@MYOS1634 Sorry but what does NPC stand for? Do jobs care about what college students graduate from? I’m going to apply to CSULB, UCSC, maybe Fullerton and San Marcos, SFSU, Sonoma, and East Bay. Any opinions on those colleges? Do I know a college’s financial aid package after or before I’m accepted?
Net Price Calculator. You MUST run these on EACH college website to have an idea of how much each college would cost. That’s how you know how much they’ll cost.
Most CSUs will assume you’ll commute whereas, since you’re a lower income student, UC’s will also provide financial aid to cover room&board (housing and food costs).
A “meet need” college may well end up cheaper because they take everything into account. Run the NPCs on every college listed on this thread to have an idea.
Of all the ones you listed, I’d favor CSULB, UCSC, and Sonoma. I’d add UCR perhaps. Are you eligible via ELC?
NPC = net price calculator. You can use it to get a preliminary estimate of financial aid from a college, although it is not a binding number. Examples:
https://secure.csumentor.edu/finaid/pais/
http://www2.ucsc.edu/finaidcalc/
If you complete financial aid forms (meaning FAFSA for UCs and CSUs; some other schools may require additional forms like CSS Profile) on time, colleges should give you financial aid offers before the usual May 1 deadline to decide where to enroll.
For CS among the CSUs, you may want to include SJSU (but CS is popular and more selective there, though the similar software engineering major is less popular and selective; see http://info.sjsu.edu/static/admission/impaction.html ).
Also, note that many CSUs like Fullerton and Long Beach are predominantly commuter, so the “college experience” at those campuses may not be what you expect. San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, and Monterey Bay are among the more residential ones. San Jose, San Francisco, and Pomona are about half commuter and half resident, based on percentage of frosh living in the dorms.
A net price calculator (NPC) is an estimate of how much the college will cost. Things may change once you submit your FAFSA, which is how the college will get your full information. You will find out about a financial aid package AFTER you are accepted - usually sometime in March or April. Then you can compare packages and choose a school by May 1 (although some regional publics like CSUs may have later decision deadlines).
Some employers do care about what colleges students graduate from, and others don’t. And even then, sometimes it depends on the hiring manager. I’ve interviewed at a tech company that really cared where students graduated from (but they were hiring PhDs, so it was about where you got your doctorate from) and I’ve also interviewed/heard back from companies that really didn’t care where your BA was from, or sometimes if you had one at all. I have noticed that even at the companies that claim not to care there is a disproportionate number of people with degrees from fancy universities; however, that could be because those students are the ones with exposure and desire to work at these places. I’ve also seen represented a lot of local schools and many people from schools that aren’t very prestigious. So I think it really depends on your skills and experiences.
Frankly, my thoughts are - what’s the rush? Sure, college is not about partying, but it’s not simply about getting that piece of paper, either. Or rather, it doesn’t have to be - everyone individually determines what’s important to them about college. For me personally, I wanted a good well-rounded academic education, the option to explore many different subjects, and the opportunity to have a vibrant social and personal life - so I made my choices based upon that. If you are partially concerned with having a well-developed social life, 1) that’s totally okay and 2) maybe an accelerated program isn’t the best choice for you.
If you are a traditional-aged high school student right now, that means you’ll be around 17 or 18 when you start college. If you graduate in 3 years, maybe you’ll be 20 or 21; if you take 4 years maybe you’ll be 21 or 22. A year isn’t going to make a huge different in the grand scheme of things of the work world - you’ll have 40+ years to work and build a career. You only have so long to be in college. Now some people want to get out quickly and that’s fine too! My point is simply that you should do what you want; don’t feel like you have to rush through, because even if you finish at 22 you’ll still be very young and have plenty of options. (Also, having free summers means that you have that time to do a full-time summer internship in a different city - and internships are often the key to getting your foot in the door at these top CS companies. It’s a way for them to try you and and for you to try them on.)
I did quarters my first year. Then I transferred to a school that did semesters. I did better with semesters, but that probably had a lot to do with being at a school that better suited me.
I don’t think one system is necessarily better than the other. Some people will like quarters, others will like semesters.
In grad school, I was in a part-time, evening program where we took a single class for six weeks, then we’d take a week off, and then we’d take another class for six weeks. Did that for two years. My life at that time was pretty much go to work during the day, go to school at night, study all weekend, but I liked being able to focus on one class at a time.
With quarters, you can fit more classes in a year often. But the classes move fast. If you get behind you have no time to catch up, where with semesters you can. So it can keep you on track if you tend to procrastinate, or it can mess you up.
What is typical:
Quarter system: academic year = three 10-week quarters. Summer session is a 10-week quarter. Used by 7 out of 9 UCs, CPSLO, CPP, CSUEB. CSUB, CSUSB, CSULA are also on quarters, but will change to semesters. 3 out of 113 California community colleges are on the quarter system.
Semester system: academic year = two 15-week semesters. Summer session is an 8-week session where students take half as many courses or credits, but each course covers material twice as fast. Used by 17 out of 23 CSUs, UCB, UCM. 110 out of 113 California community colleges use the semester system.
Imagine a sequence of courses that normally takes a whole year to cover. Under a quarter system, it is divided into three 10-week courses, while under a semester system, it is divided into two 15-week courses.
If you transfer to a school on a different quarter versus semester system, and you have taken only part of a sequence, you may find that you have to partially repeat part of a course you already took, due to the dividing lines between the courses falling in different places.