photo courtesy of Shuai Chen, co-founder of Splash

If you know a middle or high school student who has a free day this weekend and might be interested in, say, neuroscience, dancing, artificial intelligence, juggling, or painting, keep reading!

More than 100 Stanford University students are playing teacher for the weekend in a marathon learning session on the Palo Alto campus. It’s called Splash, and it runs Saturday and Sunday. The full price is $40 for both days (and $20 for siblings), but the event organizers say that participants who can’t afford the fee can just say so and they don’t have to pay anything.

You can learn more about Splash, and its (literally) 209 course offerings, here. This is the third time students have organized the event, and they expect up to 1,000 kids to participate. Those who haven’t registered online can just show up on Saturday or Sunday.

Can’t make it this weekend? They’re planning another one in April.

Considering a historically black college or university? Admissions officers from more than 30 HBCUs will be on hand tomorrow at a recruitment fair for Oakland high school students.

The free event goes from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at the Oakland school district’s administrative office building – 1025 Second Avenue, near Laney College.

Some of the colleges will offer on-the-spot admissions and scholarships, so students should bring their SAT scores and school transcripts. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation released the names of 16,000 semifinalists — less than 1 percent of the nation’s high school seniors — who will compete for 8,200 scholarships. These students were recommended by their school principals and scored highly on the P-SATs they took as juniors.

All of Oakland’s semifinalists attend private schools, but that’s not the case in some other nearby districts, like Fremont: Read the rest of this entry »

Robin Higgins graduated from Skyline High School in 2006 and attends a university in Atlanta, Ga. She writes about her transition. -Katy

I feel like I’ve been prepared very well by the Oakland Unified School District. Since my graduation from Skyline High School in 2006 I’ve completed three years of college and never felt disadvantaged or held back by my schooling. Culturally, however, the transition has been awkward, strange, and a little discouraging.

I have not had a hard time transitioning academically from Oakland schools to a private college, but I also got the very best of what the OUSD schools had to offer. My parents were my advocates, involved in a way that gave me the very best of a given school, and shielded me from some of the less functional parts. Teachers in my middle and high school ranged from inspiring individuals who shape every student they have in a positive way to so mind-bogglingly bad it’s a wonder they even bother to get up in the morning. Read the rest of this entry »

photo by Laura A. Oda/Tribune

With the help of Matt Krupnick (and the quick thinking/typing skills of our guest, Cal State East Bay’s VP of enrollment, Greg Smith), I survived my first “live chat” this afternoon. We weren’t exactly overwhelmed with participants, but those who did join the discussion asked some good questions.

Sorry you missed it? Don’t be. You can read the entire thread Read the rest of this entry »

Got burning questions about college admissions and academic preparation? Save them up for tomorrow.

As part of the Oakland Tribune’s and Contra Costa Times’ Road to College project, Greg Smith, the vice president of planning and enrollment management at Cal State East Bay, will be on hand tomorrow to answer them.

The live, online chat starts at noon tomorrow (Tuesday). You may submit questions, or you can just read along. You can find it here. You can also sign up for a reminder, if you need reminding.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

photo by Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group

Over the past three months I’ve probably been asked about a hundred times what I’m up to next year, and although I dread this repeated question as much as the next high school grad, I also delight in the fact that I can give a response most people don’t expect.

“I’m going to Spain!” is usually my initial response, followed by an in depth explanation of why on earth I decided to put off college. A gap year, as some call it, has become more popular in recent years although still rare here in the states. Most people go straight to college from high school.

Students are usually told this is the best way and schools offer little guidance to those who may want to take an alternative route, which made my decision making process all the more difficult. I was surprised at the lack of information and resources offered to students like me, because I had a lot of questions that were difficult to get answers to. Read the rest of this entry »

file photo by Anda Chu/Staff

Hypothetical scenario: You’re helping a high school student narrow down her list of prospective colleges. You go over the tuition, admissions standards, location, programs, campus life and size of College A. Do you consider its graduation rate, as well?

What if it’s just 12 percent? Or less than half? Read the rest of this entry »

photo by Kristopher Skinner/Staff

My editors plan to turn this Sunday’s front page into a guide for college-bound kids and their families. The guide will run in the Contra Costa Times, as well as the Tribune and its sister papers.

We’ve posted a short list of tips online, and we’re hoping you’ll add some pointers of your own. The Web page is up now; you can find it here.

Crystal Lauti hasn’t even started high school, and already she has earned $10,000 for her college education. 

Crystal just graduated from KIPP Bridge, a charter middle school in West Oakland, and was one of six KIPP students across the country to win the Doris Fisher award this year. About 1,000 students were eligible.

She sounds like a talented and hard-working kid, from the details I read in the below press release. I liked to see that she stepped up to run her school newspaper, although she’s probably smart enough to avoid the industry later in life. Read the rest of this entry »