Jake Parent for the Chronicle of Higher Education

I photographed Jake Parent at UC Santa Cruz awhile back for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Parent, a stellar student, received conditional acceptance to San Jose State University, his first choice school, yet after accidentally marking the wrong major on his online application, he was told he'd have to postpone starting school until the following semester. Instead of putting his plans on hold, Parent was luckily able to transfer to UCSC in time to start for the Fall 2009 semester. Because of California's budget crisis, state schools, such as San Jose State U., have started finding any kind of loophole in students' applications/admissions processes so that they have some justification for putting their admission on hold. Simply put, there are too many students at a time when schools are cutting classes and faculty so students are being told to postpone their higher education plans indefinitely.