I know I know
[speaker002:] and see back when I went to school there when I first entered the school it cost me two hundred dollars as an out as an out of state student
[speaker001:] uh that's something uh
[speaker002:] but then I was there for about two and a half years they then switched it to forty dollars per semester hour so almost overnight I went from two hundred dollars to eight hundred dollars
[speaker001:] oh wow my gosh
[speaker002:] and I have to admit uh
[speaker001:] that was a shocker
[speaker002:] I wasn't I wasn't quite ready for that one
[speaker001:] no I'll bet not
[speaker002:] it took me only about twelve years after I graduated to finish paying off the bill but that's
[speaker001:] yeah yeah yeah I know how that is
[speaker002:] but at least I was one of the good guys I did pay my bill off in full yes I did yeah
[speaker001:] you did pay yours good yeah my husband went to school on loans too and and we he was able you know we paid his off after we were married but uh well I'm at the university of Texas at Dallas and as a graduate student and uh you know I have to say that uh it's a real bargain I mean for as far as I'm concerned it's been a real bargain of course you know living at home makes a lot of difference if I had to to pay room and board somewhere that would make a lot of difference uh in
[speaker002:] yeah well what about the University of Virginia how much did it end end up costing
[speaker001:] uh I think uh on a yearly basis I'm trying to think I would just make it a rough figure of about uh with with the travel expenses and so on although she didn't come home that much uh actually I would say between twelve and thirteen thousand a year
[speaker002:] that's a long way uh that's not too bad
[speaker001:] it's not when you look at the you know the school and the fact that she was
[speaker002:] now did she get to did she get to live in the dorm on that very front row you know that goes up by the rotunda
[speaker001:] uh no on the lawn no no that's that's an honor that's bestowed on very few and she didn't get to do that although she knew people who did live there but yeah that's that would have been neat
[speaker002:] when we went to visit it we didn't know what it was and my little kid he was opening every one of the mailboxes looking inside to see what he could find
[speaker001:] well you know the graduation takes place right there on the lawn on on that in that big fat grassy area and uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] they had four thousand graduates this spring and boy that was quite an event I'll tell you
[speaker002:] yeah we went on the Blue Ridge Parkway last year and we went to visit th at was the very last thing we saw was at the tail end of the Parkway we had we had a blast
[speaker001:] oh yeah yeah that's a great place to visit that really is yeah
[speaker002:] it is it I can see why you want to go there that's
[speaker001:] yeah well they're just so it's just steeped in tradition and and the uh you know they're they still talk about Mister Jefferson the you know I mean the founder of the school of course was Mister Jefferson Thomas Jefferson and they and and a lot of
[speaker002:] uh-huh and of course you'v e got to go to say hello to Monticello yeah yeah
[speaker001:] right uh-huh and and a lot of the of his traditions I mean for instance they don't call the students freshmen sophomore junior senior they call them first year second year third year and fourth year because Mister Jefferson felt that one's education never ended and to you put those four designations of freshmen sophomore and so on on the person's education limited them and he felt that you could go on to school forever you should just have the number of years that you were there attached to your name if you want to do identify someone so
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] I had to be very careful about talking about seniors or fourth year students you got to get the terminology right
[speaker002:] well I tell you what I've enjoyed talking I'm going to go ahead and hang up on this end because it's just about time for supper so
[speaker001:] yes all righty yes it certainly is I got to go make it here
[speaker002:] actually it it was a fun conversation I enjoyed it
[speaker001:] well I I this is my last one you're number ten of ten that I can I
[speaker002:] congratulations well congratulations