Hi - Posting for my nephew. Here is his situation:
Demographics: US Citizen, Lives in India, Male
Gap Year when his family moved back in middle of Covid due to unavoidable family situation. Had a major set back in personal situation in 2020, but turning it around slowly now.
Intended major - Business with a Design or Environmental Engineering Minor
Has not taken SAT or ACT.
Studying in the IB Curriculum now (Grades 11 and 12) - His GPA is not that great now - 23 (across 6 subjects) not great. Promises to improve final grade to 28/29,+3 for IB Diploma. I don’t know how this equates to a GPA.
But I am told that only preliminary or predicted grades matter.
Studied 9th and 10th grade at a hyper competitive HS in California. HS School GPA for 9th and 10th is 3.0.
Family moved back during pandemic. He had some mental health issues due to which his grades suffered, and decided to take the rest of the year off to recover.
Strong Extra Curriculars and School sports - Robotics, Swimming, Volunteer and Internships.
LORs will be positive as he is well regarded in school despite his low grades now. Teachers are very positive on the outlook and feel he will turn things around. His Science or Math teacher and School counsellor might write good LORs.
No outside counsellor. Need advice on what set of schools might suit him and realistically where can he get in w his situation.
His wish list -
Selective: IU, UCs, SUNYs, UTs
Reach: Smaller schools like SMU, Lehigh, William and Mary, Bucknell, Drexel, Syracuse
Target: Cal States, SUNY 4 yrs colleges, open to smaller public schools
Safety: Need suggestions…
But open to suggestions. I am helping parents research the admissions process. Deeply appreciate the community here.
Sounds like he is turning things around, that’s great news. In the case that his grades do NOT turn out to improve as much as predicted, one option for total safety could still be a community college with dorms. Here is a list (although I know there are others, not listed here.) List of community colleges in the United States with campus housing - Wikipedia
As an example: top students at Dutchess Community College can cross register at Vassar, and eventually transfer.
Also, is there a budget?
Budget/Year? The family will be paying OOS fees for both the CSU’s (around $40K/year) and the UC’s (around $67K/year). Being a US citizen does allow him to get Federal aid if eligible.
California UC’s and CSU’s are test blind and only UC Berkeley currently considers LOR’s (small percentage of applicants are asked to submit).
CSU’s admissions are mainly based on the CSU GPA or International transcripts along with HS course rigor. EC’s are considered by some CSU campuses but usually only the hours participated and no details on the actual activities. No LOR’s or essays. Plenty of good CSU Business schools but it really depends upon the student’s academic performance for the top CSU’s such as Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach etc…
UC’s have 13 areas of criteria for their application review with GPA (academic performance), HS course rigor and personal insight essays being Very Important. Only 3 UC’s have Business schools: UC Berkeley, Irvine and Riverside. UCB’s Business school will be a direct admit starting Fall 2024. Based on what has been posted, chances are not great for the UC’s except for a possible admit from UC Riverside.
Great Q on budget. I think if it’s the UCs or Calstates family can get their residendeh back in 2 yrs.
But for now if it’s unconstrained - say $40-60k/y what are his options?
Penn State: Although he’s not getting accepted to main campus they offer a 2+2 program, where you start in one of the other campuses and then if you want get a guaranteed transfer to main campus starting Junior year.
Rutgers: You apply with one application, while he’s likely won’t get New Brunswick, he could consider Rutgers Newark
Any of the larger outside the T50 catholic colleges: De Paul, Marquette, St Johns, Seton Hall, etc
Options can first be sorted by his CSU GPA and UC GPA (10-11th grades for the a-g courses). Minimum just to apply is 3.0 for the CSU’s and 3.4 for the UC’s.
For the top CSU’s and all the UC’s to be competitive, 4.0+ weighted GPA is the norm.
Also there are only a few CSU campuses that offer Business with Environmental Engineering/Civil Engineering degrees and a minor in Engineering is rare. Environmental Science/Studies would be more conducive for a minor. The likely options based on the academic information provided would be Sacramento, Chico, Fresno, San Jose and San Francisco.
As I stated above, UC Riverside and UC Merced are probably the only 2 viable options for the UC’s.
Private schools which would take the Senior grades, EC’s and the LOR’s into consideration such as Loyola Marymount (LMU), University of San Francisco, Chapman University, Occidental, University of the Pacific, Santa Clara to name a few. You would have to do some research to see if the majors offered would meet the requirements.
If he can regain California residency for tuition purposes, but the HS academic record is not good, starting at a California community college and then transferring to a UC or CSU is a good option. This would leave the HS record behind, since junior transfer admission to UCs and CSUs is based on college record.
U Maine offers in state tuition to students from a number of states, and would not require a transition from a community college or satellite campus. It’s bigger than his small schools and has good programs in his field. Overall, a bit more personal than the typical state flagship. Maybe worth a look.
UNC Charlotte proved to be a good destination for a similar student but I know little about it.
He may want to look at Union in NY. Similar to the small ones on his list. Really nice school with a very thoughtful approach. I really like this one.
These are all schools where I think your nephew would have a decent to excellent chance of being accepted. I focused on the western U.S. for the most part, but some special schools from elsewhere were mentioned if I felt it appropriate.
These schools all offer majors in business, environmental engineering, and various design fields:
Arizona State
Cal Poly Humboldt: The newest Cal Poly, but with only about 5k students, it’s a much smaller experience. The hands-on emphasis sounds like it might work well for your nephew.
Colorado State
Oregon State: been hearing numerous reports of people really liking this campus after doing visits
Kansas State: Not as big as most of the other state schools in this category, and it also consistently ranks as one of the schools with the happiest student bodies in the U.S.
Montana State
Northern Arizona
Otterbein (OH): This small school (2200 students) is not ABET-accredited, but does offer environmental engineering and several other environmental fields. If your nephew is not majoring in engineering, then the ABET-accreditation may not be as crucial. I also think he’d get a lot of attention here.
U. of Arizona
U. of Cincinnati (OH): This school places a lot of focus on co-ops, so if that appeals to your nephew, this could be an interesting choice.
Utah State: Hits a number of your nephew’s interests and even has a degree in environmental design
I’m less sure of what kind of design offerings are available at these institutions, but I still think they’re worth checking out:
Carroll (MT): This is a small college, but it is ABET-certified for engineering. I think there would be lots of attention and small classes for your nephew here.
Gannon (PA ): This is a small to medium-sized college (about 3200 undergrads) that is ABET-accredited for engineering. But I think classes are more likely to be smaller and more supportive for your nephew.
Michigan Tech: Mid-sized school with about 5800 undergrads that also has a wide array of environmental offerings.
U. of Nevada – Reno
Wilkes (PA ): Another smaller school (2200 undergrads) that’s ABET-accredited for engineering where there is likely more personalized attention.
@AustenNut for the detailed reply.
His parents have been considering some of the names on this list like Arizona etc but feel a smaller college would suit him better. Someone has told them about the book Colleges that change lives so they are researching that as well.
If his parents are really thinking that are smaller school is best, how are they defining small? From the list above I’d still look at:
Cal Poly Humboldt (getting to be more medium sized)
Otterbein
Carroll
Gannon
Michigan Tech (getting to be more medium sized)
Wilkes
I’d also add in these schools which are all ABET-accredited for environmental engineering or civil engineering (which frequently can have a specialization in environmental engineering). None are larger than about 3500 undergrads, and several are considerably smaller (though more than 1000 students):
