The Blog

With just a couple of weeks to go before the state filing deadline, far fewer California high school students have completed college financial aid applications than is typical. Applications from students age 18 and under are down from previous years. As of Feb 15, only 314,855 students under age 18 completed an application. That’s 27,522 fewer than last year and …

UC Irvine and the state prison system have reached a deal to create the first University of California bachelor’s degree program behind bars. Since California opened the door for community colleges to teach in prisons in 2014, some 2,000 incarcerated men and women across the state have earned associate degrees, said Brant Choate, director of rehabilitative programs for the California …

All throughout high school, Brian Williams planned to go to college. But as the pandemic eroded the final moments of his senior year, the Stafford, Texas, student began to second-guess that plan. “I’m terrible at online school,” Williams says. He was barely interested in logging on for his final weeks of high school; being online for his first semester at …

Throughout October and November, hundreds of thousands of high school seniors from every part of the state take the first step toward realizing their academic and professional goals by applying to a California State University campus. In this new COVID-19 reality, too many students will have to navigate the transition between K-12 and higher education virtually, and largely on their …

Real-life stories of the extreme challenges and anxiety COVID-19 has brought upon our state’s college students ring frighteningly loud and true: most have lost all or most of their income sources, many have changed their college plans and uprooted their living arrangements, and some have had their college aspirations completely derailed over worries about family and money. “I am trying …

As they approached a traffic checkpoint in Long Beach, close to their home, Johana Resendiz, then 7 years old, didn’t realize her life was about to change. She and her younger sister were riding with her father, a U.S. resident and passed through easily. Her mother, who drove behind in a second car, was undocumented and facing an order of …