How did you qualify for WUE? Apply before December 1? My son applied on January 19 and I don’t believe we qualify for WUE. Utah would be a serious consideration if we could get that tuition discount, but without it, paying $40k OOS tuition is a showstopper.
Yeah, people think we’re “rich” but to live in CA costs a lot! We’re middle class for where we live (Bay Area) but our FAFSA will also be tossed in the circular bin. And we have 2 more kids after this one to plan for… Sharing your discouraged feelings. We’re hoping one of the OOS schools will consider waiving OOS fees (they did for my husband way back when, but not sure how common that is now)…
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Anyone interested in WUE here is the link: Save On Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE). There is a lot of good info there that I looked at when my son first started considering OOS schools on the west coast.
My son applied to several OOS schools and got WUE at Oregon State and University of Nevada, Reno. Oregon State is a more competitive process but I think UNR gives WUE to everyone from California (though not totally certain). AZ and AZ State also have WUE but it is very major/campus specific.
Btw, the deadline to apply to UNR is April 8. Free application, no essay. I don’t know much about UNR or majors offered but know people who have graduated and have been really happy there.
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They have to accept a lot more oos kids because most won’t attend. The yield rates are low.
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So in-state kids could be waitlisted while waiting for OOS kids to say they won’t attend?
Thanks for the well wishes. Our sons have a lot in common. Mine went to DATA middle school and Foothill Tech now. He’s picking up guitar this last year. RC plane and overall aviation enthusiast.They might be crossing paths at VC, or better yet SDSU. I’ll keep you posted. Maybe if they both get in we’ll have to meet up and celebrate at the Waypoint Cafe at Camarillo airport. There’s also a cool restaurant at Santa Paula airport. Oh, BTW, the SAI result for your FAFSA should display in your account. It should have got generated when you sent it in. It’s ballpark. Schools “determine your financial aid need by subtracting your SAI from the cost of attendance”.
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That’s great! My son went to Balboa then Buena. Waypoint is one of our faves for Sunday morning breakfasts. 
I think I am a bigger aviation nerd than my son still (I work in aviation, but as a software developer), but his goal is to work for Skunk Works in Palmdale some day. It will kill me if he does, because he won’t be able to tell me anything about what he is working on!
LOL! I’m only an aviation nerd by osmosis, my son has guided me around Pima, Evergreen, and Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center museums and gotten me flying RC at the club along the Santa Clara riverbed. He got his FAA Drone license through VCOE Aviation sophomore year. Great bonding experiences. He’s taught me a lot about getting to the moon but I’m very happy here in Ventura. haha. Hearing all the cheering during Starship trials always brings a tear to my eyes. Teamwork. Lots of good things in our kids futures!
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I can add to the chain. Our S24 is in a similar situation. He has a 3.9 UW GPA, several AP classes, job experience, volunteer work, ECs with leadership experience, etc).
He got accepted to SJSU, but was rejected by UCLA and UCSD. We haven’t heard from SDSU or Cal Poly SLO (expecting rejections there too). Luckily he applied to some schools OOS to which he was accepted (Temple, Drexel, Howard, and Pitt). But he also applied to several other OOS schools at which he was denied (Univ of Washington, GA Tech, Northeastern, Carnegie Mellon).
Rest assured, your child (and you) are not alone.
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What major did he apply to? We are in exact same situation, have not heard from cmu though.
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Mechanical Engineering. We hadn’t heard that CMU released any decisions. He just happened to be going through all of the portals to see if any decisions had posted.
As we sit here and ponder our SDSU fate, let me say that I think UNR is a hidden gem. I have been to the campus many times as my friend’s daughter attends there. The campus is beautiful, the kids all seem quite happy and I sat in on some honors college webinars and was very impressed. My kiddo can’t stand to be away from the ocean, so he won’t consider it, but I highly recommend UNR to everyone!
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This is so hard when they’ve worked so hard and their stats are amazing yet getting rejected. It’s just a super competitive major for the more desirable CA schools. There is a path for your son and I hope in the end he can look back and it ends up being a positive experience and what was meant to be for him even though it wasn’t what he had hoped for originally,
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My son goes to UNR for Mechanical Engineering and I have been so impressed by the school! He is thriving there. There are a lot of students from CA. The WUE makes it comparable to in state CA tuition.
It’s a beautiful campus, well organized system with orientations, academic advising, and class schedule.
He’s had a great experience so far! He got waitlisted at desirable CA schools but never got off.
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I will add that UNR’s health/medical programs and journalism school have all evolved and worth a look if your child still hasn’t received the acceptances they were hoping for. And comparable in price to California schools (for CA residents.) (Sorry - posted this before I saw the request to keep posts specific to SDSU.)
We just attended the admitted student reception of UNLV in Orange County. It’s a good school and all programs and majors are covered by WUE not just specific majors.
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Yes, he applied EA. WUE was considered as part of the application process. We didn’t do anything in addition to normal application process. Same with OSU. We received WUE at OSU as well. If you have military status UoU will also can get a break on tuition or go the residency route.
This year, the UC (and to a certain extent the CSU) acceptance decision process seems like all of the students that met a certain threshold got thrown into a big lottery system. With the record high level of applications, I honestly don’t know how they could possibly individually “select” which students to admit and which to reject.
And I would actually be OK with that sort of system if they were up front about it from the get go. That way, we could plan accordingly, knowing that once we hit the designated “qualification threshold”, getting into the UCs will literally be boiled down to the luck of the draw.
Barring that, I can’t imagine what it will take to get admitted 10 years from now…to a PUBLIC SCHOOL! Kids will be taking AP classes in elementary school and a full college course load each summer just to have a “competitive” college application!
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Thanks for that. My daughter is considering that option as was declined at one of her top two (UCSD) and waitlisted at the other (UCI) for computer science. However, she did get into UC Riverside, and we went over there yesterday, it’s a very nice campus. She is still hoping UCI comes though, but she is 50/50 on the CC/UC transfer path versus straight to UCR.
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My son was rejected by all UC’s except Riverside and Merced. There’s nothing wrong with this two schools. Not everybody can go to the top tier UC even with outstanding academic credentials. Your undergraduate doesn’t determine your future success.
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