Senior Arezoo Ghasemzadeh wakes up at 6 a.m. two school days a week to attend her 6:30 a.m. weightlifting class—just one of her outlets in dealing with stress. “The pressure of earning good grades, getting into a good college and meeting my parents’ expectations contributes to my stress,” she...
Obsession with college selectivity and prestige is a ubiquitous phenomenon. A quick surf on YouTube reveals a whole host of “college decisions reactions,” including tantalizing thumbnails with phrases like “How I Got Into MIT and Yale” or “I Made it Into the Most Selective College in the Nation.”...
Given the highly competitive nature of schools in the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) as well as others in the Bay Area, conversations surrounding GPAs, test scores and extracurricular endeavors are always present. In turn, many students feel the urge to go above and beyond in order to...
Sophia Stern, Business Manager, Social Media Editor
• March 8, 2022
The Middle College program is often seen as a viable option for students who have struggled in Gunn’s environment or want to pursue college credits in order to get a head start before attending university. However, Middle College is not a one-size-fits-all fix for students who want to pursue an alternative...
The Middle College pathway is an invaluable opportunity that all Gunn students should consider. It presents a unique approach to learning with advantages such as flexibility, acceleration and independence over traditional schooling.
Middle College students are grouped in cohorts of about twenty students...
Jessica Zang, Features Editor and Assistant Business Manager
• February 15, 2022
Higher education is often hailed as the pinnacle of the American dream. As long as you study hard and get good grades, you, too, can get into the college of your choice and receive an education that will set you up for life. America has no shortage of elite institutions, from the notorious Ivy League...
Sophia Stern, Business Manager, Social Media Editor
• February 11, 2022
When faced with the choice of where he would attend college in 2020, Gunn alumnus Marek Hertzler was unsatisfied with his options after receiving decisions from the schools he applied to. Instead of settling for a school that didn’t seem like a perfect fit for him, Hertzler decided to attend Foothill...
Out of the 20 million Americans enrolled in an undergraduate college in the fall of 2021, only 16,000 attended the U.S. Naval Academy, according to Statista. Gunn alumna Jennifer Gao is one of them.
While Gao spent most of high school playing water polo and writing for The Oracle, she discovered...
After graduating in 2020, Gunn alumna Livia Bednarz has spent her time working, designing and spending time with family. Unlike most seniors, who choose to attend a four-year university, Bednarz decided to take a gap year after high school, resuming her school journey as the class of 2025 at Tufts University.
For...
Welcome, class of 2022, to senior year. I’ll start off with a surprise: this article isn’t about college applications. You’ve already worked hard enough—the last hurdle is writing essays about that work, and honestly, it’s the easiest part. Instead, here’s some advice on the life part of...
Mia Knezevic, Forum Editor, Photo Editor and Oracle-SEC Liaison
• September 30, 2020
For months, colleges have attempted to battle the COVID-19 pandemic while accommodating students’ needs and desires. For some schools, that meant closing campuses entirely; for others, it meant allowing students to return to campuses while taking online classes. Some colleges have even attempted to...
