Balanced College Consulting

For anyone interested in how the 2020 college application season is looking so far, this is an interesting and informative read. I am especially supportive of the author's final message to seniors: everyone can and will be successful in college, and an offer from a safety school can be just as exciting as an offer from a first-choice campus. Keep working hard and submitting your final applications, seniors. Attitude is everything, and it will all work out in the end. ... https://jrstephens.medium.com/2020-early-application-number

A drive-through visit this summer (limited access due to COVID-19 closures) and a recent virtual campus tour have given me insight into another University of California campus, UC Santa Cruz. Growing up in the area, I have many childhood memories on campus - from training for the Wharf to Wharf on the track with my sister and dad (most incredible college track view ever) to outdoor Shakespeare Santa Cruz productions in the Festival Glen to my high school graduation in the Qu...arry Amphitheater. The campus' natural beauty can take your breath away. However, I had a lot to learn about the current student experience (spoiler alert: it's still gorgeous there). Here goes! My take-aways: - UCSC is divided into 10 residential colleges with the goal of providing a small, liberal-arts college experience within a large research institution. Freshmen take a college specific seminar in order to explore educational interests and meet other students. - Only 45% of campus land is developed, providing tons of gorgeous open space and sweeping views of the Monterey Bay. Students interested in traversing through redwood trees while spotting deer on the way to class will feel quickly at home here. - UCSC has its own farm on campus, developed as a research, teaching, and training facility. Students can choose sustainable housing options on the farm as well as enjoy its produce in the dining halls (30% of produce in the dining halls is grown on campus). - Students are encouraged to keep their cars at home (at least during their freshmen/sophomore years) and enjoy the walk/bike friendly campus. There’s a reason it’s earned the nickname of UC Strong Calves. If you don’t feel like roaming on foot, shuttles are on a constant route through campus to get everyone where they need to go, as well as short-term car rentals for longer trips. - The campus boasts of 60+ different majors and a 19:1 student to faculty ratio. The most popular majors are Computer Science, Psychology, Business Management Economics, Environmental Studies, and Sociology. There’s still time to apply to be a Banana Slug! UC Santa Cruz’s application deadline has been extended to Tuesday, December 15. More info here: https://admissions.ucsc.edu

A drive-through visit over Thanksgiving break (limited access due to COVID-19 closures) and a recent webinar have given me some insight on another University of California campus, UC Riverside. My take-aways: - What a beautiful campus. Lots of open space for students to congregate and plentiful housing opportunities with options for traditional residence halls and apartments, including for upperclassmen. ... - UCR started out as an extension of UC Berkeley, as their citrus experiment station. The campus houses the largest collection of citrus in the world (who knew?) and is the origin of such citrus innovations as Cuties mandarins. - UCR has a strong commitment to diversity. They were the first campus to offer gender neutral housing, as well as leaders in creating an LGBTQ Resource Center and a Middle Eastern Student Center. - More than 150 majors/minors available, including unique offerings such as Entomology, Botany, Creative Writing (the only UC to offer this major), and Education, Society and Human Development. They also offer joint BS/MS programs in Entomology and Engineering, and one of the largest Business programs of the UCs. The university boasts an impressive 21:1 professor to student ratio. Hoping to apply but worried you missed the UC application deadline? UC Riverside’s application deadline has been extended to December 15 (as well as UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced) . More info here: https://www.ucr.edu/admissions

With many sports, clubs, and other traditional high school activities on pause, I've been encouraging students to be creative about finding ways to explore their interests. Now's a great time to start a blog, tutor a younger sibling in math, dive deeper into an academic subject (check out coursera.org), engage in a creative writing project, organize a community effort (pitch your idea on nextdoor.com), or participate in research efforts online (try out zooniverse.org). Chec...k out this post for more inspiration: https://www.themaulerinstitute.com/40-resume-worthy-activi/ See more

Another drive-through visit this summer (limited access due to COVID-19 closures) and a recent webinar have given me some insight on a popular University of California campus, UC Santa Barbara. My take-aways: - UC Santa Barbara attracts well-rounded, community oriented students. Not to mention laid back! They are ranked #1 for Happiest Students in California by the Princeton Review. (Can you blame them? The other side of this campus welcome sign reveals incredible views of t...he UCSB lagoon and Pacific Ocean.) - While the UC system has declared that it is test-optional for fall 2021 applicants, select campuses have decided to implement a test-blind policy. UC Santa Barbara is one of these campuses where they will not use SAT/ACT scores in the selection process. More info here: https://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/freshman-eligibility-selecti - Majors are housed in 3 colleges: Creative Studies, Letters and Science, and Engineering. It’s very important that students do their research on available majors to understand impaction. Students applying to Creative Studies and Engineering are encouraged to choose a major in Letters and Science as a second choice in order to maximize admissions possibilities. Check out UCSB Admissions’ upcoming Virtual Events for more info: https://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/virtual-admissions-events

The combination of a drive-through/bookstore visit this summer (limited access due to COVID-19 closures) and a recent webinar has given me some new insight into one of the most popular CSU campuses, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. My take-aways: - With a campus philosophy of Learn by Doing, Cal Poly is a great place for students who know what they want to major in and are ready to dive in. - Students must declare a major with their application, and undeclared/undecided is not an... option. - GPA is a very important factor in admission decisions. Cal Poly considers 9th-11th grade work to determine GPA. (This is important because some universities do not consider 9th grade work, but this is not Cal Poly’s policy) - Freshmen are guaranteed (and required) to live on the beautiful campus, only 10 minutes from the beach. Check out Cal Poly’s Online Preview Day this Saturday, October 3. https://www.calpoly.edu/cal-poly-preview-day