Meet our Mentors | Cairo’s journey to Rice then UCSD

We interviewed one of our many incredible Mentors, Cairo, who graduated from UCSD in 2022! Read on to see how Cairo applied to college, transferred from Rice to UCSD, and enjoyed being in San Diego as an undergrad.

Cairo, thanks for sitting down with us. Let’s start with the basics. Can you share where you went to college, when you graduated, and what you studied?

I went to University of California San Diego and graduated in 2022. I studied Math and Computer Science.

An interesting thing about my journey is I started off at Rice before transferring to UCSD for my junior year. I’m originally from California, and going to school in Texas made me realize I actually really wanted to be closer to home. So I initially transferred from Rice to a community college then to UCSD.

I want to flash back to junior and senior year of high school and your application process. Did you apply anywhere early, whether that’s Early Action (EA), Restrictive Early Action (REA), Early Decision (ED), or something else?

I applied to Rice Early Decision, so that was a binding admissions decision.

And then over the course of the whole application process, early and regular, where else did you wind up applying?

Rice was actually the only school I applied to, since Early Decision is a binding commitment. I thought about applying to the UCs, since I’m from Northern California, but at the time was more interested in heading somewhere further from home.

Did you apply to any specific university scholarship programs?

No, since I got into Rice Early Decision. Rice has a strong financial aid offering that meets 100% of a student’s demonstrated need and then automatically considers applicants for some merit aid.

Why did you choose Rice?

Honestly, I wish I’d had Cohort. A big reason I went to Rice is that I wanted to ED to a school so, honestly, I could chill a bit my senior year. I really was confident I could get into Rice. I’m selling myself a bit short, to be clear. I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering at the time, and Rice is just absolutely an incredible school for engineering of all kinds but especially mechanical. And of course the quality of life is incredibly high at Rice. But I do think I could’ve considered a slightly wider set of schools. Maybe I would’ve applied to Rice ED, maybe I would’ve instead submitted a handful of apps to REA or EA schools. I don’t know.

What was the best thing about Rice? About UCSD?

For Rice, the amenities were so nice. The food, the gym, the classrooms — they were all awesome. The access to teachers is included in that. Because it was a smaller school, there were tons of opportunities to connect with faculty. But very seriously, the food was incredible. This is in comparison to UCSD, but also Stanford, UCLA, Harvard, and a few others I got to try through friends or family. Shoutout to Rice for the great food.

For UCSD, the San Diego, by the beach, sunny vibe is incredible. Pair that with the size of the school and the amount of diversity of people that comes with that size and it’s a wonderful combo. Great place, cool people.

And how about your least favorite things about Rice and UCSD?

I did not like the Rice weather. It was 110 degrees the week I got to campus, then a week later was a hurricane, then at one point it snowed. I also didn’t like the size of the school. My high school was quite small, so I thought I’d like that. But I pretty quickly felt like I knew everyone in my class, since it was only 1,000 per grade. That size just wasn’t for me. I really enjoy, and actually expect, to be meeting new people, even today. So I just felt like I wasn’t getting part of the college experience that I wanted.

At UCSD, my least favorite thing is it did feel like you were thrown into the wild and had to figure out everything on your own. It was really the opposite, the direct tradeoff of a bigger school vs. a smaller school like Rice. Very specific, basic administrative things like getting connected with the right counselor took longer and a decent amount of effort.

What have you heard since graduating that you’ve realized are unique things about Rice and UCSD? Or in your case, you got to compare them while you were still in college after you transferred, so what were the unique things about each school?

For Rice, it’s the housing system. People take the housing system seriously. There are competitions between the different “colleges,” which are essentially huge dorm buildings. There are 7 across campus. Everyone lives in them freshman year, then after that you can choose to live off campus. But you’re still part of the “college.” People remain excited about their college throughout all four years.

I do think UCSD is quite similar to a lot of the UCs, from what I’ve heard. This answer feels somewhat obvious, but just the proximity of the beach while also being in a major city does really make UCSD a cool place. We would absolutely have beach days where we’d have bonfires on the beach, hang out on the beach, and meet people from other San Diego schools. So that’s quite unique.

Moving on to more general college reflections, what do you think you’ve learned about college since you graduated?

This is cliché, but make the most of college. Very frankly, it’s probably the last time you’ll have that level of freedom to enrich yourself, explore what you really care about, learn about who you are and who you want to be friends with for the rest of your life.

One other thing I’ll say that’s really surprised me. When I was in high school, I thought where I went to college would determine everything about my work life. Flash forward and I can’t think of a single time anyone at my work has asked me where I went to college. Where you go can definitely help open some doors, don’t get me wrong. But who you are and how you work is much, much more important. That’s been a really pleasant surprise and something I am so glad I get to share with Cohort students.

Any regrets about your college application process, decision-making process, or how you approached college? What’s that one thing you always tell high schoolers about college?

My main regret looking back is that I didn’t really understand what was important to me as I was approaching the college application process. I have older brothers, so it’s not even that I didn’t have the opportunities to think about it. It’s just that junior and senior year of high school are so busy. You get locked into thinking only about academics vs. a more holistic thought process. That’s something unique about Cohort. It gives you an avenue, and in a lot of ways forces you, to think about more than just a list of college rankings. 

Finally, what made you decide to be a Cohort Mentor?

I work in FinTech right now. I like the work, but it’s software, so often I don’t really feel the direct impact. I almost never meet our customers. So I like to do things outside of my job where I can directly connect with people for whom I know I can be helpful. For example, when one of my students shared an awesome admissions outcome during this last Cohort Cycle, that was one of the best moments of my year. I mean that seriously. I was so happy for her.

Thank you, Cairo. It’s been great learning about your journey to Rice then UCSD. Thanks for your time