College Life is Approaching!!!!

Hello everyone!

Liana here with some updates. College season is here! Acceptance/Rejection list:

Pitzer College: Accepted
UC Berkeley: Accepted Spring Semester
Reed College: Accepted
UW Seattle: Accepted
UC San Diego: Accepted
UC Davis: Accepted
USC: Rejected
UC Irvine: Accepted
Stanford: Rejected (no duh!)

No big surprises with the USC and Stanford rejections... it was an unusually difficult year; Pitzer went from 37% acceptance to 26%, Harvard accepted 9%, an all-time low, Stanford rejected everyone from my school, including al the brilliant students who everyone expected/hoped would get in. Poopyheads. ^_^

So, my decision... um... I don't know. Truthfully, I'm leaning towards Pitzer. Berkeley, Reed, and UWSeattle are putting up a good fight though. I went to Pitzer today, and made a list of pros and cons:

Pros: 1) New dorms next year. Spacious, two rooms with two students each share one bathroom. Nice. 2) Joint Science Center with CMC and Scripps - strong, especially in Neurobiology. 3) All professors, no TAs. Dr. Sadava told us that this morning he spent an hour on the phone with a prof from CalTech trying to get a student a job in the lab. It's definitely hands on - that is no individual incident. 4) Class size: 7-23. No classes over 40. Very personalized. 5) Campus is small, but so connected that you can have a big-campus feel. Lots of organizations and 5-College activities. 6) Priximity to home and other friends. Close to home so that it's convenient, but not UCI-close. 7) I can take classes at other colleges: math at Harvey Mudd, languages at Pomona, leadership or business at Claremont McKenna. 8) Outstanding study abroad program: 64% of every class participates. 9) Wall street Journal ranked it very high in graduate- school-acceptance-rate. 10) They have excellent research opportunities with professors, even for freshmen.

Cons: 1) No financial aid. They're reevaluating the new tax return, but chances are it won't be very large. Also, I don't qualify to work on campus. 2) Don't award B.S.s, only B.A.s. I discussed this with admissions and the school president, and they assure me it doesn't make a difference to grad schools or employers, but still... 3) No city life - it's not very prominent, like in Berkeley, Seattle, or Portland. 4) I like the campus feel of Berkeley a bit better.

Don't even quote the U.S. World News ranking thing to me - it's totally not legit. I really don't like that ranking, and agree with the school presidents, like Reed, who refuse to participate. Anyway, I'm going to the UC San Diego Admit Day later today, the 14th of April. Tomorrow will be the UC Berkeley Admit Day, and next Saturday is Reed's Admit Day. I'll also be spending the night at Pitzer on Monday.

More updates to come!