I have a question on the Cal State application (DD is applying to SLO, SDSU, CSLB, CSSM). There is the section asking if she has participated in Educational Programs like AVID, Puente Project, Upward Bound or “OTHER”. She was selected to participate in two completely free educational preparation programs for Rural Student Leaders, one at Chicago and one at Northwestern and it feels like those would be similar in nature and qualify for the Other. Both programs were a week long each. She asked SLO admissions if she could check the “Other” box and they said no because she didn’t get college credit but the response was from an Admissions assistant. Any thoughts are appreciated.
The Educational program questions are specific to Freshman Fall 2025 admission.
To assist programs in evaluating student’s admissions eligibility, the Cal State Apply is collecting this supporting information of all Freshman applicants. If you do not have additional information to provide in this section, this does not automatically make you ineligible for admission to a CSU campus.
According the Cal State Apply Liaison Information:
Indicate if you participated in any of the listed programs in high school or beyond.
Under Other, there are additional programs listed such as CAMP, EAOP, EOP&S/CARE, GEARUP, Trio or Foster Youth support.
If her programs do not fall into any of these categories, she could mark NO.
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I am familiar with the Avid program because I had several students in this program. It’s a long term program that provides supportive academic services as students progress in each grade.
Upward bound is very similar to that program as well.
They provide tutoring and additional summer classes to make sure that the students can meet the GPAs for college.
The EOP program is in the high schools and at the universities. The Educational Opportunity Program can provide book scholarships, along with tutoring in the summers.
Avid and Upward Bound can begin in elementary school, but does begin in middle school and carries through to the high school.
The EOP program can be at high schools, but I was introduced to it when I was in my first year of college. (Hispanic, low income student). I was immediately “graduated” out of it because I maintained a strong grade point average, and they found out that I qualified to be a tutor for the program. It was a long term program for students who needed tutoring and limited financial support to maintain their grades above a C average.
I really don’t think that two weeks, of a program, is equitable to the 4 to 6 year programs that the State of California provides, to support students, who need a bit of academic training, tutoring and financial support through their high school years.
So her answer should be “no” and they may check if you’re OOS.
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Each program has eligibility requirements and most are based on low income, first generation clients, underrepresented students.
Upward bound is federally funded.
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