Now that many of us have wrapped up college searches in Ca, I wonder what types of experiences, surprises, observations, etc. people had. I’ll start us off. I’m a parent with a second child going off to college.
Surprise - My son’s safety was also his #1 choice. He loved the atmosphere at SF State and in the end that is where he wanted to be. He had other options, including UC, but was inspired by SF State’s commitment to social justice, diversity, campus atmosphere, etc. … Applied to housing early and got a room before SIR. Lesson: choose a safety you love.
Observations -
UC still seems to be driven primarily by GPA. I heard several applicants say “Why did I spend time writing those essays?” Do these universities really do a holistic read of 60K or 80K applications. I suspect they have a GPA cutoff before the holistic read. But others may know more.
Love the Cal State application - GPA, standardized tests combined into a score and then the admissions office cuts off at a certain point. Although I can see why certain schools would want to take other factors into account, there was something very pure about the CSU application.
The cost of a private has gone way up since my first child went off to college in 2011. My family realized way into the process that we were neither willing nor able to pay for a private, even with a $15K scholarship.
I was impressed by some of the people on this board who take time to post helpful, informative and thoughtful responses. Thanks to @Gumbymom @NCalRent and others for quality contributions.
I am happy to hear you found my posts helpful.
I learned a lot myself this year.
My oldest is graduating from Chico in a couple of weeks. On schedule with a Biz degree. He has had a really busy academic semester and doesn’t yet have a job lined up. Lots of lines in the water but, he will probably need to come home briefly after his lease ends in early July. It has been great to watch him blossom from 100 miles away and I am confident he’ll be completely off my payroll soon. We helped a bit freshman year but, he navigated major changes, class schedules, 5 roommates and a fraternity - all while maintaining solid grades. He had a tough semester or two but, it was the perfect place for him and I wouldn’t change a thing.
My younger son graduates high school in a couple of weeks. He is a very different kid - a lot more driven and passionate. I foresaw him at UCSC because of their well developed cycling programs. He had some medical issues this year that caused to take a different approach and I learned to be more flexible. . He gets migraines and the classroom environment at his school would set them off. Among many other tactics, we made big adjustment to his schedule mid year which have helped immensely. During the ap window, he was in no mood to write UC essays and decided to pass on the whole system. He was admitted at Chico, Sac, and 2 WUE schools with good cycling programs - UNR and Ft Lewis. All the campuses were very accommodating as we navigated the schedule changes. For example, both the OOS schools waived a semester of science from their ‘Required’ course list. All 4 offered him a medical deferral of up to a year. He submitted a SIR to Ft Lewis, the top cycling college in the country and is in the running for a small cycling scholarship (one to the many things I learned) and is considering the deferral option as he works to find an equilibrium with the headaches. Both Ft Lewis and UNR have tiered WUE grant based on qualifications.- he earned their top grant so, net tuition is within a fraction of CSUs. Room and board will be a little less - though that will be more than offset by travel cost.
We briefly talked about taking classes our local CC part time, but the deferrals prohibit that completely. He’d have to come in as a Jr and the WUE grant would be lot different. Frustrating… but I understand why they do that.
Thanks to the CC community. Thousands of posts later, I continue to learn a little each tome i visit.