-Looking for a college in/near California (ideally, but can be farther way)
-Not too far from a town/city, with a sense of community, school events
-Good tutoring support, good communication between students and teachers. Smaller class sizes so students can ask questions easily and build bonds with teachers.
Any ideas?
Can you tell us a little more?
What year are you in school?
What do you think you might want to study?
Are you a California resident?
Sure, I live in central CA now and am a resident. Currently a junior. I love art and nature, as well as English. Not sure yet on majors but so far am looking at urban planning, environmental design, landscape architecture, geography, environmental studies/science/management, sustainability, UX…I can go in many areas and all sound good. Trying to find a hands-on major since I like being outdoors, but don’t mind being inside. If possible, would like a program that has an internship worked in, or that has strong workforce connections. Thanks!
First thing that came to mind was Cal Poly SLO.
I’m not sure what grades or standardized test scores you have (if any).
Have you discussed a budget with your parents?
Thanks, that is actually my top choice! I’ve looked at most of the UCs here and many state schools. Not sure if there are any non-religious private schools with enough aid to make it similar to a UC cost. That’s pretty much my budget. Grades are As and Bs, a few Ap courses/honors. Haven’t tested yet, but generally not an amazing test taker.
Whether they match a cost will depend on your need. For example, Occidental meets need. You can run their net price calculator.
You can also look at WUE schools - your majors are wide open (all schools will have) but not necessarily urban planning or landscape architecture.
WUE gives you low tuition rates at OOS schools.
For Urban Planning, they have UNM, Western Washington (might meet your need), SD State and Eastern Washington. Interestingly you said CPSLO. CPP is one that also came up.
For Landscape Architecture, CPP again (in state) but Colorado State (read great things), Idaho UNLV, SD State and Utah State.
Oregon State, UNR, Northern Arizona and others list schools on WUE. But you like smaller classes and nature - and some of your majors can be done anywhere - so how about Humboldt (too rural?) or Chico? For WUE, U of Montana, Oregon State, and W Washington. UNR might be another good one.
There are some private schools in CA and the PNW - like Willamette, Lewis & Clark, Puget Sound, Pacific (in Stockton) - but you’d need to run the net price calculator for them.
Best of luck
Arizona kids looking for outdoor vibe and not too big but still near a city gravitate toward Northern Arizona University. Look into WUE, scholarships & honors. It’s a pretty campus, but you do have to be okay with snow.
The nice thing about NAU is that their application opens during the summer (July, I believe) and is rolling. The application costs $40 and doesn’t require any essays or letters of rec. If you apply in July, you will hear back within the month. If the school is of interest to you, it will be nice to have an early acceptance in your back pocket as you start working on your other applications.
Have you looked at UC Merced? It is very hands on, seems like it might be the right size for you (approx 9000 students), with good tutoring and support. They have some interesting internships and experiential learning programs such as the Yosemite Leadership Program. US News rated UC Merced as the top UC for undergraduate research and creative projects.
Can you calculate the three GPAs that UC will recalculate for you, using this calculator?
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
That will help others help you find colleges that are admission-realistic.
For merit-realistic colleges, the colleges (a) have to offer merit scholarships of sufficient size to bring the price down to your range, and (b) your academic credentials need to be somewhat “overqualified” for admission to the college.
I went ahead and looked up the class sizes by range using this source and USNWR for schools that I thought might be possibilities or that have already been mentioned here. Some schools have smaller classes than other schools. If you qualify for the honors program at a school, then it may help you avoid the large classes that it does have. The schools are sorted by their percentage of classes with more than 50 students, from lowest to highest.
Additionally, if you look up each school’s Common Data Set, you can get a more granular look at classes sizes (like 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-30, 40-49) as classes of 25 feel a lot different than classes of 45, but they’re all grouped into the 20-49 category of the sources I used.
| School | % Classes Under 20 | % Classes 20-49 | % Classes 50+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| U. of Redlands | 64% | 36% | 0% |
| Occidental | 70% | 30% | 0% |
| Whittier | 66% | 34% | 1% |
| Cal State - Monterey Bay | 29% | 67% | 4% |
| Cal Poly - Humboldt | 44% | 50% | 7% |
| U. of the Pacific | 44% | 49% | 7% |
| Cal State - Chico | 37% | 56% | 7% |
| Sonoma State | 31% | 60% | 9% |
| Southern Oregon | 61% | 30% | 9% |
| Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo | 19% | 70% | 12% |
| Cal Poly - Pomona | 20% | 65% | 15% |
| Northern Arizona | 28% | 56% | 17% |
| San Diego State | 31% | 49% | 20% |
| U. of Nevada - Reno | 36% | 43% | 21% |
| UC - Merced | 28% | 46% | 27% |
All of the above schools have no religious affiliation. If, however, you’re open to a school with a loose, more progressive religious affiliation, I would also consider California Lutheran, a school with about 2500 undergrads that has 69.3% of its classes with fewer than 20 students and only 0.2% of its classes with more than 50 students.
This is really helpful! Thank you so much!
Not sure if I did it correctly but seems to be 3.58 unweighed and 3.88 weighted.
Both fully weighted and weighted capped are 3.88?
recalculated unweighed is 3.58 but when I factor in honors and AP, it’s 3.88. Higher on my transcript, but I got As on electives not counted.
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