• Age: 18

• Address: Cold Spring

• High School: Campbell County

• College status: Freshman, University of Kentucky, majoring in biology, history and linguistics

• Estimated cost: $8,000 a year

• How he'll make it happen: He received a $20,000 Presidential Scholarship that covers tuition over four years. He'll be able to pay half the balance with Kentucky Education Excellence Scholarships. He also received a $2,500 scholarship from the UK Alumni Association and a $500 valedictorian scholarship. His parents will pay the rest.

• How high college costs are affecting him: Finances played a key role in his college choice. If he had gone to a different school, he figured he would have had to work his way through college.

"It would be frightening to be the parents of a newborn or a 5- or 10-year-old," says his father, Donn Manker.

"When you look at the overall cost of college, it's really just stunning. We've been fortunate, because both of our sons received good scholarships."