School Profile - University of the Pacific

University of the Pacific is a private university located in Stockton, CA offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees. (picture above is taken by Gene Wright, distributed under the Creative Commons - Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported license)

Quick Facts

• Roughly 3,500 undergraduate students and 2,700 graduate students
• Offers 80 undergraduate programs of study ranging from Business to Engineering to Fine Arts
• Tuition and Fees for 2009/2010 was $31,730 with total cost of attendance coming to ~$41,000 per year
• Average financial aid package is over $20,000 per year (with scholarships and other gift aid making up 80% of that and loans only comprising of 14%)
• Competes in NCAA Division I athletics (Big West Conference)
• Raised 330 million dollars in 2007 to build new facilities and fund scholarships

This school offers an excellent range of majors and fields for its size and the readily available financial aid is a giant plus.
http://pacific.edu/

Extra curricular activities

Every university is seeking that almost mythical "well-rounded" individual who excels academically while juggling volunteering, sports, jazz band, student government and the math team. This is the image that most people think of when they hear extra-curricular. However, there are many other activities under extra-curricular that can make you stand out. The following are some of the activities and hobbies of people that I've met in college.

Building Rube Goldberg Machines
An Ebay business selling kid's sports equipment
Designing Websites
Creating new dessert recipes
Bicycle racing

There are many things that you can do that do not fit the 'traditional' mold and often times many students are already doing impressive things.

Helicopter Parents

Helicopter parents are the well meaning but none-the-less annoying individuals who hover over their children and try to influence or dictate everything they do in order to mold them into the perfect individual according to the parent.

Signs that you have/are a helicopter parent

• The parent asks all of the questions at tours, info sessions, etc.
• The parent calls student organizations to ask about admissions requirements (happens quite often and is extremely annoying for the student organizations).
• The prospective student asks about a program of study and the parent immediately follows up with a question about a possible minor in something unrelated because their child "wants to be well-rounded".
• If the parent(s) is visiting the school without their child (it does happen...).

What it means for the prospective student

• All of the people involved in the visit day/tour/panel/whatever are going to dislike you. A lot of the questions that helicopter parents ask also tend to be really annoying (for instance "Why would my child want to go to a University that's not in a large city?", real answer "I don't know, ask your kid", answer that is given "Well even though we are not located in a large city we do have many of the amenities that a large city offers such as ...").
• Anyone that remembers you because of your parents is another person that is not going to recommend you for admission if they were asked for their opinion (even if you're parents were charming and well-liked, they are not the ones trying to get into college).
• You don't get your questions answered and are instead left with a bunch of information that matters to your parents but not necessarily to you, making your decision that much harder.

How to counter your helicopter parent

• Pre-emptive strikes. Have a list of things that you want to know and ask your questions when given the chance before your parent starts rattling off "well I want my child to have a business minor to round out their resume, how would they do that?".
• When people try to interact with you (when they ask you what you want to study for example), don't stare at your feet and mumble. Talk, even if it's to say you don't know. Half the prospectives that visit schools have no idea what they want to study. And if you don't know, ask them about the programs they are familiar with. Interact when given the opportunity, if you don't, your parents are going to step in.
• Do talk do your parents before hand and let them know what you want to get out of the info session/tour/whatever. That way they can help you get the information you're after.