According to the UPA official website, UPA’s mission is to “prepare a diverse population of 7-12th grade students in Santa Clara County to enter and excel in the best colleges and universities in the nation.”
UPA aims to do this by focusing on academic excellence through a rigorous curriculum. But with colleges becoming more challenging to get into as students submit more applications, many students are finding ways to stand out outside of academics.
Edvisors, an organization dedicated to helping students through the college finance process, states that the college application process has gotten more competitive with there being 30% more applications than in 2012. Many factors contribute to this, mainly the rise in the use of the Common App, which is the application simultaneously accepted by more than 1000 colleges.
Harvard received 27,462 applications for the class of 2012 with an acceptance rate of 7.92%. For the class of 2027, the number doubled to 56,937 applications with a lowered acceptance rate of 3.41%. Despite an increase in applicants, Harvard has consistently maintained around 2,000 spots for students each year.
With the growing demand, students are applying to more colleges for a higher chance to get accepted into one, a cycle that further fuels the high competitiveness. As a result, students are working harder to stand out and get into colleges through maintaining exceptional grades and participating in impressive extracurricular activities. So, in the age of extracurriculars, how does academically-focused UPA prepare students for college?
Junior Akshaya Ganesh has a mixed focus on both academics and extracurriculars. She aspires to study Biochemistry or Microbiology with a pre-medical path at UCLA or UC Davis. Ganesh is science-focused and is currently taking AP Chemistry as well as her second year of engineering. In previous years, to prepare for her STEM career, she took Biology, General Chemistry and Human Body Systems.
“It shows my interest in science and medicine to colleges,” Ganesh said, “so they know I’m genuinely looking to do something.”
For four years, Ganesh has also volunteered to teach Tamil, a South Asian language, to young children at a non-profit language school, while also teaching classical Indian dance and volunteering at Good Samaritan Hospital to discharge patients and deliver medicine. Ganesh is also a member of the California Scholarship Federation, CSF, at UPA. To qualify for CSF, students are required to apply every semester and must have passed the last one with A’s or B’s.
Ganesh finds her extracurriculars enriching, but has another motivation for it.
“I also think [extracurriculars] add to the whole well-rounded student aspect that colleges look for,” Ganesh said.
Students who participate in a mix of extracurriculars are of interest to colleges as it shows the student’s dedication to putting in time and work for activities outside of school. Ganesh believes that her many hobbies and outside pursuits will help her appeal to colleges. However, it is a common misconception that colleges want well-rounded students. Generally, they look for specialists, or people with a “spike,” a term used by colleges to describe a particular area of interest.
Colleges are straying from well-roundedness and instead looking for “well-lopsided” students as they have a greater advantage in the job market because employers value specialized skills. Mental health was also a reason for the change as the pressure to excel in many areas can lead to anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. Well-roundedness also prevented students from finding and developing their true passion.
For senior Gorisha Runthala who has always known her desired career, having a spike is easy. As Runthala wishes to study astronomy and astrophysics, she has taken many courses related to them such as radiographic physics.
In school, Runthala has founded the astronomy, math, robotics and reptile clubs. She took her first college course in the summer of ninth grade, accelerating to AP Calculus AB as a sophomore and finishing BC as a junior. She is not currently taking any math classes but is planning on taking Multivariable at a college this semester. Currently, Runthala is taking six additional college courses along with her five in-school classes while also managing extracurriculars such as tutoring children.
At a young age, Runthala’s mother would tell her that if she worked hard now and did well in school, then she would have more options in the future, which heavily influenced her.
“One thing I would tell to any of my friends or kids that I tutor is just right now,” Runthala said, “even though it takes a little bit more effort to get an A, that little effort can open up a lot more doors in the future.”
With her many time-consuming classes, Runthala relieves stress through her hobbies, mainly acting. She finds theater as her getaway from reality and has a passion for performing arts in general.
“If I could [pursue a career in theater], I would,” Runthala said. “However, I do know that my academics would be put first. But I have convinced my parents to let me go out and audition while I’m pursuing my academics.”
Runthala’s focus on astronomy is pushed by her awareness that becoming successful in the entertainment industry can be difficult, so she instead devotes herself to her academics and achieving a career in astronomy.
Runthala finds UPA’s college preparation very thorough and helpful.
“At least through 11th grade,” Runthala said, “I know we’ve had lots of Seminar assignments that are career and college applications toward.”
From seventh to 12th grade, UPA Seminar classes consist of multiple college-focused assignments such as the Four-Year Plan, college research presentations, career exploration reflections and personality tests to see what careers would suit a student best. Assignments like these allow students to think ahead and prepare for the future.
Sophomore Sai Indukuri also finds the Seminar assignments beneficial. Before he joined UPA, Indukuri had never heard of the Four-Year Plan, which turned out to be very productive for him. Indukuri also finds the school counselors to be of most help.
“It’s a community,” Indukuri said, “so everyone really helps each other out. Like Ms. Buensuceso, anything you need help on, she’ll help you with.”
Despite the satisfaction with many aspects of UPA, Indukuri also believes that there is room for improvement.
“Primarily because the school is so small, we really can’t do extracurriculars like sports that well.” Indukuri said, “So we’re not the best at athletics, but academically it’s pretty good.”
For example, the volleyball and basketball programs share the same gym. Often, scheduling time for each team to be in the gym can get messy. As the shared gym comes from a lack of budget, the problem will not be resolved soon. Runthala also finds the budget to be a main problem.
“The only thing I would say is UPA does have a little less extracurricular opportunities compared to other schools,” Runthala said, “which is mostly just in the funding.”
Despite this, Runthala also believes that the lack of in-school extracurricular activities allows students the freedom to take initiative and find opportunities outside of school. Students may branch out and research to start their own clubs or join organizations on their own. Then students could not just benefit themselves but also future students who may continue the clubs they founded.
“I just think if students come up and make these clubs and go out and fundraise and start these things,” Runthala said, “then it would definitely not just benefit them but also the students coming forth.”
Ganesh also agrees with Runthala and finds that UPA’s focus on academics is helpful, forcing students to take charge and learn to balance their in-school academics and out-of-school responsibilities.
“Because we have so much access to extracurriculars and opportunities [outside of school],” Ganesh said, “it’s good that our school pushes to also focus on academics because GPA and like your grades are very important when you’re applying to college.”
Despite her satisfaction with UPA’s college preparation, Ganesh also believes that there is room to improve. As UPA’s focus on academics and rigorous curriculum diverts much time from students, Ganesh believes that there should be more in-school extracurricular activities for students to explore.
“I think [students] might need more opportunities,” Ganesh said, “Because I know we have clubs but I think there should be more accessible extracurricular opportunities for students.”
Ganesh finds the school clubs to generally not host any significant events outside of meetings, so more participatory extracurricular activities are necessary.
In the academic-centralized environment of UPA, Junior Nethra Madhav’s motivation for her extracurriculars is to help others.
“In many of my extracurriculars,” Madhav said, “I’m finding ways that I can give back to the community and help other people.”
Madhav is a part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), Associated Student Body, hepatitis B virus (HBV) team, is a youth ambassador for the Asian liver center, a founding President of the club Card Cabinet and competes in Chinese calligraphy. She also maintains hobbies such as piano, embroidery, singing, ukulele and guitar.
“It’s important to branch out and be able to try to improve ourselves outside of only academics,” Madhav said, “because that can help us grow more as a person.”
LLS was first introduced to Madhav through UPA; being headed by math teacher Jaz Dhillon who brought the program to UPA after he worked with the program during the time his son was diagnosed with leukemia. In LLS, Madhav fundraised more than $35,000 for research about cancer, winning Student Visionary of the Year in Silicon Valley for raising the highest amount. In ASB, Madhav is a part of the finance team. For team HBV, she helps to spread awareness about Hepatitis B in connection with the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, once hosting a poetry contest to raise awareness.
As Madhav is interested in studying sciences related to medicine or engineering, she has taken many UPA classes associated with those subjects such as the biological sciences and engineering pathways.
Madhav finds UPA to be academically focused in a helpful way and the environment to be uplifting as all the teachers and administrators aim to help students improve.
“I think that it’s definitely really focused on academics because it encourages students to have academic rigor and like challenging ourselves,” Madhav said, “which I really liked.”
Despite the differing opinions on UPA’s college preparedness due to budgeting, many can agree that the staff are most appreciated.
In the original published article, there was inaccurate information about Madhav’s story. It is now corrected and updated. Aquila apologizes and regrets this error.
