3rd Annual East Coast Tour Highlights Opportunity

After two successful West Coast Campus Crawls in the Spring, eight high achieving, very excited teenagers met at the San Diego airport the morning of July 24th for a week long trip to visit Universities on the East Coast.  These students were selected based on their desire to attend college in the Northeast along with their GPA and standardized test scores.  One of the students was ranked #1 in their class at their respective high school, and the group as a whole had a collective GPA well over 4.00.The week started with a visit to the White House and some of Washington DC's most popular museums.  However, after this day of "leisure", the rest of the week was spent traveling over 500 miles and visiting 8 of our country's top schools.  The East Coast Crawl is known for being as exhausting as it is rewarding and this year was no exception.“I had a lot of fun not only visiting the universities but making new friendships with incredible people. My favorite universities were Princeton, MIT, and Hopkins. Exploring the different style campuses that the east coast has to offer really makes me comfortable now that I will begin the college application process. A Bridge for Kids has been a huge help in my pursuit of higher education, thank you for this opportunity. ” – Lizbeth, The Preuss School Class of 2017Visits to Georgetown and Johns Hopkins were new stops on this years trip and ended up as two of the favorites.  Princeton University, just a few hours to the North, caught the eye of several students for being unique in combining the strengths of a major research university with the qualities of an outstanding liberal arts college . Thursday consisted of an information session and campus tour of both Yale and Brown University.   Many kids loved the city of Providence and Brown’s quaint New England campus.  However, what really stood out as a positive to many was the school’s open curriculum that allows for a broader set of course requirements, giving students the freedom to choose for themselves what they wish to study.    “I just wanted to say thank you for the amazing opportunity of going on the east coast trip. I had an amazing time and made some really great friends along the way. This trip has also helped me narrow my search of finding the perfect college to call home. My favorite college on our trip was Princeton University. I loved what they stood for and how they saw us as people. Their financial aid is also super supportive and the majority graduate debt free which would be extremely helpful considering that I would like to go to medical school. I would also like to thank you for A Bridge for Kids because it has helped me realize that there are plenty of opportunities for lower income families and that it is, in fact, possible to reach my goals of becoming a neurologist”- Victoria, West Hills High School Class of 2019On the last day of our campus crawl, the teens visited their last Ivy League college, Harvard, and then headed to MIT, the final school on the itinerary.  At the airport, an exhausted group of kids still found time to share stories, emails and phone numbers with their new friends and potential future college classmates.A quote from Miranda Perez, a Sophomore at Princeton University, who attended the first East Coast Crawl in 2014, seemed to sum up the feelings of most on this years trip:“It’s been my long time dream to go to college in the east coast, especially the Ivies. I thought I knew everything about the admissions process, yet I had never visited a campus. By visiting 6 in one week, I was able to get a feel for where I wanted to be and how to get there. As a result, my college prospects have changed dramatically and I feel even more ready for the application season. As for the trip itself, it was no leisurely walk in the park, although there were a great many beautiful parks. It was a full schedule with no room for lagging, which allowed us to focus entirely on the campus tours and info sessions. This part I especially appreciated because I don’t like wasting time during an opportunity like this one.” – Miranda, Escondido Charter Class of 2015 and Princeton University Class of 2019