NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Salar Hazany,
a senior at Reseda High School, looks up his admissions info
online. He’s been accepted to UCLA, UCSD and is waiting to hear
from Cal.
By Helen Seliverstov
Daily Bruin Contributor
Salar Hazany nervously logged onto the UCLA Web site to see his
admission results. Soon he exhaled with a rush of excitement upon
seeing, “Congratulations! You have been accepted to
UCLA” on his computer screen.
After a four month wait, Reseda High School senior Hazany
received a nod from the UCLA admissions office, but now faces new
anxieties and concerns about attending his number one choice.
As a future Bruin, he is now concerned about applying for the
Honors program and whether or not to live on campus next year.
But excitement outweighs nervousness.
“I feel happy and very lucky to be admitted to
UCLA,” Hazany said, a common sentiment among newly-accepted
Bruins.
“I did not expect to get in but thought I had a good
chance at an acceptance to UCLA,” Hazany said.
Hazany has also been accepted to the UC Irvine and San Diego
campuses, but has not yet heard from Berkeley, nor does he care,
because he is planning to attend UCLA.
Hazany feels bad for his friends who did not get in and feels
that UCLA is far from consistent in its admission patterns.
Iris Villamor, a fellow senior in Reseda High Magnet who did not
get into UCLA disagrees.
“My GPA and SATs were not high enough so I did not get
into UCLA, so I will go to UC Irvine,” Villamor said.
Hazany feels that he deserved to get into UCLA. He thinks that
he had a solid application, above average SAT scores of 1350, a 4.3
GPA along with a strong list of extra curricular activities,
including tennis and yearbook.
This is the second year that students have gotten their
admission results for UCLA online. Hazany said it was
“cool” to use the Internet.
“None of that small-big package stuff,” he added. He
received an envelope several days later.
After Hazany’s excitement about his acceptance subsided,
he was faced with making decisions about applying for the honors
program and deciding about living arrangements for next year.
For both of these questions, he has received varying opinions
and thoughts from his older friends who attend UCLA and
counselors.
Earlier in the year Hazany was determined to live at home, but
now he is not so sure. He said that he will only live on campus if
he finds the commute will be hard.
“Where to live, while attending college depends on the
situation of every student,” said Tony Recalde, the Reseda
High School magnet coordinator.
“If one is still immature and lacks self-control, then
living on campus may distract the student from his academics, while
he may be more focused at home,” he added.
Hazany is not concerned about not succeeding on a campus as big
as UCLA.
He currently attends a small high school and he feels that there
is less opportunity there, fewer choices, fewer people and less
diversity like there will be in a small college.
“UCLA will be able to provide me a variety of choices,
which is what I am looking for in college,” said Hazany.
He is worried, though, about not being able to ask questions in
a 400 people auditorium because there are so many people.
Also Hazany wants to know in depth answers and is concerned that
the instructor would not have time to answer those questions.
He is not concerned about making friends in a big place like
UCLA. Many of Hazany’s friends, that do not attend high
school with him, go to UCLA.
“I feel that I will have my old extended family
back.”
Hazany’s attitude toward school work is that grades are
not important anymore.
“And they would have never been important had it not been
for fear of not getting into college,” said Hazany.
He swears not to cram for tests anymore and just learn for the
sake of learning, not for a letter grade.
Hazany’s parents are very happy for him for getting into
UCLA. They did not make it seem like they were expecting him to get
in. They were genuinely excited for him when he got his electronic
admission letter.
“Hazany has worked his butt off over the past four
years,” said Tony Recalde, the Reseda High magnet
coordinator.
Recalde feels that Hazany has matured very dramatically since
his freshman year and deserved to get into UCLA.
Recalde said if students apply themselves and take the
curriculum that the Magnet program suggests, then they can get into
any school.
“But they gotta do the work and get the grades to get into
good schools,” Recalde added.
“Reseda Magnet is different from a regular school in that
students choose to be in the Magnet and parents are more
involved,” Recalde said.
Last year, 12 students in the magnet class got into UC Berkeley
and approximately 20 were accepted to UCLA, Recalde said.
Hazany feels that he could have gone to a different high school
and still have gotten into UCLA.
“Reseda was not crucial to my acceptance,” he said.
Other schools tell students more than just what the deadlines are
and provide more direction.