A year from now I will be a UCSB graduate.
Hopefully.
Now, why “Hopefully” you may ask? Because the UC system sucks. I am paying tens of thousands of dollars for a piece of paper. This cost increases more and more every year. On the contrary, what I am being offered decreases every single day. One more class is cut. One more section is closed.
The UC system MUST BE FIXED. We get rejected from colleges because our GPAs are .000001 lower than the next guy. Or we get accepted because our skin is brown. Then someone else gets rejected for the same exact reason.
I’m going to outline my experience with the UC System.
Year 1
Racism. Sexism. Stereotypes. Scholarships. Biases. Prejudice. Backgrounds. Family. Numbers. These seem to be the traits behind the overall admissions in the UC system. It’s bullshit. LOOK AT THE DAMN PERSON. Look at the overall body of work. Regardless of color, sex, background, name. I’m all for everyone having an equal chance. But it is not the admissions’ place to use their own biases to meet a certain quota.
I’m going to give you 2 individuals.
Individual 1: 4.5+ GPA. 1900+ SAT. 28+ ACT’s. 5+ AP Tests passed (with a “3” or higher). College credits as a Junior AND Senior in High School. Salutatorian. Loads of extracurricular activities (including sports and community service).
Individual 2: 3.0ish GPA. 1500+ SAT. 23+ ACT’s. 3 AP Tests passed. No college credits. No extra curricular activities.
WHO DO YOU THINK GOT ACCEPTED INTO UCLA?
If you chose individual #1 you would be way wrong. Now let me tell you the difference between #1 and #2. Individual #1 is white. Individual #2? Not white. Okay let’s hear the “MATT YOU’RE SO RACIST OMFG” rants. How am I any more racist than the admissions board that discriminated against individual #1 because he’s white? I’m a minority. If I find out UCSB only accepted me because of this, I’d drop out in a heartbeat and give my spot to someone more deserving.
That’s my admissions shpeel. Take it for what it is.
Year 2 & 3
Okay so I just finished year 3, so I’m going to reflect on those. They were great. I got a great paying job and I loved it these last 2 years. Without Trop (where I work), I wouldn’t be able to afford to go to college. I appreciate what Trop has done for me, and I always will.
I met some great people and made some great memories. I also met my blessing from above: Jennifer Meghan Heintz. You have already read about her in another post. You’ll read more about her later on as well. I can’t say enough about her importance.
But let’s continue. Year 2 and 3 saw me change my major. I changed from Business Economics to Computational Science with an Emphasis in Economics. Great change in my opinion. However, whether or not I got into my major depended on ONE GOSH DANG TEST. If I got an A on this final (vector calculus), I was in. If I didn’t, I would be basically forced to transfer back home to San Diego. Due to my support system (AKA Jenny and the Trop Study Lounge), I nailed the test and got into my major.
But the fact that it all depended on once test is absolutely ridiculous. What if I didn’t get that A? Then that would’ve been $75,000 of hard-earned money down the damn drain. Thank the heavens above, I got that A. That was year 2-3 in a heartbeat. You may read about it more on some later date.
Year 4
So year 4 technically has started. Summer is crazy as hell. We’ll grade this one as an incomplete. I look forward to learning more in the Computer Science field. All towards that damn piece of paper Chancellor Yang (UCSB faculty) will hand me at some date in June of 2012. It’s going to be a hell of a year.
Explanation of picture: One of my best friends (Rickey) and I during our freshmen year at UCSB. Kit Kats, X-Box 360, and Judy freakin’ Codina on the phone all the time (Rickey’s Girlfriend thing)
Thanks for reading. See y’all manana.
