July 2, 2004

Affirmative Reaction in San Diego

By SARA LIPKA

Jesse Lopez had his doubts about going to the Preuss School. He wasn't used to a 2 1/2 -hour commute each way and three hours of homework per night. But "the sacrifice that I was making was going to give me something in return," says Mr. Lopez, who flips his tassel this week with the high school's first graduating class.

Preuss, a public charter school developed and directed by the University of California at San Diego, was that campus's response to the University of California's