Claire's inside look

I took my first college classes after eighth grade, so when I was 13. And I started full time here when I was 15.

I first heard about its Early Entrance Program, and so that's kind of what drew me to Cal State L.A. I met some of the students before, before attending full time. They seemed really intelligent, but fun people, so I thought I could be a part of it.

You know, when I was thinking about choosing a major, I always knew that I wanted to do something more related to math and science. I didn't think that the pure math or science was for me. So I went for something more applied.

In our last year here, we, the seniors in electrical engineering, actually in several engineering disciplines, participate in a senior design project. So, we get some, you know, hands-on work.

The team projects in our classes have helped because out in what you call "the real world" they always work in teams, so that has been a good experience.

Ever since I was little, I've liked to run. And I had a good experience and that was one thing in high school that I didn't want to let go of.

I guess I like the camaraderie of being on a team on those long runs where you get to talk to your friends and it just, it feels good. You get that, I guess what you call, the runners' high.

Honestly, I didn't have a lot of expectations coming in. I was just like I'm going to go for it; I'm going to do this. And we'll see … I was just going to let Cal State L.A. surprise me with whatever it had to offer.