What is a solid SAT score for a state university in Southern California? I know its kind of broad but just the average. My accumulative GPA is around a 3.8-3.9 so what would be a solid SAT score to accompany that? I’m not talking about an exceptional score, but what would give me a real chance?
Southern California’s state schools are as competitive as it gets when it comes to state universities, so any advice would help.
It really depends on the CSU and your major. The Cal states use SAT Math + CR, so for SLO Engineering you want a 1360 score total for both. For SDSU, around a 1200, CSLUB around 1100. The more competitive the major, the higher the score. Except for SLO, all the Cal states use the eligibility index to rank applicants.
(CSU GPA x800) + (SAT Math + CR). Since there are 23 CSU’s, the EI will fluctuate widely for the school and for each individual major. Do your best and once you have your scores, you then can formulate a list of Safety, Match and Reach schools.
Some EI thresholds to consider:
SDSU: 4100+ Nursing may require 4300+
CSULB: 3900-4000+
Chico State: 3700+
San Jose State is the only Cal state that publishes their EI each year for each major, Here is the link so you can compare:
http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-10079.12651.html
Good Luck.
@Gumbymom thank you so much. I heard a girl saying she got a 2000 on the SAT the second time around and everyone was impressed but when I looked it up people were saying it was just a “good” score which disheartened me a little.
2000 is a “good” score depending upon where you plan to apply. If looking at the top 20 schools, it is good but not exceptional… All you can do is your best and if you are not happy with your SAT score, you could also try the ACT. Colleges will accept either test and my son’s found they did better overall on the ACT as compared to the SAT.
The CSUs in southern California vary all over the place in selectivity. With a 3.8 HS GPA and all a-g course work complete, you do not even need any test scores for admission to non-impacted majors at non-impacted campuses like Bakersfield, Channel Islands, or Dominguez Hills.
However, San Luis Obispo and San Diego are impacted for all majors and more selective, so a high SAT or ACT score is desirable to have a good chance of admission.
Read about CSU impaction at http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impactioninfo.shtml .
@ucbalumnus My top choices are Fullerton and SDSU. But as you said those are impacted. I’m not even going to attemp at SLO because my cousin who is much smarter than me, got weight listed there but got excepted to UC Santa Barbara. I have considered Channel Islands, north ridge, and San Marcos as schools I will apply to in the probability that I won’t get into my top schools. Thanks for your reply.
With a 3.8 - and a 1200/1600 SAT you can have your choice of the CSUs for most majors - except SLO. Several UCs would also be in reach. (UCR, UCM, UCSC and perhaps UCSB)
SLO is really selective but, you should apply anyhow - Take a look at the admitted student profile - a 3.8 and 1300/1600 SAT would make you competitive in several majors.
http://admissions.calpoly.edu/prospective/profile.html
They also use a very different selection model you can read about here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1625482-the-keys-to-the-kingdom.html#lates