College Search Process......Then and Now

coralbrook
Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:27:36 +0000

My parents had always made it clear that I had to go to college, it was expected. But, I ended up graduating as a Junior in high school and it took us by surprise. We just suddenly realized that I had gone to summer school for 3 yrs and finished all of the courses and graduation requirements. My Mom got all excited and sent me to Spain for one year of college (because we had never even entertained colleges or applications and it was too late). Luckily I had taken the SAT once Junior spring.

While I was in Spain, I got a letter from my Mom with a filled out college application that I had to sign for UC San Diego. Her reasoning “really good male/female ratio”. Never looked at any colleges, didn’t have any way to get information on colleges, so I just went with the flow. They were paying for everything anyway. In those days UCSD only had 7,000 total students and it was much easier to get into now - they even granted me one year’s worth of credit for the Spanish/Literature/History stuff I was studying. But, I do remember showing up and it seemed that everyone on campus was Pre-Med or Biology and I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. Changed my major twice and it still took me 4 yrs to finish.