@auntbea
Thank you so much for this post. How might I start finding upcoming summer jobs?
The UC’s have 3 GPA’s they consider for 10-11th grades only.
The Unweighted UC GPA which is just your straight grades with no weighting.
The Capped Weighted which is 8 semesters of honors points in the GPA calculation for UC approved Honors, AP, IB or Dual Enrollment courses taken 10-11th grades. Maximum UC Capped weighted is 4.4.
The Fully weighted UC GPA which gives unlimited Honors points for the above courses. Maximum Fully weighted UC GPA is 5.0.
At the end of Junior year, you can calculate your UC GPA’s using this calculator:
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
This link will show your HS’ s approved courses for the extra weighting; https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist
Do summer jobs ever hire people who can’t work in the mornings? My summer program takes place in the morning. I’ll have an internship through it the summer before my junior year, but I’m now incredibly worried. Should I take out loans?
@deloresthegreat, finding summer jobs is a question of asking friends, family members, neighbors and, your HS should have a Career Center. There are a lot of kids who aren’t interested in going to college and want to start off working right away.
Sometimes the local businesses around your high school need high school workers for their fast food restaurants, temp office work, grocery baggers, day summer camps, etc.
I had a student who worked at a local real estate office just putting together pamphlets and things like that. She actually made really good money because they came to rely on her, being in the office, after school and she would take calls and messages.
I want you to understand something, because it sounds like you haven’t accessed your high school resources: when you earn money towards your college education, it won’t specifically be going to the college, it will be going for your expenses. Does that make sense?
You have to have “spending money” at your college, to pay for things that aren’t covered by your CalGrant like health insurance, lab fees, supplemental expenses, etc. The money that you earn, from your own savings, and your jobs will be listed on your FAFSA. You will keep it for these expenses at your school.
When you apply for federal money, in your senior year, you will be applying, at the same time, for a CalGrant with the FAFSA. The CSAC (California Student Aid Commission) will access your financial information from your FAFSA paperwork.
The FAFSA is the “Free Application for Federal Student Aid”. It’s not an agency that gives you money. It’s an application that is submitted to the government to see if you will qualify for federal funds. At the same time the state of California can access that application for your CalGrant, so you wanna make sure that you file it and turn it in, with all of your parents tax information, and your savings, before the deadline of March 2 of your senior year. Does that make sense to you?
I understand that we’re providing you with a lot of information and it can be overwhelming. Take it one step at a time. You are a freshman. You just jumped the gun here as a freshman and that’s OK.
Typically, at your California public high school, your counselors address classes/students and explain what’s coming up next. Our high school had the counselors come in to all the English classes, per grade level, every quarter, and explain things, a little bit at a time, so that students could ask questions and could understand what the next steps were.
I think you’re confused because you think you have to know everything now. No you’re not supposed to; you’re supposed to ask questions as things come up.
Don’t stress out about it, so for freshman year, you’re going to do as well as you can in your classes. Go into the counseling offices, every now and then, to see if the office staff has any leads on high school scholarships from local businesses, jobs, new information etc.
PLEASE Don’t bother the counselors, unless you absolutely have to because they’re working with mostly juniors and seniors and making sure that those kids get their paperwork to get into their colleges. It’ll be your turn soon and you will want the same diligence when it’s your turn. Please give the juniors, and especially the seniors, their space to talk to the counselors about things that come up. They should have administrative assistants and high school monitors who can help you with current paperwork. The counselors are in their offices working with mostly seniors.
Be patient,
… don’t stress
You’re a freshman
…join a winter sport,
…be active
get off of college confidential and start your job search. If you have further questions we will be here.
However, nursing is an impacted (more competitive) major there.
https://www.sfsu.edu/~prospect/apply/impacted.html
For nursing, besides frosh-entry BSN programs, there are also ADN (associates degree in nursing) programs at community colleges, and ADN-to-BSN programs at four year schools.
https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/adn-rn-to-bsn-degree-program
List of nursing programs (both ADN and BSN) in California:
https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/rnprograms.shtml
Computer science is a more competitive major at many UCs and the more selective CSUs (e.g. CPSLO, SJSU), but is not more competitive at many less selective CSUs (e.g. SFSU). However, note that UCB has two ways to study computer science: EECS in the College of Engineering (direct admission, but more difficult to get admitted as frosh) and CS in the College of Letters and Science (admission to L&S undeclared, then need 3.3 GPA in the first three college CS courses to declare L&S CS).