UNIVERSITY ATTRACTING SCHOLARLY STUDENTS

Southeast Missouri State University is not Harvard, but it is attracting its share of scholarly students.

Thirteen National Merit finalists this fall will attend Southeast, the most in the school's history.

"We had two last year. We had three in our whole history before this year," said Juan Crites, director of admissions/new student relations.

Nationwide, there are about 14,000 National Merit finalists. They represent the best and the brightest students, basically those in the top 2 percent, said Crites. "These are elite kids."

Thad Ortman of Milford, Iowa, in the northwest part of that state, is one of the National Merit finalists that will attend Southeast this fall.

The 17-year-old Ortman is the first student from his high school to attend Southeast.

"I went and talked to my guidance counselor and he had no idea where Southeast was or that it even existed," said Ortman.

But thanks to the recruiting efforts of Crites, Ortman learned about Southeast.

"Juan called me up and talked to me for a little bit, and she told me how good the education program was down there, because I want to be a history teacher," he said.

Crites also sent Ortman informational literature about the university.

Last February, Ortman and his family made the 700-mile, 12- to 14-hour trip to Cape Girardeau to visit the campus.

"We spent a day and a half touring around the campus," he said.

He also sat in on a psychology class. "I talked to the teacher a little bit. I talked to some of the students," he said.

Ortman said he was impressed with how friendly people were.

In the end, he chose Southeast over such schools as the University of Northern Iowa, University of Southern California, South Dakota State University and Washington University in St. Louis.

"Southeast has the best teacher education program out of all of them," said Ortman.

He said Southeast also was the only school he looked at that offered him a full-ride scholarship. The most offered at other schools was $2,000 a semester.

But he said the quality of its programs and the friendliness of people were the primary factors.

The 13 National Merit finalists are among 55 incoming students from 12 states who have been awarded Governor's Scholarships, Southeast's most prestigious scholarship.

Despite the name, the governor has nothing to do with the scholarship. It is funded entirely by the university and provides recipients with a full-ride scholarship, including tuition, room and board and textbook rental.

In order to qualify for a Governor's Scholarship, a student must be a National Merit finalist or rank in the upper 3 percent of his or her high school class and have an ACT score of at least 31.

Crites said the university exceeded its goal of attracting 45 Governor's scholars this year. "We are pretty excited," she said.

There currently are 123 Governor's scholars at the university.

Lawrence Clark, director of the honors program at Southeast, said the university has put a strong emphasis on recruiting scholars and National Merit finalists since Kala Stroup became university president in 1990.

"Dr. Stroup came in and said the university needs to do a better job of recruiting good students. We didn't know how successful we could be," he said.

Crites said the university purchased some of the listings of National Merit finalists and then contacted them by mail.

In addition to full-ride scholarships, Governor's scholars are provided with faculty mentors throughout their college career at Southeast.

Pamela Hearn, coordinator of the Governor's scholarship program at Southeast, said the mentors are usually faculty members in the students' major fields of study.

"Probably a total of 100 faculty members on campus have served as mentors," said Hearn.

"We have a lot of special activities for them (Governor's scholars)," she said. "They get to check into the dorms earlier. They get to enroll earlier, just like the athletes."

The students also have an option to study abroad under various programs, with the university picking up the tab.

This fall for the first time, the university is providing each National Merit finalist with a computer and printer in their residence hall rooms. The Southeast Missouri University Foundation is paying the bill.

Each National Merit finalist at Southeast also receives a $1,000 stipend. The money is held in trust and must be used for an academic project.

The students also receive a $200 stipend to purchase books and supplies at the university bookstore, complimentary tickets to an event at the Show Me Center and optional honors housing.

Clark said National Merit finalists, Governor's scholars and other scholars can participate in the university's honors program, which involves special activities and courses restricted to honors students.

Southeast has one honors floor set aside in Myers Hall for upperclassmen. This fall, two new floors are being set aside in Towers South for honors students, one for men and the other for women, Clark said.

Clark said National Merit finalists and those who qualify for Governor's Scholarships take the selection of a university very seriously.

"They are a tough sell," said Clark. "These are tough customers and they check us out."

Crites said, "They want to know what mainframe computer system we use, and if we have a chess club. They want to sit in on classes."

But said Clark, "That's not to paint these students as nerds."

Crites said the scholars the university recruits are multi-talented.

"One kid plays three instruments. They are in choirs. One was in a rock band," she said. "Some have five years of language. A lot of these kids had German in high school."

Clark said Governor's scholars make good university students. After the fall semester last year, more than a third of the scholars had a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

"The university gets an awful lot of valedictorians and salutatorians," he said. Seventeen high school valedictorians and nine salutatorians will enter Southeast this fall.

"A lot of schools play up the snob appeal," said Clark. But that's not the case at Southeast.

It's the academic programs and the people that attract good students, said Crites.

Hearn said, "I think we have a lot of hands-on attention here."

Crites said the scholars are attracted by a wide range of academic degree programs, including science, technology and education.

She said the conference room in the admissions office is a busy place, with a steady stream of prospective student scholars visiting the campus.

One family of nine recently had to take two cars to make the trip to Cape Girardeau to visit the campus. A Xenia, Ohio high school student took an 11-hour bus ride just to visit Southeast, she said.