Stress soars in applying for California colleges

<p>With record-shattering numbers of applicants vying for a shrinking number of places at California universities, stress is the word of the day for area seniors.</p><p>More than 609,000 students submitted undergraduate applications to the California State University system between Oct. 1 and the Nov. 30 deadline, according to CSU officials. On the final day alone, more than 73,680 applications were received.</p><p>The deadline for students applying to the UC system was extended from Monday to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday after the online application system crashed in the final hours.</p><p>That breakdown -- largely symbolic locally because only 1,500 students statewide were online when it crashed -- summed up the worry felt by seniors facing one of the bleakest-ever college application seasons.</p><p>"Oh man, I am kind of stressing out because there are so many people applying for so few seats. It has grown so competitive you have to be on top of everything," said Santa Rosa High senior Tom Ogasawara. "You can literally be the perfect student and still be rejected, which is kind of terrifying."</p><p>With a 4.6 grade-point average and plans to apply to Harvard, Princeton and Yale, Ogasawara said the crunch in California might lead to an out-of-state silver lining.</p><p>"To tell the truth, right now, based on my family's financial situation, a private school on the East Coast is completely free because of our income bracket," he said. "Without excessive financial aid and definitely student loans, UC might be more than we can afford."</p><p>This year, admission requirements to both the UC and CSU campuses are tightening and the cost has skyrocketed.</p><p>UC and CSU fees went up 32 percent and 30 percent respectively.</p><p>In addition, CSU will reduce enrollment over the next two years by 40,000 students. That means some campuses will reject scores of students who in years past would have been admitted.</p><p>"This is worse than anybody has ever seen," said Maria Carrillo High School counselor Keith Donaldson, a 13-year veteran of guiding students through college applications.</p><p>"You definitely can get into school; it's just when you look at California schools, the UC and CSUs, that is when it becomes frightening," he said. "That's when you see all the numbers going after these spots."</p><p>A record number of undergraduates applied for the fall semester at Sonoma State University. More than 16,490 students -- including 12,543 first-time freshmen -- applied to the Rohnert Park campus. That is a 25 percent increase over the fall of 2009, according to school officials.</p><p>Campus officials will meet next week to determine the number of places that will be available in 2010, but the school is expected to cut 450 spots over two years.</p><p>That uncertainty is changing the landscape for high-schoolers, officials said.</p><p>"I'm telling them to apply broadly, to look at everything. Where once maybe there was a 'safe' school and some 'reach' schools -- now I'm sitting there going, 'Nothing is safe,' " Donaldson said.</p><p>The squeeze is so tight at Fresno State that officials turned down the application of Elsie Allen High senior Cody Bagley after he missed the deadline by mere hours.</p><p>"Because they are impacted, they wouldn't accept it," he said. "With the amount of applications they had already, they just couldn't accept another one."</p><p>Bagley, who has already been offered admission and a scholarship to Northern Arizona University, has applied to SSU, Sacramento State and the University of Nevada at Reno.</p><p>He was taking the difficult application process in stride Tuesday.</p><p>"It was a bummer, but things happen for a reason," he said.</p><p>Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com.</p>