@soccamomma heading home from Pitt. We both liked it more than we thought we would. Traditionally d does not like urban or large campuses. We had two great tour guides, however, who very much helped sell the school. It has a lot going for it. She received her acceptance right after we left 
She wants to ask about the Honors program; not sure how that works for transfer students, but she is eligible. The only negative is in the acceptance letter they did note that housing for transfer students is very limited and not guaranteed. No on campus housing would be a deal breaker.
@MuggleMom you can ask your college counselors to re-set the Naviance criteria. Sometimes they just leave it at the default value and donāt realize that it there are too many data points to make it useful to students. Our school used to be ten yrs out. Now it is three.
@socaldad2002 I think Californians are used to waiting so early admissions for peace of mind isnāt as big of a deal. That said, my first applied to SDSU as a safety and was pleasantly surprised and and also a bit relieved to receive an acceptance email in December.
@taverngirl So glad to hear you had a successful visit with an acceptance offer too. Woohoo! I think that the school spirit is infectious there. And itās so well integrated w the city that it doesnāt feel like other urban schools we visited. I hope that the housing works out. We were told housing is guaranteed only for the first 3 years for incoming first-year freshman. Not entirely ideal.
Also saw they have a Department of Music. The students DS spoke w at the Band table were in Marching Band which falls under Athletics and they were unaware of the Symphonic Band which is an ensemble under the Music Department. Wouldāve been good to have representation from both bands there to discuss with prospective students.
@socaldad2002 perhaps itās just particular to my kid, but she finds having an early acceptance, even from a safety, to be a great feeling. Also, itās nice to get those āsafetyā applications out of the way, since her senior year schedule is jam-packed commitments already.
SDSU is a safety on my kidās list but when she looked up her major, the school website said all majors were impacted. A couple of friends with high stats were denied last year. It doesnāt feel like a safety anymore.
We would love to apply early but are in California and targeting Cal State schools where the app doesnāt open until 10/1.
@lilmom I agree that SDSU along with Cal Poly SLO really arenāt safeties for anyone these days. Weāre in the Bay Area and S20 wants to stay up here so heās applying to SFSU, Sonoma, SJSU, and Cal State East Bay which should all be safeties for his major luckily.
Anyone have any experience with Macalester in Minnesota? We are in NY so itās further than we were looking for, but on paper it looks ideal for D20.
@Dancingmom518 D19 looked at Macalester (weāre in the Bay Area) and she really, really liked it and ended up applying and getting in with a really nice chunk of merit aid. She ultimately ended up staying in Calif, but she loved the Chem professors she met with, the feel/vibe/location of the campus and the people who she met on the swim team. She def felt she could see herself there. It might be worth a visit for you and your son.
I suppose high stats are relative and what is a safety to one is a match to someone else. CSUs donāt have holistic admissions so it should be relatively easy to figure out where one is likely to be accepted. If she calculates her eligibility index, she should know where she stands. Eligiblity Index: https://admissions.sdsu.edu/freshmen/apply/eligibility
From the SDSU website:
Have you checked out the stats from last yearās admitted students for the major she is interested in? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/san-diego-state-university/2110376-sdsu-class-of-2023-application-thread-p15.html
Iām excited for my S20; just saw his ACT score.
Itās been a process.;
He ran out of time two tests in a row in English and left 10+ to be finished. We ordered score reports and saw it was true; he did well up to the point where he missed a ton in a row. So -we found a silent stopwatch so he could practice timing and time himself during the test . The plan worked well --best $45 weāve ever spent!
@bgbg4us Thatās wonderful. Glad your S20 got the score he wanted! Happy here too as my D20 got her target score. Such a relief to be done with that testing!
@bgbg4us @janiemiranda congratulations on getting good scores and more importantly, one fewer thing to worry about!
DS is still (I hope) working on prepping his Physics SAT. Our school will start in less than a month! Pretty soon no need to call him a ārisingā senior! Glad that the only textbooks we need to buy are a couple paperback novels.
When I was in graduate school, UCSF was considered on par with UCLA, some might even consider it better. On CC, I always see people talking about UCLA/UCB, often UCSD, sometimes other UCs, but I have never seen anyone mentioning UCSF, does it not have undergrad program? Or is it not very good now? Just curious.
@makemesmart UCSF does not have an undergrad program. For graduate school they are strong in Law and Medicine.
@socaldad2002
Thank you. No wonder it is not talked much about.
@lkg4answers, we calculated her EI to be 4632 and I think thatās within range for SDSU. Now, she must decide on a major or at lest an area of study. And sheāll be testing again to see if she can boost her score. Thank you for the tip.
S20 puts most of the college junk mail right into the recycling bin. Heāll keep it if itās a school heās thinking of applying to, but thatās it. But the other day he got a letter from Macalester (which he has no interest in, too small) but he really loved it. The letter was addressed to him, and then just said blah blah blah. It was pretty funny!
@Dancingmom518 We visited Mac last summer as part of a Midwest loop and D20 liked it a lot at the time but just today dropped it off the apply list. Nothing specific wrong with it, just had 8 other schools on the list that are better fits and trying to pare the list down. I thought it was fantastic, and a bit of a unicorn as an urban SLAC.
We got the āblah blah blahā letter from Macalester, too. It was cute. Weāre local and S20 is open to visiting sometime this fall although heās still strongly leaning towards UMN-TC. Mac would be a reach unless he raises his SAT score but I feel like it might fit his personality.
One week until our Iowa State visit! He thinks it might be too far (a ~3.5 hour drive) but I am interested to see if he changes his mind when he sees it. I only ever hear good things.
We are planning a trip to UMN-TC in early August. In our case if the school was local it would be off the list. We visited one school 2 hours away and she thought it might be too close.