"The Whole System Failed Us"

Parents Forum
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<p>UCSC still suffers from having gotten its start as the UC’s hippie school. Back then it was great if you wanted to major in things like Cosmic Consciousness or Liberation Theology, but mundane yet useful topics such as accounting and biology were not the school’s strong suit. And they didn’t believe in bourgeois concepts like grades. Needless to say, a school like that languished in the UC’s academic basement no matter how beautiful the surroundings, </p>

<p>They have since cleaned up their act and now offer a respectable curriculum and give grades. But the doubts still linger.</p>

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<p>LGM,
Perhaps since I am so familiar with the system, I find it rather predictable as to campus admits, but I have also seen the campus cultures, programs, and likely admits over quite some period of time.</p>

<p>Calmom has a point about inappropriate subject test choices (my D also experienced this, but luckily weathered it into a reach, despite that), but until more fitting test choices come along, I would rather that they not eliminate. And that’s saying a lot for me – no fan of CollegeBoard! It’s because I agree with your view…</p>

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<p>And I wish they would just not do that. (Relax the standards.) I also made the same point earlier about yield concerns.</p>

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<p>I was interested to hear this about Santa Cruz. I knew it was the hippie school, but then I also hear that no one wants to go to UC Riverside and Merced (haven’t been to either place, but I take it the locations are not ideal?). So (this is my East Coast guess), I take it the best schools are

  1. Berkeley
  2. UCLA
  3. Davis
  4. San Diego
  5. Santa Barbara
  6. Riverside?
  7. Merced?
  8. Santa Cruz???</p>
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<p>Endicott,</p>

<p>The rating of the schools depends a lot on the field. For example, Santa Barbara has outstanding research efforts in materials, nanoscience and string theory (plus other areas I don’t specifically know about). You left out Irvine. UC, Santa Cruz is excellent in some areas. I’m pretty sure that they have members of the National Academy of Sciences there.</p>

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<p>Endicott: San Diego is usually considered a notch higher than Davis, which is part of the so-called mid-tier UCs, along with Santa Barbara and Irvine. SD is kinda it’s own tier. Santa Cruz is higher than both Riverside and Merced (which will be on bottom until UC builds another new campus).</p>

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<p>I see. So:

  1. Berkeley
  2. UCLA</p>

<ol>
<li><p>San Diego</p></li>
<li><p>Davis</p></li>
<li><p>Santa Barbara</p></li>
<li><p>Irvine</p></li>
<li><p>Riverside</p></li>
<li><p>Merced</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>^^Ya forgot Santa Cruz (#7). And, of course, there is plenty of argument about the order of 4-6. :)</p>

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<p>^Fights have been known to break out! :)</p>

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<p>Endicott,</p>

<p>The thing about Santa Cruz is that it is smaller than most of the other UCs, and its graduate school is miniscule. Other than Merced (which only has 2500 students) it’s as close as you get in the UC system to a LAC experience.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure how this thread turned into a discussion of UC Santa Cruz, but I’m happy that it did! Their acceptance rate went down this year-- the secret may be getting out.</p>

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<p>A college education itself is a gigantic privilege. The problem is, a lot of us forget that when we hang around CC. We start to think that a full ride to a top college is great, and every hard working smart kid is entitled to that. That’s just not true, there is no utopia where that is remotely the case. </p>

<p>A mathematician will tell you everything is based upon math. A scientist, science, a psychologist, the collective interactions of our minds, etc. Well, I’m going to be an economist right now and say everything is based upon money. To a great degree, money determined social status and the availability of certain privileges. It all comes down to supply and demand - USC obviously had enough equally special applicants who were paying full to not care if the OP girl chose not to attend USC because of money. Screw need-blind, I’m calling BS on that one, I don’t buy it for a minute. </p>

<p>If you believe all of the equal opportunity, feel-good, you are a beautiful and unique snowflake crap that the ‘system’ gets you to feel, then chances are you will feel let down and betrayed. </p>

<p>But if you look at things rationally and see that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and that if you are coming from a much lower spot on the economic totem, then you do have it much, much harder, then chances are the hard-working, smart kid will be able to find a functional plan for obtaining an education. </p>

<p>Sure, it is worth trying to get a fullride to an Ivy League. It is also worth planning out a plan B, C, and D for financial safety schools. Understand that the system doesn’t guarantee you anything, so it can’t fail.</p>

<p>Edit: I’m responding to OP, not wherever the posts have gone in the previous pages</p>

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<p>ILoveLA -their acceptance rate went down because many more applied. Applications to the UCs and CSUs went up across the board, much in response to the financial meltdown and the relatively inexpensive yet excellent reputation the UCs have.</p>

<p>In response to why Santa Cruz isn’t as popular - it also has very little in the way of sports, as compared to most of the other UCs- Davis is a big school for soccer, UCSD for baseball, and of course football at Cal and UCLA. And Santa Barbara is in, well, Santa Barbara…</p>

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<p>Endicott, “best” for the UC’s is based largely on misinformation, and often is a mistaken result of attributing the strength of graduate research departments to the quality of undergraduate work. I would put Santa Cruz well up the list for undergraduate work. </p>

<p>When my son was applying for colleges, both UC Davis & UCSC invited him to apply for a Regents scholarship, with a required essay. My son had applied to Davis simply because he had a lot of friends there, but the question for the essay was something along the lines of “why do you want to attend Davis”. I remember giving him the application telling him, “I can’t think of a single reason why you would want to go to Davis or why you would be happy there.” My son did not end up at any UC, but he was accepted to both Berkeley and UCSC, and of the two I would have preferred to see him at UCSC. I’m a Davis alum - and I was happy there - but I just couldn’t see my son there at all. My son was gravitating toward LAC’s, and I think among the UC’s, the college system at UCSC is a much better fit for students who want a somewhat more personalized approach to their education.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the information. I don’t have a dog in this fight, I just think it’s really interesting!</p>

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<p>When we toured UCSD, we were surprised to hear they only give weighted credit for 8 semesters of “honors” classes. (4 classes) There were parents actually angry in the admittance discussion. We subsequently found out this was the case at the other UCs my D applid to as well. If a student has their heart set on a UC, they need to evaluate whether or not they want to take a super heavy load of Honors/AP/BAC classes. As long as they get A’s… it’s all good. But if they’re posting lots of B’s it could hurt their unweighted GPA for scoring purposes. Privates are obviously an entirely different situation.</p>

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<p>^That’s 8 semesters of 4 honors classes each semester, right? That’s how I’ve always understood the UC weighting of honors classes. Our high school also does this.</p>

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<p>Is this to level the playing field with HSs in poorer areas that don’t have as many honors classes? What is the reason?</p>

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<p>I assume its to avoid the piling on of honors and AP classes, & the GPA manipulation that goes along with it. The UC Regents have figured out what they consider to be the reasonable balance of honors classes that they would like to see among their applicants, and they have capped things so that the weighted grades are not given an undue degree of ability to influence the GPA. So a really top GPA coming into a UC might be 4.2 or 4.3 – it’s not going to be 4.8.</p>

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<p>ELC-competitive students at some high-performing privates and some publics do find themselves in settings where it is not uncommon to be taking and mastering 16+ semesters of AP and/or Honors classes in 10th and 11th grades alone. Depends on the quality of the school, the student body, and the classes offered. If they happen to make the ELC cut (which they won’t know until fall of Senior year), then all of those 10th/11th grade weighted classes will count, and do.</p>

<p>If you do not make the ELC cut, then your UC weighted gpa is capped at 8 semesters of Honors/AP classes for 10th/11th grades.</p>

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<p>Yes, this is the reason extra credit for honors classes was capped at 4 per semester at our high school.</p>