Maria Polyakova constantly checked her email waiting for a response from the diving coaches at Stanford, Texas, USC and UCLA. She waited weeks for responses from the first three schools, but it only took three days for UCLA diving coach Tom Stebbins to reply. Read more...
Photo: Maria Polyakova reached out to four different U.S. schools when applying for college. Three of them took weeks to respond, while UCLA took just three days expressing interest. The Bruins had enough scholarships available, and was the right mix of academics and athletics for Polyakova. (Ken Shin/Daily Bruin)
