My Successful Letter of Appeal to UC Berkeley
Republished from The Huffington Post: https://huff.to/Yb74KD UC Berkeley was my dream school. In fact, as a student at a large public high school in the East Bay, as the son and grandson of alumni, and as a young person interested in politics, the University of California, Berkeley, was one of the few schools I knew. I applied in November of my senior year of high school. That spring, I received a thin letter in the mail from the admissions office. I went to the garage to open it, to receive the good news. Maybe the small letter would inform me that the fat packet of smiling faces of my future classmates was on its way or available online? Nope. I decided to appeal the decision. I knew the odds were slim: less than 1 percent of the student body at Berkeley were admitted off an appeal. Additionally, I was under the [...]
Collegiate Attrition After Year One
College students have a lot on their minds these days. From balancing classwork, a job, extra curricular activities, and budding social lives, it can all become one huge blur. And sometimes, all this pressure can force students to withdraw from their university studies. And should students choose to pull out, there’s a group people beyond the students themselves who pay the price: taxpayers. That’s right, taxpayers. A new report shows that states appropriated almost $6.2 billion for four-year colleges and universities between 2003 and 2008 to help pay for the education of students who did not return for year two.
The agony of small envelopes
College acceptances and rejections
After colleges make their decisions, it’s time to make yours
Ultimately, I was very happy with my final choice—though honestly, I know that I would have been happy with many of the schools to which I applied. After all of the stress of applying to schools, we sometimes forget that it can also be very difficult to hold the decision-making power. Here are some pointers that I learned from my own experience.
The Honorable Thing To Do
A recent NYT article discusses controversy over the downsides and benefits of too many honor societies in high schools. I look at the article through the lens of my own experience.
Early Decision, Later Reflections
Not every early decision application to a college comes from a place of utmost certainty. I applied early to a school largely due to pressure that everyone else was doing it so I had to in order to remain competitive. I didn’t get in-and that turned out okay.
Love/Hate Relationships…with college
I caught this “13 Things Students Love to Hate About College” article on the excellent Professors’ Guide page on USNews.com. They pick up on several common complaints that students have in college and I thought I’d offer my two cents on a few that resonated the most with me. 3. My professor is unbelievably boring. What you can do: Drop the course and find another one with a better professor. Every college has its duds, but there’s no reason why you have to get stuck with one. Even if the professor is the only person teaching a required course, there are always possibilities of getting the adviser or the department chair to authorize a substitution for a requirement. Or just wait until the course is next offered, ideally with an instructor who at least makes a minimal effort to keep you awake. Okay, now this is a bit extreme…I didn’t [...]
