Match Me anywhere & Chance me for CA public school [CA resident, 3.6 GPA (3.87 for UC weighted-capped, 1410 SAT, <$50k; public health or cognitive science]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

*US citizen Female

  • State/Location of residency: CA, Bayarea
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.) : None

Cost Constraints / Budget
Keep it close to UC cost. can go slightly higher upto 50k/year( Includes Tution & Boarding).

Intended Major(s)

Public Health or Cognative Science.
still deciding if wants to go into health or law.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.6

  • Weighted HS GPA: 3.9

  • UC Capped HS GPA: 3.87

  • Class Rank: Doesnt Rank

  • ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1410 ( Math 730; English 680)

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: AP lit in Senior year.
  • Math: Completed preCalc in Junior year. Going for AP Stat in the final year
  • Science: AP Bio
  • History and social studies: APUSH, AP Euro
  • Language other than English: 3 year of foreign lang completed
    *AP Courses: 4 AP courses by the end of junior year. Euro(4), APUSH(4), AP Bio(4), AP Psych(4). 5 more AP in Final year.

Awards
Eagle Scout

Extracurriculars
Volunteering at local food bank
A tiktok account with 20k followers
Jr Scout Master

Essays/LORs/Other
Above average IMO.

Schools
All UCs, Some CSUs( Cal Poly SLO, SDSU, CSULB etc), Oregon state. Open for more suggestion. That is point of this thread.

Need your advise on good matches for the profile and major mentioned above.
Among UC , we feel like we only have chance at UCSC, UCR and UCM. Do chance-me for others. She is mainly looking for Urban school away from Bayarea. Ideal place South Cal.

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Tagging @Gumbymom and @lkg4answers ( our savior for all thing California). Cant thank you enough.

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Can you share a bit about what you are looking for in a school? Big/small? Greek/no Greek? Big Sports? How far from CA are you willing to go? The more you can share, the better the responses will be.

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Thank you. Great advise. Update at the bottom of the post

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Freshman admission by discipline | University of California may be of help with UC admission weighted-capped GPA ranges and admit rates.

Of the impacted CSUs, CPSLO, SDSU, and CSULB are among the less transparent ones with admission stats, compared to SJSU and CPP.

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If you don’t qualify for need based aid, there will be very few out of state options that will come in under $50k/year.

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Agree. We do not qualify. Hoping to find some merit and hidden gem but may not be possible with her stats.

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Here’s a list of WUE schools that offer public health as a major. You can also search for other majors.

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Utah is a good option for an urban school, with easy travel from the Bay Area. Although there is some snow in the winter, there’s also a lot of sunshine.

The WUE pricing is similar to UC instate tuition, but SLC is cheaper to live in. Great for outdoorsy kids, the skiing can’t be beat. And my liberal atheist D had no problem going there for college (in fact she loved it so much she recently moved back).

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I actually think there will be many OOS schools under $50K - but - are you interested in their locales.

For example, a UF or FSU - will be hard to get into. But a UCF or USF likely won’t be.

WVU will be under $50K and you’d be in. So would UNM. Likely Miami of Ohio too.

There are often different parts to Public Health - Policy or more science based so that might be something to look at.

Again, size, urban or rural, weather, access to travel, and so much more would need to be looked at.

Oregon State is worth a shot but is high 50s and WUE is unlikely I’d think.

U of Alabama is $50,458 this year with an assured $24K merit scholarship - so $26,458. Many SEC schools, as an example, would fit this under $50K bill.

So again, I’d say there’s lots of OOS schools but you’d want to narrow in on what you want from size, environment, greek life, sports, and so much more.

Good luck.

PS - I see now you added ideally So Cal - so given that - you might add (as it’s not far) - UNLV. But if ideally So Cal, then why Oregon State??

SDSU will be a tough get I’d imagine - but Cal State San Marcos won’t be.

Maybe look at the 3 Arizona schools too.

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Has she calculated out all 3 UC GPA’s? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

Also Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation so she would need to recalculate the CSU GPA and add in 9th grades: https://www.calstate.edu/apply/gpa-calculatorhttps://www.calstate.edu/apply/gpa-calculator

Have you checked her HS’s average admitted UC Capped weighted GPA by campus using this link: Admissions by source school | University of California

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My recommendation is to consider a school where you can get significant merit. This is because you will likely need graduate school, and graduate loans are changing in 2026 and will be capped.

If you save money during undergrad would your parents be able/willing to help with grad school?

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Thanks for you response. This is very helpfu.
Oregon state came into mix as an option because it is WUE school. But given an option I would prefer south cal. Which is the 3rd AZ school you are talking about apart from ASU and UofAz

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Oregon State WUE is a bit tricky because they only award it to about 30% of eligible applicants (link). Even with WUE, total cost might end up being higher than your budget, because Oregon State charges by the credit unit. We were a bit surprised at how much it would cost after my S23 was accepted (with WUE) and we figured out all the costs. It can be a good “likely” school for CA residents if the cost isn’t an issue, but it’s not going to be as affordable as a CA state school or some of the other WUE schools.

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Only the top 30% get WUE at Oregon State. But the two Nevada schools are good too.

Yes NAU is WUE but ASU has merit etc.

Good luck getting to SoCal but there are certainly other possibilities.

And lots of Cal States, but some more local than other. But you can certainly get to a SoCal Cal State.

But make sure each school’ public health hits your needs curriculum wise.

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Based on 3.87 UC CAP GPA, UCM is safety, UCR and UCSC are targets and the rest of UCs are reaches.

For CSUs: CPSLO, SDSU are reaches and CSULB is target. I would add CPP as target and CSUF as safety since they are close to LA.

You may also add OOS such as Ohio State as target and uDub as low reach. Ohio State offered S24 with $14.5K merit/year and uDub offered $4,5K merit/year. Good Luck.

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UW is going to be too expensive for OP’s budget (“up to 50k/year”).

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Here is some admit data for the Cal states listed:

CSULB: 45% admit rate for Health Science/Community Health option and average admitted CSU GPA was 4.00 for non-local applicants.

SDSU: 37.6% admit rate for Public Health and average admitted SDSU Campus GPA was 4.06.

Cal Poly SLO: 12% admit rate for Public Health and the College of Science and Mathematics 25th-75th percentile admitted SLO GPA range of 4.12-4.25.

Cal Poly Pomona has a Public Health minor so it will depend upon which major she selects.

The UC Data below is compiled from several sources including some of the linked information I posted above.

Campus Public Health/ Admit GPA range
UC Berkeley 5% High demand major/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.16-4.28 Weighted 4.31-4.65
UC Davis Global Biology: 39% Public Health Sciences Minor only/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.07-4.28 Unweighted 3.80-4.00
UC Irvine PH Policy: 26.9%/PB Sciences 39.1% / UC capped weighted 4.13-4.22 Unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA 13%/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30 Weighted 4.32-4.74 Unweighted 3.89-4.00
UC Merced 85%/ UC capped weighted GPA 3.42-4.00
UC Riverside Major not available
UC San Diego 17%/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.08-4.22 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara Major not available
UC Santa Cruz Global/Comm Health: 68% / UC Capped weighted GPA 3.68-4.08
Campus Cognitive Science
UC Berkeley College of L&S major selection not considered for admissions 15% / Capped weighted UC GPA 4.14-4.29 Unweighted 3.89-4.00 Capped weighted 4.31-4.65
UC Davis College of L&S Social Sciences- 38%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.00-4.25 Unweighted 3.80-4.00
UC Irvine 29.1%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.03-4.26 Unweighed 3.83-4.00
UCLA 9% for College of L&S -Social science major selection not considered for admissions / Capped weighted UC GPA 4.18-4.30 Unweighted 3.90-4.00 Weighted uncapped 4.38-4.73
UC Merced 94%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 3.40-4.00
UC Riverside Neuroscience 88%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 3.70-4.12
UC San Diego Social Science majors 17%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.08-4.28 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara Brain and Psychological Sciences- Social Science 28% College of L&S major selection not considered in admissions/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.12-4.29. Average Unweighted 3.91.
UC Santa Cruz 78%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 3.81-4.20

GPA and admit rates are just informational since the UC’s do have a holistic admission process. Best of luck to your D.

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You could consider a school like Willamette University in Salem, OR. They have really excellent merit scholarships and have a public health major. There’s Amtrak available from Salem to Portland and then you can take the MAX light rail from the Amtrak station to the Portland airport.

I was also going to suggest my kid’s college because they have good programs in psychology/neuroscience/cognitive science and a really good public health major, BUT it doesn’t fill the category of being urban. Austin College is definitely suburban. But given your stats, it would likely be <$50k/yr because they have merit scholarships there, too. My D24 is going to switch to a public health major this next academic year. Her faculty advisor is in the public health department (all students take a 1st year seminar class their 1st semester on campus and whichever professor teaches the seminar class, that’s who your faculty advisor will be for the duration of your time at the college).

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Thank you. This is very useful. I am surprised at Ohio State merit . Was your S24 high stat kid?
Is CSUF & CPP commuter school?