That’s funny! The OP said “mild winters.” There are so many kinds of fruit trees I can’t grow because we lack winter chill days… how much milder does it get than that? But of course it’s going to depend on what the OP is looking for 
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I don’t think CU Boulder has been suggested. Campus is beautiful, 300 days of sunshine per year, and well-respected engineering (CE is ABET-accredited I believe).
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Well they have Stanford, etc. and I included all of CA and Reno etc but not Oregon or Washington.
I took the “warmer” but yes, I totally see your point - anyway, too many schools and most don’t want regional - and I tried to filter out the matches/reaches as OP noted they have those.
“She wants a warmer climate and is very focused on CA, but willing to consider other places with mild winters.”
Just an FYI…winter temps at University of New Mexico get cold.
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I am not intimately familiar with all CA school admissions but just looking at a few, I wouldn’t consider LMU, Cal Poly SLO, or Santa Clara to be “safe.”
LMU and Santa Clara would be more “target/match” (although it’s possible the specific engineering major would be a harder target; I don’t know a lot about admissions for civil). I do not watch LMU admissions closely, but I have seen some extremely accomplished students rejected from Santa Clara this cycle.
For SLO I don’t know the stats for civil, but in general, I don’t think any engineering majors at SLO are easier admits than “target/match” and some majors can be very impacted/reachy.
Anyway, I have not looked through the whole list, but I would hesitate to say that’s a list of safety schools. I would suggest that the OP consider each school individually in terms of admit rate and what they offer in this major.
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This is great, thank you!!
All due respect- if your D is at a boarding school and is only a sophomore- make sure you all don’t burn out on the college talk early in the game.
I don’t know of any boarding school that doesn’t have a well organized calendar and professional staff to help a kid make their list- especially a kid with no financial constraints!
When does the school hold the first official college meetings?
A lot can change for your D over the next 6 months-- if she thinks MAYBE she wants civil engineering, does she know anything about architecture, geology, sustainability, urban planning, environmental science, all of which have some overlap but might dictate a different list of schools?
It’s hard not to jump in…but kids do experience burnout, especially if her peers are constantly talking college this and college that. I’d wait for the official college counselor meeting before kicking this off.
One of my kids had MAJOR burnout. Guidance counselor called me around November of senior year and basically told me to keep my mouth shut. Kid was reasonably behind on every deadline and apparently my loving reminders were not being taken as such. Me, Type A personality nag? Heaven forbid.
Anyway, it all got done but in retrospect, we started too early (did I mention Type A?)
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ooooh - i missed SLO. I thought I had Pomona. Def a reach.
I’d say LMU / SCU will be safe for this student with a 1400+ test - but that’s me.
Good call on SLO - missed that - and perhaps others. SLO a reach.
Thanks for the catch to OP.
Again, I just “subjectively” pulled names…but yes I missed on that one.
Thanks
Good point! I did not pay attention to the kid being at boarding school.
My D is also a sophomore but we have almost no advising at her large public, so we ARE starting to think about the list (at least whether there are any non-west coast possibilities), since it’s not so easy to arrange cross country trips. I figured the same kind of travel constraints might be influencing the OP’s question, since they are thinking about schools on the opposite side of the country.
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And who might hone their interests over time. I’d relax a little on this for now. Fine to get some ideas, but really until she has a junior year GPA, this is all guessing.
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Totally get this and I am concerned about it. The college counselor suggested that we visit some colleges this summer, so we started working on the list in order to plan. And then decided to go ahead a see some local schools over spring break, since there would be students on campus.
I’m trying to let my daughter take lead but she’s asking for my input so I figured I could do a little list making for her
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The summer after tenth grade, all we did was take our kid to see a variety of types of colleges…small/large, urban/rural/suburban, religious/secular…really to give her an idea of the types of colleges out there. We did zero formal tours or info sessions for this type of visit. Really, we just visited these college types on family vacations, and locally.
And if you read my response to you on your other thread, you will see again that my DD who got an engineering degree from Santa Clara decided she never wanted to work in the field (father is an engineer…so she knew what it was like) and picked up a second major that more aligns with what she is doing. My kid made this change at age 20. Your DD is only…what 16? Lots could change.
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We found (the hard way) that the sophomore year wish list (not close to home, for example) seems like terrific direction until it’s not (my kid ended up an hour from home, with terrific public transportation!)
I admit- the visits to far off places were fun (mostly for me) and did yield a pretty robust list… but only one or two made it to the final list (and one got cut the night before the deadline because “I’m not really going to go here, am I?” which is not the question you want to hear at 11 pm!)
So yeah- your D doesn’t want close to home, and she maybe wants civil engineering, and she most likely really wants a warm climate. But I wouldn’t break the bank on airline tickets for a sophomore. And getting a handle on her social preferences (robust campus life? mostly off-campus enjoying the surrounding city? Sororities or no?) will be helpful but again- she could change her mind six times over the next year and a half before it gets real!
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I would also vote in favor of a convenient sampler platter over anything too targeted and costly in terms of visits at this stage.
That said, looking at department websites is free. And I think a lot of kids often gloss over that sort of Web 1.0 stuff. But getting an idea of what Civil Engineering actually means in terms of courses at different colleges is probably also a good “sampler” exercise at this stage.
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San Diego State also not a safety, though maybe a Target, esp considering out-of-state. Average CSU-calculated GPA for admitted students in 2023 was 4.1 .
I also doubt San Jose State is a safety. They have a reasonably transparent Impaction Index, which is 3960 for Civil Eng in 2024.
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If already visiting CA schools, and if UCB is a school of interest already (as it should be, if you like California and Civil), and if UCs are affordable… you might just take a side trip to UC Davis. I know I mentioned it before… but here’s why.
For in state students, Davis is getting to be increasingly selective, but it doesn’t get the huge number of OOS applicants like UCB and UCLA. Consequently, Davis OOS admit rate is around 60% (while the in state admit rate is in the 30s and I expect will keep falling).
That is a higher admit rate than several of the schools on @tsbna44’s list 
It is a relative admit rate “bargain” for a school that US News rates #28 in the main National Universities list, and #9 nationally in Civil (for its graduate programs; I can’t see most of the US News list for undergrads in specific majors). Ratings aren’t everything but it does say something about how Davis’s star is rising.
It’s also a very friendly school in a college town.
Just thinking more about Davis… especially since it is not on that list up there. It’s about 75 minutes drive from Berkeley
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Here is a list of ABET accredited civil engineering bachelor’s degree programs in California (including CSUs, UCs, and privates) from abet.org :
California Baptist University
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
California State University, Chico
California State University, Fresno
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Sacramento
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
Loyola Marymount University
University of the Pacific
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
Santa Clara University
University of Southern California
Stanford University
In addition, University of California, Merced has a new civil engineering bachelor’s degree program; if interested, you may want to contact the department directly about where in the timeline it is for ABET accreditation. (ABET accreditation for a new program requires, among other things, that some students graduate from the program, but then the accreditation, if granted, is retroactive to cover those first student.)
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SJSU’s calculation is given at Impaction | Admissions . Assuming no bonus points, the formula is 800 * CSU_recalculated_GPA + 400 * math_GPA (note that only engineering majors use the + 400 * math_GPA part).
CSU recalculated GPA is specified at GPA Calculator | CSU but note that applicants at most out-of-state high schools do not get +1 points for honors courses that are not AP or IB. SJSU does not post whether math GPA includes any +1 points for honors, AP, IB, or college courses.
However, a student who earns all A grades will have an SJSU engineering impaction index of at least 4800 even before any +1 points are considered. This is well above the 3960 mentioned above, although thresholds are determined competitively every year.
But note that CSUs and UCs require frosh applicants to have a year long high school art course (or a 3 semester credit college art course, or a sufficiently high AP or IB score in an art subject): Subject requirement (A-G) | UC Admissions
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Lots of good advice. Please have her apply to a local safety or two. Things can change in a year with 16 year olds. Also, schools close to direct flight airports make life much simpler.
Georgia Tech, NC State, Virginia Tech and Auburn came to mind. University of Miami if warm weather is desired.
I think it’s fine you visited a few to see environment and if you go see some more this summer, if the student wants, then that’s great too. Maybe it’s self tours and not info sessions.
I see no issue.
I do agree people change their thoughts - but then that’s what’s good about the mid size and larger - they can meet most needs.
So you do you …I say.
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