Please Match a 3.0 GPA Rising Senior (finally got it working LOL)

You’re basically describing Cal Poly Humboldt - the only mismatch being that Arcata isn’t very urban, but it’s coastal and a great college town. Very diverse and LGBTQ+ friendly, and has huge range of environmentally-related programs. Great themed living communities, several of which might be of interest Theme & Learning Community Housing | Housing & Residence Life

HOWEVER… I don’t think you can get into any Cal State school as an OOS freshman applicant. They recalculate GPA without freshman grades, and 9th grade was your strongest year; your 10th-11th grade GPA is under the cutoff of 3.0. If you wanted to get to a CSU, you’d probably have to pick one of the CA community colleges that have dorms, and use the transfer pathway. Not sure it’s worth coming all that way to go that route.

There may be some options among the publics in Oregon and Washington. I think you’d get into Portland State, which has a great urban setting and plenty of programs you’d probably like. Western Washington U in Bellingham is in a coastal city, and they don’t seem to have a hard cutoff GPA-wise; with an 87% acceptance rate, it could be a possibility if you don’t apply to a competitive major.

U of Puget Sound is a private U that might work. With schools in this category, that are stretching their budgets to offer as much merit and need-based aid as they can, being full pay could help tip the balance in your favor. The thing is, full pay for a private university is a lot of money to have on the line if your college academics don’t all go smoothly. It might be wiser to go someplace where you can afford to make some mistakes, take extra time to graduate, etc.

Another transfer pathway to consider could be Miami-Dade College in Florida. This used to be purely a 2-year community college, but it now has some 4-year degrees also… plus it has transfer agreements with both U of Miami (which could be a great one to shoot for, for you) and the FL public U’s. Lots of Spanish-speakers in Miami, big LGBT community (current governor’s anti-gay initiatives notwithstanding…) and you get both urban and coastal. It’s a thought.

Have you considered a structured gap year, like Americorps? AmeriCorps NCCC | AmeriCorps This could strengthen your applications both experience-wise, and by allowing your senior grades to count toward your GPA when you apply. Plus, a year of doing something more practical might help you to get perspective on what you want out of college.

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