<p>More info on us and the daughter: We haven’t used any negative language regarding her decision. We’ve told her she needs to go where she feels best. She’s a very compassionate kid and my hubbie and I think she was born in the wrong decade. When she was in kinder she would wake up and say: "Mom, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed; to which I would reply, “well go back to bed and wake up on the right side of the bed.” and she would return 5 minutes later saying: Can I have chorizo and, isn’t it a lovely day?? No idea where she got that; she’s still like that. Today I heard her early in the garage looking to create something to wear for “PI” day (3.14). Had Mickey Mouse slippers in hand. (Son just got a marker and tee shirt.) Daughter had to have the whole PI/pie ensemble!</p>
<p>So I don’t know where the discomfort is coming from. (Her friends are a mini United nations and she does help them with their Spanish homework). </p>
<p>RE UCSD: She’s been a frequent visitor to UCSD for conferences and for her daily internship at the NCMIR at the School of Medicine this past summer (Natl Ctr for Microscopic Imaging Research). She doesn’t like the UCSD campus for whatever reason and has emphatically told us so, in no uncertain terms.</p>
<p>Our daughter actually liked Bruin Walk and UCLA! But she is feeling that the competition there is fierce and that she won’t get in. She felt most comfortable there; those issues of no one looking like her came from her-we don’t know if that was a message from her, or from the children of those parents whom we’ve seen constantly in the last month. </p>
<p>As her parents, we haven’t really discussed anything about the UC schools, she’s watched the depressing news on the local news stations and has heard her AP Government teacher discussing some of those issues in relation to the next elections. We’ve heard what the other local parents are saying and haven’t really said too much to her. Her older sibling in upstate NY school has had a really positive experience in OOS with 30K students (except poor access to Mexican food), so we don’t know how much that is influencing our middle child. I think our daughter wants us to confirm that the UC’s are getting more crowded with less money. It will be less expensive to send her OOS because we’ve already been told she won’t qualify for any financial aid other than loans in CA. The OOS schools we’ve heard from will be providing at least half-tuition which definitely looks more attractive.</p>