<p>To make a long story short, I spent two years at ASU an absolutely gigantic party school with a student body in the tens of thousands completely lost half the time only to end up enlisting in the Army because by that point I was just throwing away money. Now I’m a little under a year away from my ETS date, needless to say I don’t want to make the same mistake of attending another school where you’re just another face in the crowd.</p>
<p>Is there a more…lets say personalized school where the faculty aren’t too busy dealing with 500 other students to help you out? That’s the kind of college experience I’m now looking for? I’m starting to do some research and maybe applications soon, but I’m really only somewhat familiar with the gargantuan UC System and I am basically willing to move anywhere in the state. I’m trying to finish up my degree in Finance and I currently have 72 credits.</p>
<p>Almost every UC/CSU will have an undergraduate enrollment of upwards of 20,000-30,000+ (save CSU Monterey Bay, which incidentally was an Army base back in the day and has an enrollment of about 5,000, but they do not offer a Finance degree, only some misc business ones) so a good indicator for what you’re looking for is the student to faculty ratio and the % of class sizes > 50.</p>
<p>A quick search on U.S. News Report’s National Ranksings show this on the UCs, but I have posted them here for you (these are just the ones ranked in the top 50 Nationally except UCR):
Ex:
UC Name
Student to faculty ratio
% of classes > 50</p>
<p>UC Davis
15:1
23%</p>
<p>UCLA
16:1
21%</p>
<p>UC Berkeley
17:1
14%</p>
<p>UC Santa Barbara
17:1
19%</p>
<p>UC Riverside
18:1
23%</p>
<p>UC Irvine
19:1
19%</p>
<p>UC San Diego
19:1
33%</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure all have good Business schools/programs, but you should check which one you would be most interested in/ would offer you more of what you’re looking for in terms of curriculum.</p>
<p>UCSD and UCSB don’t offer finance degrees per-se, but offer Econ or Financial Mathematics.</p>
<p>UCLA only has Business Economics. Just thought I’d let you know in case you would be a stickler on the degree actually saying “Finance”. Otherwise I think all curriculums offer finance classes as part of the core.</p>
<p>UC Irvine looks very appealing, looks like it has a great business school and I can easily commute from my parent’s home to there. Now I’m going to have find out how much of my military courses will transfer over…Though I <em>think</em> I should have 60 without them.</p>
<p>At all schools, junior and senior level courses will be smaller than freshman and sophomore level courses, so if you have sufficient course work from ASU to transfer as a junior to a UC or CSU, then you will likely find better attention simply because of your higher class standing/level.</p>
<p>If you do not have sufficient course work to transfer as a junior, you probably want to complete the needed prerequisites at a California community college before transferring – see [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) for course articulation and list of schools with each major. You need at least 60 semester units or 90 quarter units, and as many prerequisites for your major completed as possible. UC and CSU prefer junior level transfers over other class level transfers.</p>
<p>Completing courses through a California Community College is a good idea, especially since you have the time between now and when applications would come due next. That ASSIST website can help you in finding a community college that has an articulation agreement with UCI (most likely will be a local one). Some community colleges often have what’s called a TAG, or Transfer Admission Guarantee, so long as the student has completed a certain structure of courses. Historically, UCs tend to accept more transfers from California Community Colleges than other UCs/CSUs or out of state colleges because the CA CC system was mainly set up to help student do just that: transfer to a CA institution of higher learning.</p>
<p>Your GI Bill will go a significant way at most CA private colleges, and it sounds like a small private college is what you want. So, my encouragement is not to limit your options out of the gate without doing your own due diligence in researching your affordable private college options. </p>
<p>The Yellow Ribbon program has also made all college options far more accessible for veterans.</p>
<p>In some cases there may be a wait list at that school for the program since it is first come first serve. For example, if School “A” has 15 seats available, but has 25 others on a waiting list, then the best case scenario is that all 15 will graduate or move on the following year, but that will still leave 10 from the waiting list to wait for another year to get the program. The best person to ask if there is a waiting list or how full the program currently is will be the VA or veteran’s rep from the school.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO and I know you want public but you should look into University of La Verne they give out a lot of scholarship money and they have I think like a 7 to 1 ratio between students and professors.</p>
<p>CSU Channel Islands
CSU Monterey Bay
CSU Bakersfield
Sonoma State
UC Merced</p>
<p>I’m a student at Sonoma State and I do not feel like another number. I know all professors well and they know me by name. As a first-time freshman my smallest class size is one!</p>