Which Cal State ISN'T considered a commuter school?

dustypig
Sun, 29 Jun 2014 04:43:16 +0000

First off, if students who got all Bs with only a few As were shut out of colleges, there would be a lot of students in this country in that situation! No, you probably won’t be going to UCLA (unless I suppose you go to a community college and transfer, though you probably don’t want 2 years of commuter experience – but see below re SBCC), but there are plenty of other good schools that are available to you.

Are California public schools your only option, and if so is that for financial reasons? One problem with sticking with only UCs and CSUs for you is that admission decisions will be made before your 1st semester senior grades are out. At a college where the admission deadline was Jan. 1, you could point to improved senior year grades as proof that you really can do the work and that your junior year grades were just a blip. But I understand if the money just isn’t there to look at private schools or OOS publics.

One thing you should do is calculate your UC GPA (google that phrase to find the page explaining how to do it). Ditto for the CSUs – they use some weird formula based on a combination of GPA and test scores. That will give you a better idea of which schools are possible for you.

As far as CSUs that are more residential and less commuter, I have heard that Sonoma State is considered to be a more residential college experience. Chico State of course has had a reputation as a party school for decades – don’t know if it really is as bad as that, but I would think it must have plenty of students living in dorms.

If UCSB is your dream school, one thing you might consider is going to Santa Barbara City College (a community college) for a couple of years and then seeing if you can transfer into UCSB. I believe that SBCC is known for having a more residential-college vibe to it (not sure about the dorm situation, but plenty of students at least live in apartments in Isla Vista which is where a lot of UCSB students also live). I understand that a lot of students follow this path (start at SBCC, transfer to UCSB).