Research Opportunities
Ralph Becker
The Importance of High School Research

Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.

The Importance of High School Research

UC System

UC Admissions Trends and Applications

UC Admissions Trends and Applications

The flood of applications into the UC System continued unabated for the fall of 2018.

More than 200,000 students applied for undergraduate admissions. This means the number of applicants increased an average of 5.7% across the 9-schools that incorporate the undergraduate UC System. You can see a campus by campus comparison of freshman applicant composition at the UCOP (UC Office of the President) website. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/factsheets/2018/fall-2018-applications-table2.2.pdf

The UC Tuition Hike

The UC Tuition Hike

As applications surged into the UC System, Janet Napolitano, the UC System president, announced a plan to raise UC tuition at a 5% annual clip over the next five years.

The tuition hike is scheduled for the 2015-2016 term, raising tuition by $612, and will take tuition from the current $12,192 to $15,563 in 2019-2020. Out of state tuition would rise to $36,828 next year and ascend to $44,766 by 2019-2020.

The UC proposal breaks with the 4-year budget deal that has annually increased state funding in return for a tuition freeze. State funding has increased 5% in each of the past two years.

Napolitano has several reasons for the proposed tuition increase and believes the tuition hike is essential to maintaining the quality of a UC education.

The Community College Option

The Community College Option

Some students are skeptical about attending community college. They shouldn’t be. The Regents of the University of California report that almost of third of those graduating from the UC System transferred from a community college: this trend will probably become even more pronounced in the years ahead as the UC tuition continues to soar and community college tuition maintains its value.

Considering the IB Edge

Considering the IB Edge

Parents are constantly seeking an edge for getting their students into the most selective schools possible. Graduates of one program (though using its international spelling convention, it should be "programme"), gained such an edge in 2003. Their admissions prospects into Harvard improved by 2%; into Yale by 2%; into Stanford by over 4.5%; and into the UCs by over 26%. The programme I'm referring to is the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme; it's quite a lengthy and impressive name. Yet, it's a program well respected by some of the heavyweights in the selective school universe: