O's Notes

UC San Diego is the only UC where you apply to a college irrespective of your major. Unlike the other UCs, you will not be applying to the College of Engineering or the College of Arts and Sciences. You get to pick your first or second choice out of 7 colleges at UCSD.

Finding your fit is easier said than done, isn’t it? One of the factors that influences the “fit” is size of college. While you should think of fit and size of college, let’s take a few minutes to figure out what kind of colleges show up for the different sizes of college.

University of Portland is a private Roman Catholic university in Portland, Oregon that is home to nearly 3900 undergraduates. Portland, is the largest city in Oregon and home to many large technology, manufacturing and healthcare companies as well as many startups. Additionally, Portland is rich in the performing arts, music, sports and prides itself on its environmental sustainability.

A gap year is defined as a year when the student is not enrolled at a 4 year or 2 year college immediately following after high school and plans to attend college after the completion of the gap year. Read our post on gap year to get the basics.

Santa Clara University (SCU) is a private Jesuit university at the heart of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area that is home to of 3500 undergraduates. SCU has a long history of producing distinguished alumni including Leon Panetta (former Secretary of Defense, Director of the CIA, and White House Chief of Staff), Steve Nash (eight-time NBA All-Star, two time NBA MVP), Khaled Hosseini (Best selling novelist and physician), and Janet Napolitano (former Governor of Arizona and United States Secretary of Homeland Security).

Pomona College is a very well regarded liberal arts college in the Claremont Consortium of colleges. Located in SoCal, Pomona college shares its campus, students, and majors with Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer, and Harvey Mudd.

We wrote about Early Decision and Early Action in an earlier post. With another application year starting soon, we are revisiting our post and adding a detailed application timeline.

A gap year is defined as a year that a student takes off between graduation from high school and enrollment at a 2 year or 4 year college. A gap year between high school and college may be a good option to consider for many students.

One of the most frequent questions students (and their families) have is — do they have to stake the SAT subject test? In the current frenzied college admissions landscape, it can feel like almost every student is prepping for some SAT subject test. And then students (parents) start to feel FOLO, Fear Of Losing Out about not taking a subject test.