NYC private school male student
3.5 unweighted GPA with upward trajectory
4 year varsity and club volleyball player
Full pay
Average ECs
4 years Math up thru pre calc only, 4 years each of foreign language, English, history, sciences
Looking for big school spirit and sports, diverse population. Currently obsessed with idea of going to school in California. Visited SDSU, UCSC, UCSD. (Note - also visited and liked u of Arizona which will be back up plan). Looking for suggestions of other schools that he could potentially get into that fit what he is looking for. Thanks.
9th grade grades don’t count for most of the California publics, so that should help your son’s chances. He will need to calculate his three UC GPAs (unweighted, weighted, and capped) for people to make appropriate guesses:
His school’s college counselor will probably have better insights and suggestions than we will, but if he hasn’t looked at the University of Southern California, that might be a reach worth thinking about. Average GPA was 3.87 according to their 2023 CDS, so a 3.5 might be a bit of a stretch, but in terms of school spirit and sports, it’s probably got what he’s looking for.
I don’t know how competitive San Diego University (note: different from SDSU) is, but it might be worth thinking about as well from a culture standpoint.
So private school - talk to the counselor. Is a top school like USC in play from a school like yours ?
The UCs and some CSUs - SDSU - will be tough. UCI and UCR would be two in So Cal with b schools. I’m guessing UCR isn’t what they are thinking. UCI isn’t likely. Not sure UCR.
There are easy to get into but more local schools like Cal State San Marcos (ok lesser spirit), Bakersfield.
Both ASU and U of A will happen. And both are great schools. NAU too if interested.
There’s some privates the student can try - U of San Diego , Loyola Marymount, Chapman, Redlands and it’s NoCal but a school like U of Pacific. Some of these will be lesser spirit - and Redlands little if any. But it’s in So Cal.
If he’s ok with the big 3 AZ publics - or any one of the three - as worst case - then his list, whatever it is will be fine as they are all safe.
You might also look at UNLV (the glitz of the Strip nearby) or Reno too. And Colorado State - great B School under Dr Walker and lots of spirit.
But sounds like you’ll be fine as is with any AZ school. Add in SDSU, maybe Cal Poly, Long Beach State and for his interest UCI and UCR - not SD - and right there is enough of a list. And he could add more if desired. But just know he would likely end up in Arizona with this list I noted in this last paragraph.
Thanks @thumper1 i wrote that this time last year and while a lot of it still accurate - he had a great year and I am much less concerned about his ability to thrive at a large school than I was a year ago!
My initial thought is that U Arizona & College of Charleston should be on his list even though not located in California because your son would be comfortable at both schools.
Is your son interested in playing volleyball during his college years ?
Cal Poly SLO and San Diego state have the highest Non-resident student Freshman enrollment out of all the CSU’s.
For 2023, SLO had around 700 Freshman non-CA residents enrolled and around 3400 Total non-resident Undergrads.
SDSU had 1500 non-CA residents Freshman enrolled and around 5100 total non-resident undergrads.
CSULB had a total of 1500+ non-resident Undergrads enrolled and 184 non-resident Freshman enrolled.
SLO will not be an option with a 3.5 GPA and SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation. SLO also does not offer Undeclared as an option and switching majors later can be difficult for some of the highly impacted majors on campus.
CSU’s do not breakout OOS vs International so both are included in the non-resident category.
SDSU average admitted CSU GPA was 4.04.
Cal State Long Beach average admitted CSU GPA was 3.95.
UCR could be an outside possibility based on the UC Capped weighted GPA and they do have a Business school. OOS student population based on 2023 data was 579.
UCI would be a Reach school used based on the posted GPA. As of 2023, 2448 OOS undergrads were enrolled at UCI.
Campus
UC Capped weighted 25th-75th percentile for admitted freshman
There aren’t a lot of “big sports” schools in CA. Cal Berkeley, UCLA, SDSU, USC, and maybe CalPoly. It’s one of the reasons my CA son is looking outside of CA. Good luck!
So glad to hear that his junior year has been a time of great growth for your son!
Can you let us know why these other options weren’t considered a good fit anymore? That might help posters in terms of suggesting other possibilities.