What are some good colleges for me to apply to? California Resident

College Search & Lists
1

Hey, I’m a 17 year old guy and going into my senior year of high school. I am looking for colleges that I have a chance at getting into. I’ll put all my stats and hopefully you can help me choose some dream, match, and safety. Thank for your time and recommendations. I’m mostly looking for in- state public schools since I want to save money. I don’t really have a preference of campus size or location, but I want to go to a school with not so many commuters.

Home State- California (specifically Southern California)
GPA Unweighted- 3.842
GPA Weighted- 4.526
SAT Score- 1230 (I’ll probably retake this)
AP Scores- APHG- 4, APEH- 3, APUSH- 3 (may not include these, overall I took 6 APs so far, but didn’t take all the tests since my family didn’t have the money).

I’ve done two internships, each were about 130 hours long. One was in the hospital and one for a state senator.
I’ve volunteered at a hospital for over 300 hours.
I’ve worked on the school newspaper and am the editor-in-chief.
I’ve started a club for students who want to go into medicine. We do medical philanthropy work and have guest speaker talk about careers in the medical field.
I was in a culture club and was the vice president and president.
I was in academic league which is like a knowledge game where we compete against other schools. I did 2 years of varsity.

There were a few others, but these were the main things I did in high school. I know it’s all over the place, but I want to go into medicine.

I hope to major in human biology or biology. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

2

Calculate your GPA with https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ .

The weighted-capped version of the GPA as calculated above will be what CSUs (other then CPSLO) plug into their eligibility index formula, and what UCs list in most admissions-related information (unless otherwise stated as unweighted or fully weighted).

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21182988/#Comment_21182988 shows 2017 UC frosh admission rates by weighted-capped GPA.

Each college has a net price calculator on its web site that you can use to estimate financial aid.

Pre-med is a weed-out process (most do not apply to medical school due to college GPA or MCAT being too low, and fewer than half who apply get admitted anywhere), and the number of spaces in California public medical schools is limited (so even more competitive), so be sure to think of what you may want to do if you do not get into medical school. No specific major is required in order to take the pre-med courses.

3

There are a lot of choices. Have you visited any place yet? Where are your friends going? Has your GC recommended any place?

4

Most CA publics are largely commuter; they were designed this way, built to serve their local community. In fact almost all CSU campuses give preference to those living in their Local Service Area.

The UCs that have less of a commuter feel would be Cal, UCSB, Davis, maybe UCLA and possibly UCSD (a lot of UCLA students live in the dorms, and while most UCSD students are not from San Diego they tend to move out to beach areas and commute into school). The CSU that are residential would include Chico, Cal Poly SLO, Sonoma State, maybe Humboldt (don’t know anything about this campus). SDSU is similar to UCSD in terms of where students live.

5

Being a CA resident, you have numerous in-state schools in which to choose. I am assuming you are interested in going to Medical school?

What can you and your parents afford to pay?

What is your local Cal State since you will receive priority at your local campus? Although you mention you do not want a commuter school, if costs are an issue, commuting to your local CSU will make an affordable safety.

https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/documents/csulocaladmission-serviceareas.pdf

Based on your UW GPA, your UC GPA may be anywhere from 3.8-4.2 range and with your current SAT score, UC Merced, Riverside and Santa Cruz would be your best UC targets. If you can get your SAT score up another 100+ points, then UC Irvine, Davis and Santa Barbara could be options.

For the Cal states, they admit by eligibility index and major so you still need to calculate your CSU/UC capped weighted GPA and plug it into this formula: (CSU/UC capped weighted GPA x800) + (SAT Math + EBRW).

Other than Cal Poly SLO, all the CSU’s will use your EI and rank you based on your major.

Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation still with the 8 semester honors points cap.

Some less commuter CSU’s to consider are:
Cal Poly SLO -(probably a Low Reach to Reach school based on SAT score and intended major)
SDSU- High Match school with a very Pre-Med advising program
Chico State- Match
Humboldt State- Safety

Not knowing your finances some privates to consider are University of Redlands, University of San Francisco, University of San Diego, St Marys College of CA, Chapman, Whittier College.

Each school’s website has a Net Price Calculator to help with cost estimates.

Best of luck.

6

Be aware that some UCs (eg UCLA, UCI, UCSD, maybe other UCs or Cal States??) have housing guarantees of only 3yrs, 2yrs, 2yrs respectively. Students move off campus and commute. The areas especially surrounding UCLA and UCSD are very expensive, maybe making for longer commutes in hunt for cheaper housing.

7

“Commuter” commonly refers to students continuing to live where they lived before going to college (often at parent’s place for traditional-age college students). However, at many schools, including UCs and CSUs, non-commuter students usually live in off-campus housing after the first year or two (in some cases, the off-campus housing may be closer to campus than the campus-operated dorms).

8

They won’t be as expensive as Berkeley, where a random check of 2 bedroom apartments run 3200-4500 a month. Almost all UCB students stay in a dorm for freshman year and then move on out to off campus housing.

9

To me, the pertinent question is whether a full-need-met private LAC (which, all things being equal, is the most advantageous environment for a premed undergraduate) would end up costing more or less than a UC. Your stats aren’t competitive for the very most selective private colleges, but there are several full-need-met schools where you’d be a strong candidate. Whitman is a test-optional, full-need met school that would be a good test case: https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/whitman Pitzer, in SoCal is also test-optional and meets full need. Occidental meets full need but isn’t test-optional. On the other side of the country, College of the Holy Cross (MA) is test-optional, and not only meets full need but offers no-loan aid to low-income students. Also a fantastic place to go premed, with a 75% med school acceptance rate - more than double the med school acceptance rate of UCSD, even though the stats of UCSD’s entering class are higher. Run the numbers for your family’s particular financial situation and see whether in-state is really better than a full-need-met private, or no.

10

How far are you willing to go? You will get plenty of advice on top-ranked schools and all of the “Cal’s” so I am going to suggest two fantastic options that are off the beaten path a little, so you might not hear of them, otherwise.

I am mentioning these two specifically because they both are among the top percentiles nationwide for grad school placement, and are specifically in the top percentiles for Med school placement. And, yet they have reasonable acceptance rates. Also, they are both either test-flexible or test-optional. (Meaning that they will allow you to submit AP scores in place of your (not-super-fantastic) SAT scores or even not require test scores at all) Both of them have several superb pre-med pathways.

Here are two very solid schools with exceptional science programs and great med school acceptance rates:

Take a look at Conn: https://www.conncoll.edu

And Earlham: http://earlham.edu

Once at the sites, you can look around to get a feel for the schools. If they look interesting to you, I am sure that you can then find their health/med/science info. :).

Beyond that, Here is a list of 50 schools with great science programs which are the top 50 for grad school completion rates in the nation (not specific to medicine, but for science in general)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-50-schools-that-produce-science-phds/

11

Try looking at USC. Give it a tour and some research, its a great place and offers good financial aid as well as merit scholarships.

12

IMHO Holy Cross is high up on the list of places to avoid if you want to go to med school.

Not all colleges offer a Committee Letter for med school applicants, but if your school offers it then med schools expect you to get it. This gives those colleges a sword they can swing to to boost their med school “admit” rate. You’re wasting your time applying if your college declines to recommend you. Holy Cross is one of these schools. They will only write a favorable letter for their stronger students and they make no bones about doing this.

Let me write the committee letters and I could get any college in the country a 80% rate. All you really need to know is in this chart of GPA and MCAT vs admit rate: https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/factstablea23.pdf

13

Again, no pixie dust here. Earlham has a committee letter.

Earlham boasts an admit rate of 87%, so I guess it is even tougher to get a favorable letter from them than from Holy Cross!! Of course if your chances of admission to med school based on the Association of American Medical Colleges chart I gave above is only 60% and Earlham decides not to recommend you, well I guess that’s just too bad.

Connecticut College also has a premed committee. https://www.conncoll.edu/career/letters-of-recommendation/ If, as BB posts,they are in the top admit rates to med school then you can bet they are tough screeners too.

14

Some students may consider screening or weed-out by committee letter to be a good thing. While it is not a good feeling to be weeded out, it may be better to have that done earlier by your college’s pre-med committee so that you can switch earlier to your non-medical-school plans than to go through a long, stressful, and expensive medical school application process that will be more likely to be futile than for the average medical school applicant (most of whom get shut out).

Of course, some other students will want to try applying to medical schools anyway, even if the chances are at the low end. Such students should avoid schools that screen or weed out by committee letter.

15

How did we get from the OP wanting a California instate school to schools in Massachusetts?

16

Our state is huge. Our weather is diverse. What is your geographic preference? Do you want to get away from SoCal? Bay Area? Desert community? Agricultural? Mountain?

17

Also look at WUE options.

18

@ProfessorPlum168 , I believe I opened the Massachusetts can-of-worms, lol. The point I was trying to make there was that IF OP is in a financial category such that the only way he can graduate from college debt-free is to attend a full-need-met school that will give him a no-loan financial aid package, the California schools in that category are excruciatingly difficult to get into (i.e. Stanford and Pomona). (I did suggest Occidental and Pitzer at test-optional, full-need-met schools, as well as Whitman which is at least on the West Coast, but these aren’t no-loan schools.) Holy Cross and Wesleyan are the two test-optional+full-need-met+no-loan schools, so I was putting that out there in case such a school might be worth traveling for. But this is utterly hypothetical without feedback from OP about what the Net Price Calculators for full-need-met private LAC’s show. I was merely inferring that the best possible financial aid might be the top priority, given that OP mentioned needing to save money as well as foregoing AP tests because of their cost.

Likewise, @evergreen5 , it depends entirely on OP’s financial situation whether WUE should come into the picture. If his Expected Family Contribution is under 30K or so, then he’ll need to either stay in-state where he’s eligible for state-administered financial aid, or aim for an excellent financial aid package at a private college/U. (Or go for big automatic merit, but that would require a higher SAT/ACT score.) For families with EFC’s above $30K, WUE schools can indeed end up being the best financial value for a high-quality education, especially for students who need slightly more forgiving admissions than the UC system can offer them.

There’s basically no point in debating unless/until OP returns to clarify what his financial aid eligibility looks like.

19

To answer a lot of the questions being asked, I have no preference to a certain geographical area. I’d be willing to go out of state only if I would have to pay less overall for my education. After doing a few in state net price calculators (UCSC, SDSU, UCSD, and Whitman) Whitman was the lowest, $5,150, and SDSU was the highest at $13,000. The expected family contribution is $0. I also live in San Diego. When I said I didn’t want a commuter school, I meant I want most freshmen to live on campus and have available housing for freshmen. I dont mind commuting after from an apartment. Thanks for the help!

20

@collegedr: I am assuming that SDSU is $13,000 due to the fact you are local so you would be commuting from home and not living in the dorms and $13K is for living on campus?

Whitman is a great school, but isolated and not an easy place to fly home from for holidays and breaks. Also, the small town of Walla Walla does not have many medically related EC opportunities so something to consider. Definitely worth a visit since it is not a school for everyone.

The UC’s tend to be more generous with FA for an EFC of $0, but you still need to calculate in transportation costs. Off campus for UCSD will be very pricey. Figure on around $900+ for rent in the La Jolla area with several roommates. My son pays $850/month renting a home with 7 other students in the La Jolla area 5 minutes from UCSD. If you live in The SD area , then commuting to UCSD would be a more affordable option but your SAT score needs a bump for UCSD to be an option.