On Thursday, I received an e-mail from Sac State (the biggest college competitor vs. UCM) informing me that I would most likely not receive my Fin. Aid package until after the SIR deadline. After this and after Sac State lost my SAT scores and my EOP application, I was sort of /facepalm. So since Thursday, I've had a Bobcat mentality and decided that as long as Bobcat Day went well, I would be attending UCM this fall. It was to the point when Phap asked me where I was going to college, I blurted "UC Merced" with no hesitation. homg!
It was a shorter drive than I expected (1½ hours vs 2+ hours) and the town was not AS bad as I expected! I expected farmland and people in denim overalls and cow farms as far as the eye can see. But, while it definitely surpassed this image, if someone asked me if I could live anywhere in the world, where would it be, Merced wouldn't be in the top.. many (although admittedly, Disneyland would be #1). The part of town I saw looked like a town-wide version of "the ghetto side of Sacramento," except with prettier foliage around the city.
The university was a couple of minutes away from the town and was as "in the middle of no where" as their admissions counselor described when he visited MTHS on Monday. Like UCSC, the campus outskirts greets you with a cow farm (is this.. a UC thing.. or something?). Despite knowing that there's only 3k students on campus this fall, the campus was surprisingly small! Housing/parking lots take up literally half the campus, and there's only THREE academic buildings + the library. The campus tour took only like fifteen minutes. In fact, if you take out the housing and the parking lots, it's quite possibly the same size as MTHS, except the buildings are multi-floored. I actually had less of a problem with that than I expected. One of my complaints when I went to UC Davis, UCSC, and Sac State is that it took forever to walk anywhere, especially since I dunno how to ride a bike... and because I'm a fat lazy bum. D:!!!! It was actually a little appealing knowing everything was right *there*, although I half-expect to get bored of that eventually and that I'll find myself in the town of Merced a lot in the future. 
Although I can see myself getting bored of Merced, but that's okay because I'm bored of Elk Grove. XD There's stores to live on, like grocery stores, but the amount of "hot spot" stores and shops leaves something to be desired. When Phuc comes to visit me and asks me to bring him somewhere "interesting," I will not know anywhere to go. 
SO, Bobcat Day's schedule was a lot more lenient than Sac State's EOP day, which was very everyone-is-in-this-room-at-this-time. We had breakfast in the library (one UCM con = only two places to eat, the library café and the dining commons! weak!) and then looked at booths for a bit before going to the School of Natural Sciences meeting (biology major!). A booth gave my mom a ziploc bag of ice to make ice cream, so I spent the campus tour shaking the bag of make-your-own ice cream. Then, we went on the Housing tour, which totally made my mom very stoked, and the dorms actually looked fairly pleasant. The UCSC dorms were space-y width-wise, but the UCM dorms had a lot of length, but a little crowded because each room has its own sink, which I find understandable. Fun!
My biggest complaint of the day is that UC Merced definitely lacks shade, as all the trees are still babies from the campus being so new. So it was really hot, but I can't really blame the campus for coming into contact with the sun. Weather.com claims that Merced is on average ~5 degrees hotter than Sacramento, which I can probably live with. Oh, I've been looking for an excuse for the flip-flop/shorts/dress life to find its way into my heart!
The academics of UC Merced greatly contributed to a big "YES!" They have a core + emphasis structure instead of dividing the Biological Sciences into separate majors, so it's extremely flexible with changing emphases, which is handy for me because I currently cannot decide between Microbiology/Immunology and Human Biology. All the faculty speakers seemed very neato, with a British professor that is the splitting image of Dr. Wyatt from Bones. And I love Bones.
At the end of the day, my mom had a bunch of Financial Aid questions, so we went to the Students First Center in the library, and the lady asked if I already submitted my SIR. I said no, and she said, "Oh you want to do that now?" and my mom said yes. And so I said, "oh, ok, i was just gonna do that when i get home" but instead I logged in at the Center, and to my horror, the lady clicked the "Accept Offer of Admission" button for me! So I lamely lost the thrill of accepting my own college. Lol. >__>.
But, YES. With the promise of a full ride + $5.2k profit in hand, I have sort of submitted my SIR to UC Merced. Come this fall, I will be a bobcat. Meow! Yes, that's right...
But as we young'uns know, the real official moment is totally when you join the UC Merced Facebook group and when your Myspace looks like this:
XD