Chance me/Match me [CA resident, 3.5 GPA, 1450 SAT, biology or psychology]

The biggest unknown here is financial. What’s your budget, and do you qualify for financial aid?

UW-Seattle will cost more than $60K/year even with the maximum OOS merit scholarship. They don’t consider SAT in most cases, so getting in at all may be difficult, and if you do get in, you’d likely have to pay the full OOS cost (>67K/year) or close to it. Is that budget manageable? Oregon State offers WUE reciprocity, but only to the top 30% of geographically-qualified applicants - unclear whether you would make that cut or whether your merit award would be smaller.

You don’t have any private colleges/universities on your list, but as an example of a college that meets need and could be a good fit for your stats, Occidental College in LA has a Cognitive Science major that combines biology and psychology in a way you might like. Their Net Price Calculator, available here, would give you an idea of how much Oxy would cost for your family. This could be a good test case; if Oxy would be affordable, there are more schools in that category that could work as well. (UCSC also has a CogSci major, which might be a good one to apply to for that campus.)

For a California-adjacent school that would be guaranteed to give you the WUE rate, you might want to look at UNR. In particular, their Neuroscience major is offered jointly by the bio and psych departments. Bachelor's Degree in Neuroscience | Degrees & Programs | University of Nevada, Reno

Another major you might want to think about, that has elements of both life sciences and psychology, is public health. UNR offers this also. Bachelor's Degree in Public Health | University of Nevada, Reno

A “hidden gem” major at SJSU (which, because a lot of people overlook it, is also one of the easier majors to get into) is the Packaging major. Despite the unsexy name, it’s a very interesting program that includes elements of bio/chem (esp. for the food safety aspects of packaging) and psychology (esp. advertising and ergonomics), plus aspects of design and business. It’s a project-based program, and unlike a major like neuroscience, which tends to require grad school for career opportunities, it has terrific employment prospects right out of undergrad. Watch the video on the linked page to see if it might appeal to you.

Hope you’ll provide more info so that folks can help you more.

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