College trends: Seniors share their experiences

As the school year comes to a close, seniors are elated. Twelve years of hard work is coming to fruition, and they will be attending college in the fall. 

Many seniors had difficulty choosing which school they would attend.

Senior Anshu Siripurapu had just this very problem. 

Siripurapu had to decide between Claremont McKenna, Cornell, University of Southern California, UC Berkeley and New York University.

Although Siripurapu liked the other schools, he said USC made the best offer; he was offered a full tuition scholarship.

“That’s hard to turn down,” Siripurapu said. “It’s roughly $43,000 a year, but you still have to pay for room and board.”

Senior Christine Liu said she had to decide between Washington University in St. Louis, UC Berkeley and UCLA.

Liu ultimately went with Cal.

“It's a fantastic school with a good name, without the price of a private school,” Liu said.

However, Liu said that UCLA was definitely appealing, in its own way.

“It's such a nice campus,” Liu said of UCLA. “I think it's a nicer campus than Berkeley,” Liu said. “The dorms aren't bad. The food's pretty good, and it's in a better area than Cal.”

Liu said UC admissions have been particularly difficult this year.

“I'd say that there were a lot of people who got some surprises as to where they didn't get in,” Liu said. “Some people aimed really high, like a lot of Ivy League schools or really selective privates. No matter how awesome you are, you still have to be realistic about making sure you have backup schools that you would actually want to go to.”

Liu said that she spent her spring break visiting various schools, as she did last year. However, Liu said that this time around was different, because she now knew to which schools she had been accepted.

“Even though I've visited them before, after you get in you look at colleges from a different perspective,” Liu said. “You know, when you tour as a junior it's like ‘Will I get in?’ and now it's ‘Can I picture myself here.’”

Liu said she considered more than rankings when she finalized her decision.

“It's really like if they have programs/classes/majors we're interested in,” Liu said. “[And] the environment, because you're going to live there for four years. It's really about finding that instinctive reaction of finding somewhere where you can picture yourself, like somewhere you feel comfortable and at home.”

Siripurapu said that his advice to high schoolers would be to just do what they love, without worrying about whether colleges will “like it” or not.

“There are so many variables in the college admission process, it's useless to try and change who you are to increase your chance of admission,” Siripurapu said. “Ultimately, the colleges that accept you are ones that really want you and value your experiences, insights and skills.” 

Siripurapu remarked that he would thus be happy attending any of the colleges he was admitted to.

“At the end of the day, I think that a college experience, like anything else in life, will be largely determined by what you put in and get out of it.”