On April 15, Laura Vitale was looking at her college acceptance materials. With the candidate reply date approaching, she knew she should sign her "commitment to attend" letter to her first-choice school and get it in the mail.

The next morning the campus with the return address of that acceptance letter, Virginia Tech, would capture her attention in other ways.

"When I saw (news about the shootings online), I really freaked out," said Vitale, a former Virginia resident who now lives in Manoa.

She called to her mother; they turned on the TV news to see the campus crawling with police. Later, Vitale barely attended her math and AP chemistry classes, waiting for responses from myriad phone calls, checking on friends.

"The cell phones would just ring, then go to a busy signal," Vitale recalled.

The news, when her calls were returned, wasn't good. Vitale said one person she knew had been among the victims. Another was injured, she said, declining to identify them.

Vitale said she was in shock at what she saw unfold in Blacksburg, Va.

"It's a really quiet, calm town," the Punahou senior said. "I went to volleyball camp there a few summers ago. It's a really peaceful, close-knit community."

Vitale still plans to sign the letter committing to attend Virginia Tech.

"The hardest part for me was being here, scared and upset, then talking to my friends there, who were 150 times more shocked. ... Everyone at Virginia Tech is so close, so connected," she said.

"I know the administration is going to take every precaution, and nothing like that is going to happen again. It could've happened anywhere."

And if anything, it's strengthened her choice.

"One of my friends in the dorm said, 'No one is friends-and-enemies. They're all just one big family,' " she said.

"That's something I want in a campus."