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.
High-quality education in the form of Honors Colleges in Public Universities is becoming ever more common. Within the University of California system most have, including UCLA, UCI, and five of the six colleges of UCSD, special honors programs. The reason behind the growth of these honors programs is public universities want to keep their best students at home, in state, and challenged by a curriculum many believe can only be obtained from the most selective universities.
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.
Last year 26,700 students from fifteen western states (including California) saved $210 million by enrolling in universities and colleges outside their home states through the Western University Exchange (WUE)—pronounced “woo-wee”-- program. That ‘saved’ sum almost equals 4,200 students’ paying full, out-of-state costs for one year at UC Berkeley.
To many college applicants there must be something illicit about the block plan, especially as it is practiced by Colorado College.
The Block plan, which was incorporated into Colorado College’s curriculum in 1970, allows a student to take one course at a time. Each block is 3.5 weeks, beginning on a Monday and ending on a Wednesday four weeks later. Then there is a 4.5 day block-break, so students can decompress after the intensity of the immersion and go skiing near Pike’s Peak, rafting on the Colorado River, or visiting the four corners to study the Anasazi Indian remnants.
Less than 14% of high school students attend college out of state. Cost considerations, proximity to friends and family, and climate deter many from going too far afield, but having an adventurous spirit might pay dividends in the world of colleges. Outside the golden state an assortment of public schools, private research universities, and liberal arts colleges seek to enroll Californians. These schools behoove your investigation.
