My 16-year old son and I are visiting possible colleges, starting with UC Berkeley. It will be his first trip to the Bay area. Any tips on where to stay and what to see besides the college campus? We won%26#39;t have more than two days. We%26#39;ll start with Berkeley and drive on down to UC Santa Cruz and then all the way down the coast to UC Santa Barbara, finally flying out of LAX.
This will be from Sun, April 15 through Sat. April 21. What should a teen from Massachusetts not miss on such a trip? Anything to help improve on the fact that he%26#39;s having to travel with his mother. Tip: he plays guitar in a rock and roll band, but is also a mellow guy with a sense of humor. Thanks everyone!
Son %26amp; Mom visiting SF while checking No. Cal. colleges
Stay at the Durant Hotel in Berkeley....adjacent to the campus. Really nice hotel...parent%26#39;s favorite.
In Santa Cruz you have lots of choices. The University took over a Holiday Inn downtown and turned it into a combination student housing -- conference place and public accommodation. I think it is called something like University Inn. I am not necessarily recommending this, just mentioning it.
My husband and I are both UC Berkeley grads and my husband is an anthropology professor emeritus (retired) and also a former Provost of a college at the Santa Cruz campus. We sent a daughter to Davis, and another to Santa Barbara, and a son to both Santa Cruz and Berkeley. Our nephew was a third generation UC Berkeley grad in Political Science, and his sister has a law degree from UC. So we sort of know the system.
Do call the admission offices of each campus and see if you can arrange for a tour. At Santa Cruz we usually have students available for these kinds of tours and that, I think, is valuable since your son would get a student%26#39;s perspective of the campus.
The Santa Cruz campus is beautiful...on 2500 acres of meadow and redwood forest with separate residential ';colleges';. It began only in 1965 and they have done a good job of preserving the history of the site, originally a ranch with some limestone quarries.
It has killer views of Monterey Bay.
If your son is into the surfing scene, take him, in Santa Cruz to ';steamer%26#39;s lane'; on West Cliff Drive where the waves are, and he can probably watch some action. There is also a ';surfing museum';, which is a small replical of a lighthouse on the top of the cliff.
You are in for an interesting trip. If I can give you any more information, please let me know.
And have fun.
Son %26amp; Mom visiting SF while checking No. Cal. colleges
Thanks Puter. I%26#39;ve gone on to read some of your other posts on Santa Cruz restaurant suggestions, too, and they were helpful. If you have any more ideas of things to do with a 16-year old boy in S.F. or Santa Cruz, please let me know.
Do you think he%26#39;d enjoy Monterey and its aquarium? I was thinking of seeing if we could rent some clubs and play a public golf course while we%26#39;re there. I know we can%26#39;t do Pebble Beach, but it%26#39;s in the right spirit. As you can see, I%26#39;m really trying to find things a Mom and her teen son can do that they%26#39;d both like.
I%26#39;ve already looked into taking the UC campus tours as you suggested. As our trip gets closer, I may have questions about UCSC specifically. If anyone has opinions on the school, especially in regards to how well it prepares one for working in the real world, we%26#39;d love to hear. Thanks.
The best UC%26#39;s are Berkeley, UCLA, and San Diego, more or less in that order.
Don%26#39;t discount UCSB. We had two sons and a daughter in law go through there. They are all doing very well. It has a nice campus, next to the ocean, and has a good academic record. Santa Barbara is unique, with Moorish architecture and southern exposure.. They do party a bit there, but I think that is universal. Check out Isla Vista (IV), since most students end up living there after a year in the dorms.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Vista,_California
It is a great place for you to visit as well. Have a great adventure!
if you are flying out of LAX, you will have had to drive by UCLA so might as well check it out for one evening.
Wow I can%26#39;t beleive you%26#39;d stop a list of UCs with just Berkely, UCLA and San Diego when Santa Cruz, despite the gen public%26#39;s perception, has a fantastic reputation for producing large numbers of students who do post grad work. And UCSB is a fantastic school.
tumbewind,
The Montetey Bay Aquarium is world class. I can%26#39;t imagine anybody not liking it. Currently there is an exhibit featuring a great white shark.
I don%26#39;t know about golf courses in the Monterey area. There is a nice public course on a hill in Santa Cruz...Delaveaga.
%26lt;Sigh%26gt;. Poor Santa Cruz was founded in 1965 (the hippy era, right?) and based on the residential college system like Oxford and Cambridge. No, they did not give ';grades';. Every professor was required to write a %26#39;narrative evaluation%26#39; of the student%26#39;s work rather than assigning a more or less arbitrary letter grade. This, and the time of its founding gave the public a very undeserved impression that it wasn%26#39;t a ';serious'; place. As it has grown the undeserved reputatiion lingers on. It has produced two female astronauts, the head of the Democratic Party in California, the mayor of San Jose. It has a good engineering school and a very strong conputer sciences program, also astronomy..with a connection with Link Observatory. The leaders of the genome project came from Santa Cruz.. Students now receive the letter grades as well as the evaluation. And, yes a larger proportion of its students go on to graduate school than the average institution.
Back to travel.......I think i mentioned Steamer%26#39;s Lane in Santa Cruz, where important surfing competitions are held The Mystery Spot is kind of fun...one of those places in the woods where gravity doesn%26#39;t seem to exist...balls roll uphill, etc....
You should have a very good trip.
Thanks everyone. As for the UC%26#39;s: my son Brian will have seen UCSD already (my husband and I are planning on moving back to San Diego when he graduates from his Mass. high school). I graduated from UC Irvine and UCLA, and he%26#39;s seen those already.
I love UC Santa Barbara%26#39;s campus, but it seems the least conveniently located to a major airport for getting home very often. But we will still check it out. My sister went to UCSB for two years then transferred because she partied there too much. But it depends on the student. My son seems to have the kind of personality (so far) that he keeps his priorities straight.
Brian isn%26#39;t sure what he wants to do so is vague about a major. He%26#39;s leaning towards business though. I worry that the business programs I%26#39;ve seen at the UC%26#39;s tend to be more theoretical than practical. I%26#39;d like to see him at a school that could provide a realistic intern program. But the final decision is his and I think a lot will depend on what campus environment appeals to him.
We%26#39;d still appreciate any travel %26amp; sight-seeing tips for teens in the S.F. area. Thanks for the Santa Cruz ideas, Puter.
tumblewind said 芦We%26#39;d still appreciate any travel %26amp; sight-seeing tips for teens in the S.F. area.禄
The ';Don%26#39;t-miss SIGHTS in San Francisco'; page geocities.com/iconoc/Articles/Sights.html has enough to keep you busy for nine twelve-hour days. It includes links to your best source of advice on WHERE TO EAT here, the UseNet Group ba.food, and the quite-good sfSurvey. It also has a WEATHER CHART with a link to current conditions.
The best on-line MAP of San Francisco is an inter-active PDF created for the San Francisco Municipal Railway: geocities.com/iconoc/Grafix/CityWide.pdf. I recommend 150% or greater magnification. There%26#39;s also a link that will tell you HOW TO GET THERE FROM HERE. Other links on the page, geocities.com/iconoc/Grafix/FlagMaps.html are a map of our CABLE CAR ROUTES and a superb map of GOLDEN GATE PARK.
The frequently-updated SPECIAL EVENTS page has irregularly-scheduled music and dances as well as links to seven calendars of regularly-scheduled dances, a composite of five of them, and one of dance cruises and events around the world: http://geocities.com/dancefest/Specials.html
Puter... FYI.... The Monterey Bay Aquarium released the white shark early Tuesday morning.
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