By Cathy Tyson

www.lamorindaweekly.com
Volume 01; Issue 09
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 

Seniors from Acalanes, Campolindo and Miramonte have at this point, attended Senior Prom, made it through finals week, experienced
graduation, and enjoyed the eight plus hour Grad night party.
What next for the young men and women of Lamorinda? The vast
majority, an average of just over 97%, of graduates from our three high
schools go on to either a 4 or 2 year college. Many will stay in California,
the three high schools average 24% attending one of the University
of California campuses, and 18.6% attending a California State
University. See chart for a specific breakdown of who is going where.
Roughly 2% are undecided or considering travel or a Gap year.
A number of students will be studying internationally, at Franklin
College in Lugano, Switzerland, American University of Paris, three
schools in Canada - McGill University, Malaspina College and University
of British Columbia, EPCC in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sun Yat-
Sen University in Guangzhou, China.
Gwenly Carrel, College/Career Center Advisor at Campolindo,
reflects on the selection process. “It is absolutely more difficult to get
into one of the UCs this year. As the number of students who apply
goes up, the number accepted goes down. Last year at Campo, 33 students
got into a UC, this year it’s 22. The size and strength of the class
along with external factors help determine choice.
For example, last year 12 students went to USC, this year only 1. The
difference could be attributed to the price, which just went up to
$50,000 per year.” In addition, the “friend factor” can help rule out a
school if a student has a number of pals planning on attending. “Overall
kids are looking for a new experience,” says Carrel.
With regard to out of state public schools, the unanimous choice
was University of Oregon, Acalanes has 17 students going there, Miramonte,
13, and Campolindo 9. Second place was University of Colorado,
Boulder for Campolindo and Miramonte, and University of
Arizona for Acalanes. University of Washington and Oregon State

also will have a handful of Lamorinda students.
Terrence O’Neill and Taylor Neason are both the lucky recipients
of track scholarships at Syracuse and Penn, respectively. While they
were happy to receive the scholarships, Taylor expresses both boys
sentiment, “They own you.”
Looking at private schools across the country, our students are all
over the map. Harvard is the destination of 3, 8 at Stanford, 9 at St.
Mary’s in Moraga, and one or more students at the following: Baylor,
Brigham Young, Columbia, Duke,
Earlham, Georgetown, MIT, Notre
Dame, NYU, Oberlin, Pepperdine,
Reed, Tulane, Vanderbilt, and many,
many others.