"The tour bus pulled into Gettysburg College with a loud wheeze. Graciela Rodriguez, 12, stepped off and blinked for a moment at the white columns, brick facades and emerald lawns."
Graciela's parents had barely graduated from high school in El Salvador. Until recently, Graciela herself, who was born in Silver Spring and lives in Riverdale, had never set foot on a college campus.
Yet as she and the other eighth-graders in the group explored Gettysburg, where tuition runs $38,690 a year, their attitude was less that of awestruck visitors than of enthusiastic prospective students.
"Yes! This is where I'll be!" Graciela, who would like to study medicine, exclaimed when the guide announced that they'd entered the science building.
"Wow, really?" she said thoughtfully when told of the school's low professor-to-student ratio.
Graciela's parents had barely graduated from high school in El Salvador. Until recently, Graciela herself, who was born in Silver Spring and lives in Riverdale, had never set foot on a college campus.
Yet as she and the other eighth-graders in the group explored Gettysburg, where tuition runs $38,690 a year, their attitude was less that of awestruck visitors than of enthusiastic prospective students.
"Yes! This is where I'll be!" Graciela, who would like to study medicine, exclaimed when the guide announced that they'd entered the science building.
"Wow, really?" she said thoughtfully when told of the school's low professor-to-student ratio.