Day one

By 4:30 PM on Wednesday, October 16^th, we AVID kids had loaded everything onto the bus, said our goodbyes, and left for Fresno. We only made one stop on our six and a half hour drive to Fresno, and by the time we arrived at the hotel our awesome bus driver, Monty, must’ve been pretty annoyed at the 40 something of us kids talking loudly and “singing.” When we got to our hotel we unloaded, met up with our roommates, and got settled into our rooms. We didn’t actually visit any colleges that first day; we just had to get the long drive over with.

Day two

We left around 8:15 a.m. for University of San Francisco. The drive itself was nothing to brag about but my first impression was that it has a really awesome-looking campus. During our lunch break before the tour we got a chance to explore the campus, which had plenty of local, organic food vendors. The campus also has a lot of amazing views of the city. You could even see The Golden Gate Bridge from the dorms, which were larger than most other colleges. The cost for a three-person dorm was about $8,000, while the cost for a two-person dorm was about $10,000. Besides the cheaper price, another plus side of living in a triple are the discounts to certain events.

But there are some downsides to The University of San Francisco. Being inside such a packed city means that there is virtually no guaranteed parking unless you are a faculty member. But city life also means that there are plenty of things to do and that there is a very diverse culture.

The tuition is around $58,000, but they offer a lot of need based financial aid and work-study programs to help you cut the cost down. The only thing about work–study is that you have to go out there and find them; no one is going to be broadcasting them for you. Another way to save you a little bit of money is the Flexi meal plan. Basically, you get $2000 on a meal account and what you don’t spend during fall semester rolls into spring semester, but it doesn’t work with years.

Overall, I really enjoyed the campus vibe and I would consider going there after doing a little bit more research.

We left at 2:30 bound for San Francisco State University. When we arrived our tour guide began to inform us of all of the great things that San Fran State has to offer, such as student services. One specific example was for injured students; if a student was injured or disabled, then the student services will send a cart to get you around the campus. They can also appoint you a note taker if you injured your hand or wrist. Services like this and free health care (but not surgery) are already paid for by your tuition, so you don’t have to worry about it.

To get accepted here you can have any SAT/ACT score, as long as you have a 3.0 GPA. You can also have a low GPA, as long as you have higher SAT/ACT scores. The criteria to get accepted changes from year to year, so there is no formula to instantly get accepted. Once you do get accepted you have to apply for housing early because it’s first come, first served, but if you miss out on that, there are still other means of transportation, like trams and shuttles. I didn’t like this college that much, which is why I don’t have much to say about it beside a few facts.

After the tour, we wandered around the mall next door, did some shopping, and headed to our hotel. On the bus drive there we went over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was pretty amazing considering it was the first industrial bridge I had ever crossed. Yeah, it was life-changing(but not really).

At the hotel, everyone hung around in each other’s rooms or formed study groups. I stuck around in my room and studied on my own, until everyone went back to their rooms for the night.

Day 3

The next morning consisted of browsing the web, eating breakfast, and being wrongfully accused of shaving-cream related pranks while shaving my sorry excuse for a beard. Long story short: It wasn’t me. After being proved innocent, we loaded up the bus and departed for Sacramento State University.

All the tall trees at the university were a reminder that Sacramento State is one of the older CSUs and all the murals were a reminder of the rich student culture. It was also pretty chilly, but the sun was shining, which is a really awesome combination for some reason. When our tour guide arrived, we were taken to a presentation of everything that Sac State has to offer.

Nothing was really catching my attention until I learned that Sacramento State has a really awesome journalism major, which made sense; Sacramento is the state capital, meaning that a lot of things area constantly happening and there are a lot of internships to participate in these happenings That kind of pumped me up the rest of the tour.

A plus side for all the majors is that the professors have had some sort of real experience in their field, so they have a lot of wisdom to offer. For example, professors that teach culture studies are usually from the culture they teach, which I thought was pretty cool. After the presentation, I was introduced to the “Well,” which many freshmen are led to believe is a an actual wishing well. It is actually a really big gym, possibly the biggest out of all the CSUs, and is incredibly awesome. I did almost drop my sunglasses on the way in, but besides that it was really cool. After the rest of the tour we walked back to our bus and none of the girls could stop talking about how cute the tour guide was. For the record, he was quite adorable.

Our next stop was Berkley and as soon as you step into the courtyard, you can tell that it is going to be great, especially when you see a condom-balloon floating around and plenty of cute girls (a semi-important factor for me). Yeah a condom balloon. We had about half an hour to get some snacks and use the restroom, but there weren’t so many available places to use the restroom. An unnamed friend and I wandered around for the most part trying to find one, but to no avail. We were forced to use the woman’s bathroom at a Chipotle with the entire floor watching as we made our shameful escape.

Once we began the actually tour we learned that Berkley has been buying land to expand, which is why the city overlapped with the campus We stopped by a few of the libraries, such as The Scyther Tower (a two-story music library where I almost dropped my phone trying to take a picture), and over an underground library. It felt like the beginning for a knock off Batman movie, where the hero’s cave was an underground library and he was a college student by day.

Another thing we covered in the tour was that science majors, and any engineering majors, were practically considered gods due to the intensity of the classes. They are even allowed to write formulas on the walls during midterms and finals weeks. But if writing on walls isn’t enough help, you can get tutoring for any class, which is helpful if you have big classes in lecture halls. You could also go to office hours with your professors if you want that one-on-one help. But as with The University of San Francisco (and any college or university), you have to advocate for yourself and get the help you need. This is a very important lesson for anyone who aspires to live in the real world.

After the tour, we walked a few blocks to a community garden, where students could get hands-on experience with the environment. We mainly learned about different kinds of bees and factors that are important when analyzing the changes made to an environment. We also learned about one kind of major, where students conduct the research. It was interesting stuff, but the heat and lack of sleep were starting to get to me.

We were scheduled for another tour at St. Mary’s, but because of the traffic, we had to cut it out last minute. Everyone was disappointed, and one individual, who shall remain anonymous, reportedly *Ahem* “cried”. Heart-breaking stuff.

We drove to our next hotel and actually had some free time before we had to turn in for the night. Nobody went out of the hotel because where we were was pretty sketchy. After an embarrassing incident that involved two guys, bathroom, and a door that didn’t lock right I headed for the gym. The second I stepped out of my room, I was told that there was no gym, so I headed for the pool instead. I swam around, feeling like a majestic swan. I’m telling you, that cold water felt amazing. After that I relaxed in the hot tub for bit, though some people chose the sauna. Then I went up to my room for a sleepless night. But we did squeeze in a few pranks, so it wasn’t all bad, besides the weird shouting going on in the streets below. Again, it was sketchy.

Day 4- the final day

After breakfast, we left for our final college visit at UC Merced. As soon as we got there, I fell in love. It was going so great. Our tour guide gave us an impromptu tour of the dorms, which I really liked. He was a funny dude and he made the school seem amazing, which it was. It wasn’t until the end of the tour, when I asked him where the communications department was, did he shatter my dreams: UC Merced doesn’t have a communications major.

In hindsight, it was obvious. The school is located in the middle of nowhere and during the entire tour, he was stressing about how big Merced was on sciences. Despite that traumatizing experience, I still enjoyed the visit. I talked to a few booths and learned about studying abroad in Ireland, which is something that I’d like to do.

I also sat through a financial aid presentation, where I picked up some neat tricks to save some money, like using public transportation instead of driving, and I also had some serious chemistry with a cute brunette sitting across the aisle. For real, she was giving me the look. It was going great until I realized she was with her mom and then things got awkward really quick. Needless to say, I didn’t get her number. After walking around the booths, absorbing information, and watching the dance groups perform, I was still disappointed about the whole no communications major, but I got over it.

Then we began our long drive home, and I tried desperately to get some sleep with no success. But I was content with the trip, so it was all right.