The verdant trees and cool breeze seemed to welcome me into  UC Davis. On Sept.11 my mom drove me to the university and gave me a chance to explore UC Davis alone. It felt nice being able to explore on my own, but the experience was a lot different from what I expected. From getting lost on campus to smelling and seeing livestock for the first time in my life, this personal tour really helped me see what I would expect if I ever attend UC Davis.

As a senior this year, the pressure of college from my parents make me feel trapped in their little utopia that they planned for me. They expected me to get a perfect score on the SAT and be a graduate from Harvard. But when I refused and things didn’t go as their original plan, they went for the next best thing, having me stay as close to home as possible for college. My dad always wanted me to become the next president with a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard.

“I always knew that you could do great things and I want you to live a life where you get respect from others, rather than you being looked down on,” he said.

I really love and respect my parents, but at the same time I have things that I want to achieve such as working in the entertainment industry and I feel that the schools close to home don’t fit my standards and support me in what I want to do. Yet my parents still insisted that I stay close to home and after a lot to persuasion, I reluctantly agreed to visit UC Davis.

UC Davis being the closest UC to home really stole my parents’ hearts. But Davis wasn’t the dream school that I wanted. The location itself didn’t really please me and I didn’t like how it seemed like the perfect little town that you would see in a “Home Alone” movie. I’ve always liked big cities with a lot of things to do around me, and I also prefer the cold rather than the hot weather. I’ve always wanted to study in big cities like New York and be close to my other relatives, not just my parents. I only agreed to this tour because I wanted to make sure that this was a college that I wouldn’t mind going to if I got in, considering that I’m going to pay more than $60 on the application.

Davis really is a nice campus; it’s very green and I felt safe while I was exploring on my own, unlike San Jose State or USC. The campus was a lot larger than I thought, with a lot of plants. I walked around the campus a bit to see if I could see myself attending the school. It was nice with the nice cool breeze, but the smell of manure was really strong. I knew that Davis was a big agricultural school, but I didn’t expect to smell any agricultural related products. I got lost a couple times while walking around, not knowing where I was going. I personally didn’t like how the campus was so large compared to the other campuses I went to.

As I was leaving the campus and was driving toward University Mall I saw something I never expected: cows! I saw real live cows on a college campus. At first I doubted myself and thought it was fake cows, but the smell told me that those cows were not fake. That’s when I knew that I couldn’t see myself at this school.

I have been to more than a few college campuses across the country: UCLA, USC, NYU, Princeton University, Columbia University, San Jose State, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley,  UC Irvine, University of Washington and Sacramento State. Every campus that I went to was different with its own charms, some I liked and some I disliked. Of the UCs I liked UCLA the best with a smaller campus than UC Davis and with it being close to a big city with a lot of things to do. Even though both were UCs the schools were very different, UC Davis was cleaner and less crowded unlike UCLA. UCLA is also closer to my other relatives and more things that I’m interested in, movie production. UC Davis would fit others, but for me Davis is not an option.

Going on the campus really let me experience what I might experience when I’m in college later. I didn’t get to take any classes, but while walking around I knew that the campus location did not fit what I wanted. My mom was a little disappointed to find out that I wasn’t interested in Davis, but was glad that I had specific, valid reasons for my opinion.

I now know that I won’t be wasting more than $60 on an application, but I’m glad that I was given the chance to explore the campus on my own. It really helped me visualize and look at the school from my perspective rather than my parents’ even if the school isn’t one I want to attend.

by THERESA KIM