Rising Senior from California with 3.6 weighted GPA [3.4 unweighted GPA]aiming for CSUs and possibly UCs

Chance Me / Match Me
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I am a rising senior in the midst of deciding on my college list and hoping to get some advice if CSUs and UCs will be a reach or target for me.

BTW, this forum is one of the best places to assess your chances for getting into specific college and the wonderful folks here can’t be thanked enough for their time!!

I haven’t researched out of California colleges much, so would really appreciate some feedback on my chances.

  • US citizen, Resident of California, Female
  • Public High School, rising senior

Intended Major(s)
Marketing, Communications, Information Technology Management (not heavy on Math, some math ok)

GPA

  • Unweighted HS GPA : 3.4
  • Weighted HS GPA : 3.6

Extracurriculars

  • 4 yrs high school basketball, JV and Varsity girls team
  • Volunteer camp counselor for elementary kids, online teaching for kids, and YMCA camps
  • Summer job as a swim instructor for my local city.

Cost Constraints / Budget
None at the moment.

Schools I am interested in
Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo - SLO)
San Diego State
Cal Poly Pomona
CSU Long Beach
San Jose State
CSU Fullerton

UC Riverside
UC Santa Cruz
UC Davis

Santa Clara University
Texas A&M
Loyola Marymount
Arizona State
University of Arizona

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Calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s (unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted)? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

If you have not taken a community college or dual enrollment courses then your CSU capped weighted GPA is the same as the UC capped weighted GPA.

Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades for their GPA calculation (only exception for the CSU’s) with the 8 semester Honors point cap so you can calculate your SLO GPA using the CSU GPA calculator and including 9th grades: GPA Calculator | CSU

Below are the overall admit rates based on your Capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific:

Campus 4.00+ 3.70-3.99 3.30-3.69 3.00-3.29
Berkeley 17% 3% 1% 1%
Davis 64% 25% 6% 2%
Irvine 42% 13% 1% 0%
Los Angeles 14% 1% 0% 0%
Merced 96% 95% 93% 87%
Riverside 92% 84% 55% 14%
San Diego 39% 9% 1% 0%
Santa Barbara 46% 8% 2% 0%
Santa Cruz 85% 65% 38% 12%

Are you within the local admission area for any of the Cal states listed? You are given priority for your local CSU.

I will only comment on the UC’s and CSU’s but based on what you have originally posted, only UC Merced and Riverside would be Target UC’s based on their Capped weighted admit range (25th-75th percentile) listed below. UC Santa Cruz would be a slight Reach and UC Davis would be a Reach.

UC Capped weighted 25th-75th percentile for admitted freshman:
UC Davis: 4.03-4.27

UC Merced: 3.48-4.08

UC Riverside: 3.76-4.18

UC Santa Cruz: 3.86-4.22

Cal Poly SLO is highly impacted so overall a Reach for the majority of the majors. Communication studies has an estimated 25% admit rate with an SLO admit GPA of 4.00-4.25 (25th-75th percentile).

San Diego State will be a Reach school with an average admitted CSU GPA of 4.04.

CSU Long Beach will be a High Target with an average admitted CSU GPA of 3.95.

CSU Fullerton can be a Target with around an average CSU GPA of 3.7.

San Jose state uses an impaction index to determine major admission so for Marketing, Communications or IT management, it would be a solid Likely school.

Cal Poly Pomona uses a CPP index to determine admission similar to SJSU’s impaction index. Based on the major thresholds, CPP is also a solid likely based on your GPA.

https://www.cpp.edu/admissions/freshmen/freshman-student-profile.shtml

The UC’s use 13 areas of criteria for their application review so GPA alone will not determine your chances. How applications are reviewed | UC Admissions

The CSU’s admit mainly on your stats so GPA is probably most important factor.

Good luck.

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Great info from Gumbymom above. Clearly you have good options in the CA public university system; some are reaches, but there are some great programs that are likely to admit you.

Riverside is the only UC on your list that has an undergrad business school; is that important to you? If you want the option of a true business program with a marketing concentration, this is a great program to aim for: https://business.ucr.edu/sites/default/files/2023-07/mktg-vs-2023sub-green-bsad-7_0.pdf You have very good CSU options, too - which campuses appeal to you the most, in terms of location, student life, etc?

Given these options, what other schools would be worth going farther away and/or paying more money for?

TAMU is an outlier on your list; why is this school of particular interest to you? It looks like total cost of attendance would be over 60K/year, and it’s quite a bit farther from home than anywhere else you’re considering. (There aren’t even direct flights from CA airports to College Station - the nearest major TX airport is IAH in Houston, 90 minutes away.) Is there a particular reason you’re interested in A&M?

University of Nevada Reno could be a good one to consider. It’s only about 2.5 hrs past UC Davis, on Hwy 80 (plus, plenty of quick nonstop flights from SoCal or Bay Area airports), and you would qualify for the WUE reciprocity rate, so the total cost would be less than a UC. There are majors in Communications and Marketing, and the Information Systems department offers both a major and a minor. (The major requires calculus; the minor does not.) To me, UNR fits the pattern of the schools that interest you, and it would be attainable and affordable. With 17,000 undergraduates, it’s a flagship-university environment, but more manageably-sized than ASU (>65K undergrads on the Tempe campus alone) UofA (40K undergrads), Fullerton (35K), Davis (32K), SJSU (26K) CPP (25K) or even Riverside (22K)… not to mention TAMU (58K undergrads in College Station). And with easy access to both a city environment and outdoor recreation in the Reno-Tahoe area, there’s something for everyone. Kids I know who have gone there have really enjoyed it.

Additional WUE schools that could be worth a look include U of Utah, U of New Mexico, and Colorado State.

You should have good options! If you tell us more about what you like or don’t like about various schools under consideration, it would give us a better idea what to suggest. I haven’t suggested any Pacific Northwest schools, because you seem to be more interested in warmer/drier climates, but there are possibilities in OR/WA too if that’s of interest.

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U of A and ASU are excellent - and you’ll get in - but you won’t get top money. You say for now you don’t have budget constraints - but you should check with your folks.

Not sure UCSC fits - major wise - at least marketing.

Is there is SAT - I’m guessing Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount will be tough. and A&M will be tough too. They are TO but show a large portion of students submitting (100%) although I’m not sure it’s true as they are TO and the volume they show doesn’t match up to the # of students enrolled. Why A&M? We could find others - in case.

WUE as suggested - you’d get into a lot of schools - if you want to stay close to home, both UNR and UNLV would be solid as would Oregon, Colorado State, etc. Not all schools are automatic though.

Here is the WUE link.

I set it for marketing and it shows 42 schools. If it doesn’t populate, I clicked on all states not California, Freshman, and Bachelors…and in major I chose Marketing (in the majors left hand side)

Good luck.

WUE Savings Finder - WICHE

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U of Oregon isn’t a WUE school, so it would be more expensive but otherwise could be a fit. There’s a reason that “UC Eugene” t-shirts exist. That’s one reason I asked whether the OP is interested in PNW schools. The PNW Catholic U’s like U of Portland and Seattle U could be worth a look too, plus U of Puget Sound; all have business programs and communications majors. I just don’t get a “green and rainy” vibe from the OP’s list. (And if green & rainy did appeal, I’d add Cal Poly Humboldt to the CSU list as well.)

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Thanks Grubbymom, aquapt and tsbna44 !!

Great information, SJSU, Cal Poly Pomona, and Univ of Nevada (Reno) are going on my list.

While I prefer California (since I am a Bay Area native), I am open to other Western or New England states. Prefer locations which are urban or close to urban areas , and being and Asian prefer some diversity on the campus. My current goal is pursue a non engineering career in the tech industry - thats why I was look at marketing and communications or IT project management.

Texas A&M was recommended by a family friend and no other reason.

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Yes sorry - I comingled - Oregon State (offers WUE to some, not all).

Really a lot could work - like U of A and ASU aren’t WUE - I should have been more clear. Thanks for the clarification.

Really there are lots of schools dependent upon OPs budget and where/how far they’re willing to go.

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UNLV is 4081 Asian of 24915 - so it’s the largest on this small list of 5 outside of CA schools.

UNR is 1243 of 14323. They don’t have a CDS so this is 3rd party.

U of Arizona is 2033 of 41000 - it’s big ethnicity is hispanic

ASU is 5847 of 64398

Oregon is 1347 of 18419

There’s lots of great schools - A&M is certainly one but I don’t see it as a fit for you - and it’s a very nice area but not urban - although there’s plenty there.

Others out West that meet the urban - U of New Mexico (733 of 16851) and Colorado State (733 of 25136) and Utah are others to look at (1605 of 26041).

As for getting into tech, get a solid business background or marketing…join a tech oriented club and apply for internships at tech companies so you can develop a resume in that arena. Three’s lots in SLC, Phoenix, Tucson - so these are good schools to look at.

Colleges with the Highest Asian Population - 2024 - College Transitions

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A lot of the WUE schools are lower-diversity, but not all. UNR isn’t bad, with barely over 50% white students; a little over 8% are Asian.

For an urban Jesuit university with a high Asian population and pretty easy travel from the Bay Area, you might want to check out Seattle U - 37% of its 4100 undergrads are Asian. Your GPA is right around their median, but that likely means you’d get merit aid. The business school has an undergrad Marketing major, and Arts & Sciences has a Communication & Media major. SU is in the mysteriously-named Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle (there is no Capitol there), which is an attractive and fun part of the city with lots to do.

U of Portland could also be worth a look. The percentage of Asian undergrads there has doubled in the past decade; most recent numbers show 23% Asian. It’s in the St. John’s neighborhood, which is a nice part of the city, quite separate from Downtown. You might like the range of majors here: Communications, Marketing, MIS, and Operations & Technology Management could all be of interest. Merit $ is likely here as well.

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Thoughts on U San Francisco as you’re offering up Jesuit?

OP would get in - it’s 26% Asian. About 6k undergrads.

Has standard majors like marketing and Communication Studies - PR minor, data science (good for marketers)

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USF could work too! It’s a little tougher admit, with a 4.0 weighted median GPA and a <50% acceptance rate, so not as likely to buy her in with a significant merit offer; and it’s a little hard to drill down on acceptance chances without a test score, but like Santa Clara, it’s certainly possible. USF doesn’t offer much that’s specifically IT or technology management oriented, but that’s the case at Seattle U also.

For technology management in particular, U of Portland’s programs seem to deserve a closer look. (To be clear, not that anybody’s asking, UofPortland isn’t Jesuit - it’s a Congregation of the Holy_Cross school, like Notre Dame and Stonehill. These tend to be a bit more conservative than the Jesuit schools; but Portland-conservative still isn’t very conserative, lol, and only about half of UofPortland students are Catholic.)

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Thanks aquapt, Is University of Washington (Seattle) a reach school for a Business Major ?

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Yes, very much so. Direct-admit to the Foster undergrad business program is highly competitive, especially for out of state applicants; and the standard process for continuing students who weren’t direct-admits to Foster accepts only 30-50% of those who fulfill all of the requirements and apply. I wouldn’t recommend UDub for your list.

For an urban PNW public U, Portland State would be a safety and would give you the WUE rate. They have Marketing and Communications… also Business Technology & Analytics, but that may be more CS-heavy and data-sciency than you want. My gut says U of Portland is a better fit for you, but that’s based on limited info, so look for yourself and see what you think.

There’s also Gonzaga in Spokane, which might be too far off the beaten track for you, but they do have a good range of business concentrations including Marketing and MIS, in addition to Communication Studies. On the plus side, it’s a lot sunnier in Eastern Washington than in Seattle or Portland. Gonzaga has the same median GPA as Santa Clara but a higher acceptance rate, probably because fewer people want to be in Spokane than in the Bay Area. It’s also only 5% Asian. But it’s a good school, so, fwiw.

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One more that hasn’t come up yet, that’s very convenient to the Bay Area, is University of the Pacific in Stockton. Their median GPA is 3.63, but their acceptance rate is over 90% and they give lots of merit - typically enough to compete with the CA publics. Undergrad population is 34% Asian. The campus is very very nice; Stockton is “meh” but a lot nicer than it used to be, and not too far from Modesto, Sacramento, and the East Bay. They have majors in Communications and Marketing, and minors in Technology and Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Not sure if UOP would be attractive enough to choose it over, for example, SJSU, but fwiw - it isn’t too far to go check it out if you’re curious.

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Yes and admission in general.

That doesn’t mean to not apply though - but you still need an affordable safety (two preferably) where you could land in case you don’t hit a reach.

Foster at UW is a strong school - but so are many B schools.

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I wouldn’t say not to apply based on the odds of rejection. If you don’t get in, you don’t get in; no harm, no foul. But getting in, spending 66K/year to attend, and then not being able to get your major? The Communications major has competitive secondary admissions too, so this would be paying double the cost of the excellent in-state and WUE options, just to fly without a net and potentially get shut out of all desired majors. The good news is they probably wouldn’t tempt you with an acceptance, but nonetheless, why bother?

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UC Davis may be a reach, but they are offering an undergraduate business degree for the first time in 2025.

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Thanks for pointing that out - it looks as if they will have a marketing concentration, although it’s “marketing and business analytics” which may have some additional content the OP is less interested in. This minor, however, seems like a great fit Undergraduate Technology Management Minor | UC Davis Graduate School of Management and could be combined with the Communication major too. I don’t think a Davis acceptance is likely, but there’s no harm in applying, especially since she’s putting the work into the UC app anyway.

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Oh, forgot to mention the most Asian-friendly WUE school of them all: U of Hawaii Manoa! It doesn’t check the “close to home” box, but if you’d enjoy the setting enough to deal with the travel, you’d absolutely get in and get the WUE discount. The undergrad MIS major in the business school seems to fit what you want quite well. (And of course there’s Communication and Marketing too.) If your goal is to break into tech management in the Bay Area, doing this via Hawaii might be more belabored than necessary, but at least it wouldn’t cost any more than the CA publics thanks to WUE, and there are worse things than spending your college years in Hawaii! They respond quickly too - this was the first school my daughter got an offer from, and while it wasn’t a serious contender for her, it definitely cheered her up through the rest of the application season to be able to say, “I can always go to Hawaii!!”

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Thank you so much for the honest feedback and pointers.

What are my chances of getting in the following schools - with Business or Comms major
Drexel University
Temple University
George Mason University
University of Texas at Dallas
University of Maryland at Baltimore
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Just researching some east coast schools as well.