Blogger Marks One-Year Anniversary of Decision to Attend UC San Diego

Christine Clark| March 14, 2011

Brian Bose attended Admit Day, April 10, 2010, before accepting his offer to attend UC San Diego.

“Hello world, my name is Brian Christopher Bose. And no, I do not have a family member who founded Bose Audio Systems. At least, I don’t think I do. I mean, I haven’t seen a penny of the money, so I guess not.”  That was UC San Diego freshman Brian Bose’s first entry in his New York Times blog “The Choice” which chronicled the nail-biting college admissions process Bose experienced last spring.

Throughout the blog, Bose nervously checked the mail for college acceptance letters from New York University, DePaul and UC San Diego.

Nearly one year after his first blog entry, the theatre and dance major is still thrilled that he chose UC San Diego over DePaul University and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. “There are so many opportunities here and so many ways to get involved,” he said. “I have made wonderful friends and met so many great people in the residence halls, classes … everywhere. My biggest concern is that I don’t have enough time to do everything that I want to do here.” 

In his blog, Bose candidly revealed obstacles he had to overcome as a young child. “One of the many fine things my mother has passed on to me is the instinct to push forward,” he wrote. “She had to. Six months before I was born, my Nigerian father left my mother and me.”

Bose’s determination and talent earned him top honors at Chatsworth High school where he was a straight-A student and avid participant in the drama club. At a very young age, Bose discovered a love for performing which influenced his decision to attend UC San Diego.

When Bose visited UC San Diego, he was impressed with the university’s department of theatre and dance, ranked among the top three in the nation, along with Yale and New York University.  “As an actor, I was in heaven,” he wrote.  “Five beautiful theaters are there for me to take advantage of.”

In his final blog entry, Bose expressed his excitement to attend UC San Diego and gratitude towards his mother, “Wow, for 18 years I have waited for this moment,” he wrote. “We did it, Mom!”

In his first quarter at UC San Diego, Bose got the rare opportunity to perform in a graduate production, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” a play that earned glowing reviews set in the second decade of the 20th century that chronicles the pains of racism and discrimination.
Bose’s performance was the greatest creative experience of his life to date. “I hope something in the future comes along to top this,” he said. “I was amazed by the other actors in the show and the director, Kyle Donnelly, is amazing. The experience truly gave me a new appreciation for acting.”

One of Bose’s greatest memories during the production was the performance where his mother, grandmother, father and aunt sat in the audience. “It was so amazing to have my family finally see the work I have been doing at UC San Diego and the production was so great.”

In addition to Bose’s theatrical performance, he has performed on the UC San Diego hip-hop dance team, Ascension. In winter quarter, Bose performed in WinterWorks, a series collaborative dance and theatre pieces.  He also was recently accepted in the two-quarter-long "Acting Intensive” course. “Excited is not a strong enough word to describe how much I’m looking forward to spring quarter,” he said.