My older D is a sophmore at UCLA. She absolutely loves it. She joined a sorority, loves the Bruin spirit, and is active in several clubs. She had an amazing GPA and ACT score, great essay…
Now, my second D is a junior in high school and I really want an affordable education for her, but she is not as accomplished as her older sister academically. I’m just being realistic that it’s highly unlikely she will get into a UC. She has a 3.6 GPA and hasn’t taken the SAT or ACT yet. I’m starting to prepare her for the upcoming college application process and I’m trying to find some good fits for her.
I think she would do great at a Cal State, but I really want her to have the true college experience that her older sister is experiencing. I’ve searched the internet, but I’m still not getting a good feeling about any CSUs. SDSU seems good, but it has become so selective, I don’t know if she’d get in.
Any feedback on CSUs that are not mainly commuter colleges? We are in Southern California, which is preferable, but we are open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance!
Humboldt. Definitely a residential college environment, artsy & outdoorsy community. A pain in the rear to get to from southern California, but there are always kids who are ridesharing coming and going. Really nice community & Arcata is definitely a college town. Link: https://www.humboldt.edu/student-life
It definitely would be very different than what your D1 experiences at UCLA however-- small college in a rural community vs. large urban environment.
Also, don’t give up on the UC’s yet. Your daughter’s 3.6 GPA along with reasonable test scores might make her a very viable candidate for the less competitive UC campuses – Santa Cruz, Merced, Riverside, maybe Santa Barbara. So familiarize yourself with the math used to calculate an academic index - see http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/admissions-index/index.html – if her PSAT puts her in range of qualifying then a test prep course might be a good investment.
Any CSU close by a large metro area will have a large commuter presence (SDSU is an exception due most likely to SD’s reputation). Does your D know what she wants to major in? This can make a difference as to the difficulty of admittance to CSUs and UCs.
Only a few CSUs are mostly residential: San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Humboldt, Monterey Bay, San Diego, Chico, Channel Islands. Most of them are in less densely populated areas; whether the surrounding area is “interesting” to a college student varies. For example, Monterey Bay is in a former military base with not that much around except for beaches with cold ocean water; Monterey touristy areas are nearby, but not really in walking distance.
For CSUs I recommend SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, Chico State and CSU Long Beach. All would be great for the college experience plus get a solid education. I have personal experiences with all either from relatives or kids of close friends who attend these schools. They all love it and enjoy the ‘college’ experience at their respective schools.
Just be aware that SDSU/SLO and CSULB are all impacted campuses meaning all majors are impacted and will require higher stats for admission especially if out of the local service area. As stated above all give her that “college experience”, the issue will be getting an acceptance.
The Cal states admit by major and eligibility index. They really only consider GPA/Test scores/Geographic location and HS course rigor. Other than Cal Poly SLO, your EC’s are not considered.
You need to calculate your CSU/UC GPA using grades from a-g courses taken 10-11th.
Cal states and the majority of the UC’s use the capped weighted GPA.
Then calculate your Eligibility index:
If you took the Redesigned SAT:
(CSU capped weighted GPA X 800) + (SAT Evidence Based Reading & Writing (EBRW) + Math Score) = Eligibility Index
Eligibility index for ACT:
(CSU capped weighted GPA X 200) + (ACT Composite x10)= Eligibility Index
You will then be ranked based on EI and major and they accept from the top down until all spots are filled.
You will get priority at your local CSU which you can look up on this link. Local applicants usually require a lower EI to get an acceptance unless the program is highly impacted.
Students at places like Fullerton, Northridge and Long Beach can get the ‘college experience’ but, they have to work a little harder for it. Instead of it falling in your lap like it does in Chico, SLO and San Diego, you have to engage in campus, spend time there hanging out and taking advantage of the live music, sports, clubs, gyms, IM sports and other stuff that happens on campus rather than heading out into the surrounding area where student density drops off rapidly with every step they take.
Your daughter has solid stats, tour SDSU, Sonoma, Chico and LB (and Humolodt if she’s up for it). They are all so different, I bet a favorite emerges pretty quickly. Use the things she likes/dislikes from the tours the narrow things down and perhaps identify other candidates.
Just a comment re GPA - Junior year is pretty important to knock out some AP’s to get the 8 semester GPA bump for CSU/UC’s. I know my D18 had a UC 3.7 GPA end of sophomore year and moved to just over 4 end of junior year - pretty common trend. So anyways, with the right classes your D may be much better positioned than you think.
For “college experience” we are liking SDSU and SLO . . . more than UC’s.
So appreciative of the help I’m getting here. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to give me some insight and suggestions.
I just checked her high school transcript.
cum weighted gpa- 3.72
un weighted gpa- 3.48
weighted 10-12 gpa- 3.75
un weighted 10-12- 3.58
She has 3 honors/AP classes this semester (junior year), which could boost her gpa, but I think getting As in all of those classes would be a stretch.
She took the PSAT today- That obviously will add a lot to the equation. She tends to get anxious during testing though, so I’m not expecting a high score. Probably more “above average” range.
She’s a good kid with decent grades IMO. It’s amazing how hard it is nowadays to get into college.
Not all HS designated “Honors” classes are UC approved for the extra weighting for the CSU/UC GPA so check the link below to see which of her current courses will be weighted. At the end of Junior year, you can plug her final grades into the Roger Hub UC GPA Calculator which will give you her CSU/UC capped weighted GPA along with the UC Fully weighted GPA. PSAT scores do help with determining which areas to focus on when doing SAT Prep and she should try both the ACT and SAT to see if she does better on one vs. the other. The CSU’s do “superscore” so they will take the highest scores from different sittings.
Humboldt, Chico, and Cal Poly SLO are arguably the most traditional and residential. They aren’t commuter schools, for the simple reason that they aren’t located within commuting distance of any significant urban areas. So the vast majority of students live either on campus or nearby in town. The presence of so many students in these relatively small communities creates a fun college town vibe.
SDSU has more commuters, but it is a relatively large school, and there are enough residential students concentrated in the College Area to create a student-oriented neighborhood with a similar vibe.
Sonoma, Channel Islands, and Monterey Bay have a lot of residential students on-campus, but don’t have much in the way of student-oriented neighborhoods or services in the adjacent off-campus areas. Some people find the vibe to be lacking.
It’s been a while but my sister went to CS Chico and I went to Cal Poly SLO and we both had a great traditional college experiences. They are both beautiful locations (although quite different) with a college-town feel. Chico, in particular, appealed to my sister because it had an old, ivy-covered buildings feel that looked like her idea of college. She’d had to turn down U of Penn due to cost and Chico turned out to be great for her.
Also, take guidebook descriptions of a school as “commuter” with a grain of salt. My dad had been encouraging me to look at SLO because it was his favorite recruiting school and I’d been turned off by it being described as primarily a commuter school so I thought it would be like CSU Northridge. Could not be more different! Commuter in a small college town is just that the kids tend to move off campus to nearby apartments after freshman or sophomore year but you still have that college town community experience in a way that a CSU in a big city is less likely to provide.
