Prospective Students

Salary: $60,000 Age: 52 Years on the job: 1.5 years How she got started: Jean Wible graduated with a degree in nursing from Marywood University in Pennsylvania. She worked as a nurse for more than 20 years, specializing in geriatric nursing and hospice care. In 1997 she became certified in massage therapy and built a private practice as a massage therapist while working part time as a nurse. The combination worked well, Wible said. "I was looking to balance things out. I wanted to move toward health and wellness instead of death and illness.

The newly admitted Johns Hopkins freshman discovered that he was the only member of this year's class from Arkansas. So he joined the university's Facebook site for recently enrolled students, where he mentioned often that he loves sweet tea. By the time he reached campus in late August, he had a first-night sipping date with three fellow tea lovers. For admissions counselor Daniel Creasy, that story sums up how social media have changed the way colleges recruit, enroll and orient new students.

Switch to digital TV is focus of session The Harford County Alliance of Black School Educators and the National Association of Broadcasters will hold an information session on next year's switch to digital TV transmission from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Harford Community College, Chesapeake Dining Room. Jordon Wertlieb, general manager of WBAL-TV, will be the guest speaker. By law, all TV stations must convert from analog to digital by Feb 17. Information: 410-588-5238. Towson-HCC degrees Harford Community College and Towson University are teaming up to offer elementary education and special-education degrees.

Meeting to address CO concerns Concerned about a series of carbon monoxide-related calls this summer, Baltimore County fire officials will hold a town meeting at 7 p.m. today in the Cove Village area to educate residents on how to prevent CO poisoning. The meeting at the Middleborough Volunteer Fire Department, 1913 Middleborough Road, is co-sponsored by Sawyer Realty Holdings Co., which manages the 94 townhomes in Cove Village. Residents are urged to attend the meeting to learn about Sawyer's plans for abating the CO problems and to share questions and concerns.

Rob Pietroforte, a senior at the Johns Hopkins University, hasn't had a Friday class since the first semester of his freshman year. A scheduling anomaly made this happy arrangement possible for many Hopkins students, and Pietroforte has used his free time to see the world. "There was a period last year when I was gone seven out of eight weekends," the economics major said. "I went to Las Vegas for my buddy's 21st birthday. I went to New York to visit my friend from home. I went to Ohio State for the Ohio State-Michigan game.

Laurel College Center, a partnership between Howard and Prince George's community colleges, will offer a free information session for prospective students at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Those who attend will learn about credit and noncredit courses, weekend classes and options for associate's and bachelor's degrees. The center is at 312 Marshall Ave., Suite 205, Laurel, adjacent to the Laurel Shopping Center. Information: 866-228-6110, or www.laurelcollegecenter.org. Around Town Lunch, bingo, dessert -- The Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 8097, 7209 Montevideo Road, Jessup, will sponsor a bingo, lunch and bake sale today.

She stopped showing up for most of her classes, pulled frequent all-nighters and overslept exams. Worse, writes MIT sophomore Lulu Liu on her blog, she skipped meals, growing skinny and sick. Yet she still earned A's and B's. "If it pleases you to lock yourself in your room - except to sneak out late at night in a trench coat to turn in your problem sets ... you'll find good company here," Liu wrote. Liu writes about her college experiences in as much excruciating detail as she wishes - for $10 an hour, courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's admissions office.

The sun was shining. The cameras were rolling. And the University of Maryland, Baltimore County students gathered between the orange cones were ready. And then, in two minutes, it was all over. Sometime around 12:45 p.m. yesterday, the Catonsville campus made history - its students declared they had staged the Guinness Book of World Records' largest water-gun fight. Never mind that only 114 people turned out for the battle or that they could only use puny squirt guns that needed constant refueling, or that at least one participant stepped out of bounds on the makeshift court, or that Guinness officials still needed to confirm the feat.

Perched before 230 high school students he hopes will attend his university this fall, Johns Hopkins President William R. Brody began a presentation Thursday by telling them one of his students had been brutally killed. It seemed an odd way to start, some of the prospective students and their parents would later say. But they listened as Brody described how a burglar entered a fraternity house through an open door, came upon Christopher Elser and attacked him. The April 17 stabbing of the junior from South Carolina - the first homicide in Charles Village since November 2000 - serves as a stark reminder to prospective students and their parents that if they choose to attend Johns Hopkins, they are opting to go to school in one of the most violent cities in America.