JMU - ruled out going south of mason dixon line
App State - same
Marist- visited. Too rural
[Quinnipiac - too small
[Temple - too city
Drexel - too city
Univ of Cincinnati - he isn’t interested
Colorado State - too white
Denver - too white
Towson- too unknown
Univ of Delaware - maybe but wants geographically different than NY
Ohio State - still interested
Penn State - still interested
Michigan State - maybe
University of Oregon - very interested but so hard to get to!
Not much harder than So Cal. Southwest Airlines and others fly there. SW isn’t on the regular airline system so you have to check their fares directly.
There will be less frequency, maybe higher fares. But it’s not that hard to get there.
1 Like
No. He just wants to continue to play club in college. Wants D1 type school but knows he can’t play at that level so would rather just play club.
University of Arizona is currently high on his list and where he would probably go if there isn’t any option that tops it. We toured there and were all impressed with it. College of Charleston is a no - no south. He grew up in Atlanta prior to moving to NYC so been there done that geography wise
1 Like
I thought I saw that you had to fly from NYC to Portland and then drive three hours no?
What is CPP?
1 Like
CPP= Cal Poly Pomona. There are 3 Cal Poly’s: SLO, Pomona and Humboldt.
1 Like
Heck no. United and southwest fly via Denver. Alaska through Seattle. Delta via Salt Lake.
You might be thinking of Oregon State in Corvallis.
But U of O is in Eugene. EUG is the symbol.
U of A is a great school as well. If he loved it, assuming it’s in budget, you have a stress free application period.
Since he wants sports - assuming football - really only SDSU can sub for it of the schools listed above - and it’s not as big time as Arizona (or Oregon). The UCs will be hoops centric and less big time.
If big sports is really the focal point - he can apply to those 3 - Arizona, Oregon and SDSU - and he’s got two for certain admits. And they meet his criteria. Many of the others don’t. USC would of course but and check with his private school counselor but on #s alone no chance.
The application experience needn’t be difficult. Many just make it so.
Your son can be nice and easy.
Not sure but Oregon or SDSU but when we applied to AZ, an essay wasn’t even required unless applying to Honors.
But no direct flights is what I mean. Don’t care for him traveling but for me visiting …
So when his friend suggested he check out Cal Poly / need to clarify which one. Or are you saying stat wise not really worth exploring? Thanks
1 Like
Well just schedules - you won’t have non stops to Tucson either. Phoenix yes.
But you should be concerned with his needs in priority.
Yes you’ll make a stop or yes fly somewhere and drive a few hours alternatively.
If a non stop is priority, you can add UNLV. Big time sports but less big time than an AZ, Oregon, and SDSU. it’s another safety.
If a non stop is a must to get you near the school, apply to ASU, SDSU, and UNLV. Add U Washington too.
It and SDSU would be unlikely. Arizona State and UNLV slam dunks.
Arizona and Oregon may for him be better and are not hard to get to but they’re not gonna be non stops so if you make that a qualifier then unless you can drive after a non stop (not long - couple hours), you should remove them. But I would hope you’d leave them if they are right and take a connecting flight.
It’s not often (once a year) you’d visit and I’d hate for him to lose out on a school for this reason.
A bit? 83.5% of admitted and enrolled students at USC have HS GPAs of 3.75 and above. Unless the student has some crazy hook, I would say USC ain’t happening.
Only Pomona is non stop flights although in between airports. It’s not gonna scream sports.
If you’re eliminating all but direct flights, you’re eliminating a lot of schools based on a factor that affects you just a couple of times a year. You probably won’t visit as often as you think you will.
3 Likes
Cal Poly usually means Cal Poly SLO which would be a Reach school based on the academic information provided.
Cal Poly Pomona could be an option depending upon major.
Humboldt would be a Safety school but very rural and not easily accessible from OOS.
1 Like
How often do you plan to visit? Is this about flying in for parents’ weekend (which, by the way, is not that big of a thing at the big public colleges I’m familiar with)? Or is this needing to be there relatively quickly in the event of health concerns? If the former, I wouldn’t let it get in the way of a school that could be a great fit for your kid. If the latter, what is your home airport, if direct flights are a must-have?
2 Likes
Direct isn’t a have to have. Just a factor in the whole analysis
I don’t think U of Oregon is unrealistic. And it attracts a lot of California students. (“UC Eugene” t-shirts are a thing.)
But for the “vibe” your son is looking for, I’d take a close look at UNR. Reno is only 15 miles over the CA/NV border, close to Lake Tahoe. It’s about 3.5 hrs on Hwy 80 to the Bay Area. More than 25% of UNR students are Californians. UNR is urban-adjacent, in the smaller city of Reno, but I don’t think it would cross your son’s “too urban” line. (Description of campus from the UNR website) They have competitive men’s club volleyball if he wants to keep playing. (Plus, tons of tournaments are hosted in Reno, if he’d want to work as on official or anything like that. I made many trips to Reno when my D was in HS club vb in CA!) UNR, with 17K undergrads, is FAR smaller than the ASUs and Ohio States of the world, but still notably larger than the schools your son has deemed “too small” - it’s definitely a flagship-U environment with a wide variety of very solid acadmic programs, including the full range of business majors and all of the “usual suspect” humanities & social sciences. Undecided students can choose the exploratory “meta-majors” - links are all here. On the downside, if he’s a football fan, the Wolf Pack was ranked 133 out of 133 last year, lolol, but the basketball team does pretty well! JetBlue currently has a nonstop flight between Reno and JFK.
Arizona State feels a lot more California-adjacent than UofA, and it really has the big-spirit thing going on. I don’t think he could get into Barrett Honors, though, so he’d be making his way among more than 57K undergrads on the Tempe campus - even bigger than Ohio State - and without a clear academic direction, he wouldn’t have a smaller program to give him a more manageable sub-community.
CPP has a lot of what he’s looking for academically, but it’s very commuter-heavy, and we see students looking to transfer out because of their disappointment in the campus life and the challenge of finding community. Students do live on campus and I’m sure many have good experiences, but I suspect it takes involvement in a close-knit academic program, or team, club… something to provide the social “glue” which can otherwise be missing. I don’t think he’d find the “spirit” he’s looking for here.
San Diego State really comes closest to what he really wants, but I don’t think an acceptance is likely. If going there is a be-all and end-all goal for him, he could attend a nearby community college and take the transfer pathway into SDSU. Grossmont College is the closest and the biggest feeder, and many of their students (65% according to one source) live in the neighborhoods around SDSU. But there’s no organized housing, and it seems like a lot to travel all the way across the country to take this path.
Chapman, as tsbna suggested, could be worth a look, particularly if “Disney-adjacent” is part of the appeal of CA. But it’s more artsy than sports-spirit-y (DIII sports) and not much bigger than schools your son has already deemed too small. LMU is least D1, and a full-pay student with a 3.5 has a shot, particularly with an ED application, but it’s still only a hair over 7K students, and he’s taken other schools out of contention for being that small. It could be worth a look, though - pretty great location and I think he might like the vibe.
All things considered, I keep coming back to UNR as potentially best of all worlds for him, or ASU if you really feel confident he wouldn’t fall through the cracks at such a huge school without a clear structure for exploratory/undecided students other than “just pick a major but feel free to change your mind.” Oregon too, but it’s definitely not as convenient to get to, and IMO feels less CA-adjacent. There’s UNLV too, but my sense is that it has a more commuter-ish feel; I’d consider it if Las Vegas itself is appealing, but I think the others are better if it’s just about proximity to CA.
1 Like
Thank you for that thoughtful response. Not familiar with UNR and will definitely look into. We visited ASU and UofA on the same trip and both kid and parents preferred UofA campus. ASU didn’t have a traditional campus feel at all which I do think he wants. Current list right now would be:
University of Arizona
University of Oregon (going to visit this fall)
SDSU (reach but OOS full pay makes it a little more likely I think)
USCS (he liked when we visited. I don’t think it’s a great match for him but he can apply)
Maybe Cal Poly Slo (sounds like a reach)
Penn State
Ohio State
That might be enough!
1 Like
Yeah, I don’t see Santa Cruz really fitting what he’s looking for - not really sports/spirit oriented and a very different vibe from the schools he knows he likes. (Housing is a fever-nightmare, too.) I don’t know if you’ve looked at the UC application yet, but it’s deceptively onerous since the “Personal Insight Question” structure of the writing is so different from the single Personal Statement for the Common App. I would question whether it’s worth the trouble, honestly.
I definitely see why UA appeals more than ASU; Tucson is just less CA-adjacent and more of a hassle to get to, but once there I agree that it seems like a better fit.
Another flagship you might consider is U of Utah. The sports-spirit there is “lit,” the academics are great, and the path to residency means you don’t have to be a Western States student to get a great price - you have the option to pay in-state for years 2-4. And SLC is a very easy travel hub for getting to anywhere in CA as well as back to the east coast.
For SLO, choice of major is key toward having any chance of acceptance at all. One very under-radar major he might check out is the Packaging Technology major in the business school, particularly if he has any sort of knack for design. This major is much easier to get into than many others (mostly because most high school kids don’t know about it, and the unsexy name doesn’t pique their interest), but grads are in high demand and get really well-paying jobs. It’s definitely marketing/advertising-adjacent and very hands-on/project-oriented, and can lead to interesting careers in a variety of different sectors.
Good luck!!
2 Likes