With more and more college decisions rolling in, many Campo students have begun to commit to their future schools. This time is both exciting and nerve wracking for students as they find out whether they have gotten into universities and struggle to make a decision of where to go. Endless factors go into the decision process, but many have already committed to amazing schools.
While some students wanted to leave the state for college, others were hoping to stay in California for their post-high school education. Senior Riley Regan recently committed to UC Berkeley, majoring in Gender and Women’s Studies on the Pre-Med Track. Regan said, “Lately, I haven’t been wanting to go super far from home for college, so I was really hoping I could stay in California, but I didn’t know where in California. So, when I got into Cal, I was like ‘I’m definitely going’. It is as close to home as you can get, but obviously Berkeley is amazing so I am super excited.”
Senior Maddie O’Balle is also staying close to home by attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She’s majoring in Liberal Studies and Education. O’Balle is hoping to teach “elementary school, probably second or third grade.”
Although Cal Poly was her first choice, O’Balle didn’t originally plan on going there: “The weekend before I actually visited Washington State, and I loved that school. Cal Poly was my number one but I didn’t think I was going to get in. I opened up my letter after school and I got in. My brother went there so I really wanted to go and I just loved the area and community.”
Senior Abigail Chen, who has gotten acceptances from “Berkeley, UCLA, Georgetown, and Carnegie Mellon,” and is still deciding between schools. She said she’s going to “think about which schools have the best program for [her] major (business).” Right now she is leaning more towards Berkeley and Georgetown because of the opportunities these schools offer. “Berkeley has a really good economics program but Georgetown is really cool because it’s in D.C. which means I could work within the government,” she said. Chen is also considering her career when deciding what school she wants to attend. She wants to work on Wall Street and going to Georgetown helps with those connections she stated.
This process has been exciting, but also incredibly stressful for students. For example, Chen explained, “Ivy day was really stressful and [she] just wanted to get into a good school.”
Choosing which college to attend did not pose as any easy decision to many seniors. However, there were certain factors that students looked for when searching for universities to apply to. Regan explained, “I’m such a California person, so most of my schools were in California or the midwest. I leaned towards the midwest because I have family there and I am a very family-oriented person. I also applied to big schools because I am a big sports person, and weather was another factor.”
O’Balle also looked for certain aspects in the schools she applied to: “I wanted to be close to Moraga so I could still drive home if I needed to and I also wanted to be by the beach.” Senior Callen Bronson who will be attending Stanford in the fall had similar considerations in his application and decision process. He said he liked that Stanford is “close to home, but not too close, great academics, and strong athletics.”
When asked what she was most excited about for the next four years of her education, Regan said, “Berkeley is really diverse and I am really excited to meet people. I am just excited to get out of this little bubble and meet people from all over that are doing all different things. The major I will be studying is interesting so I am excited to hear different perspectives and hear beyond the Campolindo area.”
Bronson was similar in his response when asked what he was most excited for in the fall. He said, “I’m really excited to meet new people because I think everyone there is going to have a really cool story of how they got in.”
