I managed to put my foot in my mouth at a party the other night. I was talking to 2 unrelated other parents of late high school/ early college kids. One dad mentioned that his son’s top choices last year had come down to the school where he is now and UCSC (which is about 90 miles away from us). The other dad said, “there seem to be a lot of kids from our high school at UCSC… I wonder why it’s so popular?” I said, “because it’s a UC you can actually get into.” The first dad seemed insulted… like I’d taken something away from his son getting in. Oops. I just meant it’s still possible for an average-good student, unlike Berkeley and UCLA.