Bad News for those Students thinking Cal State System Schools were your Safeties

[mom60]

BfloGal- The College of Creative Studies is highly regarded. If I am recalling correctly it has an additional application process. You can be accepted into UCSB but not into College of creative studies. We have a friend who graduated from the school. I remember her waiting on her College of Creative studies acceptance before making her decision. (she was a transfer from a liberal arts college that is ranked in the top 2 in the nation)

[katliamom]

agree with mom60 - College of Creative Studies is very competitive, and only takes a few students in each field. It's designed to attract the best and offers grad-school level opportunities from day one. Many of its students chose this program despite being accepted in schools with far more overall prestige than UCSB.

[vballmom]

From my son's high school newsletter:

A total of 111,140 prospective California State University students submitted their applications through the system's application website, csumentor.edu, between Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 and Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. Applications submitted last year, during in the same two week period, totaled 62,520.

[LasMa]

Yikes, vballmom! Remember too that the CSU system is cutting freshman enrollment by 40,000 for Fall '10. This could get ugly.

[toodleooo]

"I think there's too much doom and gloom on this thread."
au contraire...more to come. some years ago, people began moving out of cal to avoid the crowding and sense that the real estate balloon was about as overblown as it could get. now it's time for the younger generation to do the same thing, for reasons related to their financial futures. this state has overspent itself with years of too-generous entitlements, support programs for folks who haven't contributed to the system, and anti-business taxes/rules/regulations. go east, young man (woman).

[2Leashes]

Sammy, so far, here's the list of schools she plans or has applied to:

Cal Poly
USC
Stanford
UC Davis
University of the Pacific--applied Early Action
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Indiana University-Bloomington--applied EA
Yale
Wake Forest--maybe
Chico State

So, yeah, she's definitely appling broadly! No guarantee on what the final outcome will be!

****************************************

Sammy wrote:

2leashes- we spent a lot of time in San Luis Obispo this summer with son. I can really understand now why Cal Poly is such a popular school. Great college town atmosphere combined with great academics. Know lots of kids from the Santa Cruz area that are at Cal Poly and love it. Your daughter should definitely apply there even if she isn't 100% sold on it. While University of the Pacific campus may be beautiful, the students want to go shopping in town frequently and Stockton is really not a college town for a variety of reasons.

Have her apply broadly, easier to turn down an admission slot than to regret not applying later.

[2Leashes]

Itsv, my daughter just applied to Indiana University-Bloomington, but since it's a public OOS, I notice how large the price tag is going to be. She might be eligible for a $8-10,000 merit scholarship, however that doesn't cover but a third of the cost of attending. I also think of all the plane trips back and forth...and yet, you're making solid points. Sigh.


itsv wrote:

Just as a contrast since I am the original poster, right now I am with my DS at a major state university in the midwest. This particular college flew my son out as an academic recruit (they paid for hotel, food and airfare). It's funny but since my son is a big guy and former football player at his h.s., they keep on asking him if he is an athletic recruit (which is big at this school) and he says no "academic." Due to my son's SAT score, they say they will cover the out of state portion of his tuition, due to his psat score, they also say they will cover his instate tuition. Plus he is visiting because he is a candidate for honors college and a scholar program which is a different avenue for a full-ride. My son is not the top of his class but a good student. His hs doesn't rank so I don't really know where he falls. The presentation by this college has been excellent and my son now has this school as on his top 5. In the meantime when my son asked Cal for a viewbook, he received an email that they couldn't afford to print them and could be downloaded via the internet. As a California native, it makes me so sad that our college system is at its current state. Just based on my son's experience (and there have been at least 6 other state universities who have offered him full rides if he is admitted), California's Class of 2010 seriously should look at other states for college.