Now on to current events:

This weekend took my S18 to look at a college, and what fun we had I'm so excited for him, I wish I was going back to college

Actually, this school was at the bottom of his list (UC Riverside) but they are actively recruiting the better students and so have offered him a very nice merit scholarship worth 75% of his tuition. This weekend they had an awards bash for the scholarship winners which was really an attempt to recruit them before the formal acceptances come out in the UC system in March.

I must say, they did a good job, this still wouldn't be his first choice school but they do have some things to offer (besides the scholarship) which would put them above some of his other choices.

Most attractive was their Honors College. Although most of the UCs have one, they seem to vary in how they are run, and what their purpose really is (in some schools, I think it is mostly about getting that award on your diploma).

At UCR, though, they seem to really have their act together as far as the Honors College functioning as a support group for these kids, and require both community service AND personal development from the kids who participate, put them in a dorm together, and nicest perk, give them priority registration so they can be sure of getting the classes they need.

It will be interesting to see how this compares with some of the other schools. But it is nice to know he has a "safety" school that actually has a lot going for it in terms of his personal stuff. And he met another boy there that day with very similar interests, so S is getting excited about going to college and meeting more kindred spirits.

If anybody out there has any experience with the other UC campuses, I'd be interested in hearing them. I went to UCI as an undergrad.

We really don't have a good sense of where S is likely to be accepted, since he has a funny combination of excellent scores, good but less-than-perfect grades, and an extremely difficult course list. It all really depends on how their point systems work out.

We will be visiting some more schools this month so we can make our decision when the acceptances come out.

Ellie