Not knowledgeable about how UT housing works. But from what you wrote, if UT is her dream school and was her dream school despite being in your local area, and if she “doesn’t feel right” about CSULB, it seems like UT is the right choice. Perhaps housing still works out and even if it doesn’t, your local and hopefully she can sort it out next year, or find local off campus roommates this year. Doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to give us a dream school in favor of one that doesn’t feel right (assuming your family is comfortable with the cost difference).
4 Likes
Yeah, I feel in my heart that she has already decided on UT but there’s still some hesitance there on her part because of the expense. We can afford either. But she had pretty much decided on Long Beach and then changed her mind. I just wish I understood her thought process. We have told her repeatedly that we will support her either way but housing is going to be difficult anywhere at this stage of the game, I believe.
I attended CSULB back in the day. The location is great because it’s easy to get to many parts of LA and Orange counties.
It seems that your D is fearful of the unknown and being away from home. The mere fact that she is still trying to decide makes me think that she is avoiding making a decision because she doesn’t really want to be so close to home, but is perhaps nervous about being away from it.
If her major is film, I’d argue that you can’t be in a better location. Does she know Steven Spielberg attended CSULB?
UTA is probably better for school spirit and such, but they both score A on Niche. CSULB will have a California vibe.
2 Likes
Thank you so much for your insight. I think you nailed it about her being fearful of the unknown and being away from home, that is probably at the heart of it. We have been planning on moving to California regardless, so if she stayed here in Austin she would still be away from us.
Hoping she will decide soon!
1 Like
UT for the win. Highly rated film school.
My D is also going to study film and also hasn’t made a decision yet. She didn’t apply to UT because we didn’t want her to go to school in Texas because of their 6-week abortion ban, but we do know UT is one of the top film schools and would have applied otherwise. Does UT have an LA Semester program? That would give her a California connection.
We also used to live in Southern Cal, and she was accepted to CSUN and SDSU; we decided not to pursue either because we learned the majority of Cal State students do not graduate in four years and would have made an affordable education unaffordable for us, and it is not a guarantee admit to film, especially with CSUN. I’m not sure how certain it is for pre-film students at CSULB to get into the major.
3 Likes
This is a simple method, but tell her if she is really torn, just flip a coin. How does she feel in the moment after it is “decided”? Is she excited or disappointed?
Of course she’s not bound by a coin toss, but this could help her out of the indecision space.
5 Likes
This is one of my issues with Texas (abortion ban), not to mention the gun issue. They do have a UTLA internship program that I think is required but that’s not until the end of her studies. I’m pretty sure she was admitted into the major at CSULB; I know she did at UT.
At CSUN and SDSU, D was admitted to Provisional Film. After she would take a couple of required film classes and have a certain grade, she would need to submit a portfolio. I believe at SDSU just about everyone who qualifies and submits the portfolio is accepted but at CSUN, which is the higher ranked film school, only about 30% move on (and only 13% of CSUN students graduate in four years). I’d check Long Beach graduation rates because Naviance shows only 16% graduate in four years and 69% in six years.
1 Like
Housing is not guaranteed at CSULB even for freshman. Deadline to apply is May 1. Distance from home will help her get a spot as a freshman, but after her first year housing will be expensive and difficult to find. However, if she is serious about Film as a major, there is no contest. UT Austin is highly ranked and a far superior program. On the other hand, the state of Texas is demonstrably inferior to California by all other measures…
1 Like
To wrap this up, the kiddo finally committed today in a typically low key way (he chose the school outside his comfort zone, I am proud of him!) Thanks again everyone
17 Likes
I am glad you have that decision behind you. Good luck to your son.
I am in the same boat DS stuck with 3 schools each was great on admitted students day. They are all different so that doesn’t help. It is just nice to see others in the same boat!
3 Likes
D23 is still going pack and forth between CRWU and Northeastern - she’s given herself a [new] deadline of 11:59 p.m. tomorrow (her main problem is there are more things that she likes at CWRU but the thing she likes the absolute most is at Northeastern plus she had been gravitating to the northeast).
1 Like
Came here to commiserate and glad to see I’m not the only one with an undecided student. Son’s prom is tonight – I was hoping maybe he’d made a decision, and then could enjoy himself w/ a clear head, but nope. He’s circling between 2 good state schools, far apart from each other in our big state (Calif.), and going to CC to TAG into a UC.
I have been very very low-key this past week and gave him lots of space, and he did bring up the subject in passing a couple times on his own. That said, he seemed shocked when I told him my deadline is tomorrow night. He has a busy week ahead, and I’m not sending him off on Monday morning with “we’ll talk later tonight.” I’m a night owl, so can do 10 or even 11 pm tomorrow, but that’s it! Please wish me luck, along with patience and grace. (And I send it back to everyone in the same boat.)
5 Likes
I wish you good luck!!!
My S also just left for Prom. I’m not sure he comprehends the deadline is Monday, so tomorrow I will break it to him that we have to put in the housing deposit and make a final decision that we are telling people is official.
Last Sunday I had plans to talk in the car on the way to religious services, but he must have sensed that because he put earphones on before I even got in. These last two weeks have been four track meets and four performances of the school play, so there has barely been time to breathe.
He is one who just needs a lot of time for new decisions to settle. (Slow-to-warm-up they called it when he was just a toddler.) I think letting the decision sit with him semi-made has allowed him to feel a bit better about it. I hope that for all the undecideds out there (including mine), this slow sitting with the idea of one or the other college will have brough some peace to their decisions by Monday morning!
2 Likes
Thank you! The earbuds in the car thing cracks me up – totally something my kid would do, and yes they totally “know” and seem to have a sixth sense about when mom wants to talk. 
My kid is like me, exhaustively weighing every option – so I get it. But it’s time!
1 Like
I have one daughter who couldn’t make a decision about anything. Should she drink from the red cup or the blue cup? Should she wear the reversible skirt with the dots out or the stripes out? (I did NOT buy this skirt -it was a hand-me-down; I would NEVER buy this article of clothing). I dreaded the college decision.
She looked at a few schools and made her decision. Applied to one school, signed her national letter of intent and never looked back. So while I had 15 years of blue or red, Spanish or some other language, ride a bike or a scooter, I had it easy when it came to the college choice.
After she was in school for a few months she visited friends at a much much bigger school and came away saying “I could have done big.”
I think all of those choices would work, or can be fixed (transfer) or may be perfect even though the 17 year old didn’t recognize what the 20 year old will claim he knew was best all along.
Nothing like that first football weekend to cement the school as the perfect choice.
2 Likes
Maybe I am less emotional about this – why not leave the kids until Monday night. At that point a decision will emerge automatically, fully cooked, because there is no choice. The externally imposed deadline is a good thing.
Oh, there is a “choice” - the choice of doing nothing at all!
When you are dealing with students who have some mental health struggles, giving them until the last minute can lead to a crisis close to midnight, which ends up with the window closing on the computer deadline. Your idea is fine for most teens, but some of us are dealing with students who for various reasons should not be trying to make a decision at 11:30pm.
In my family, we actually have an enrollment deposit in, so we would not be left with nothing, but the housing deadline is also May 1. If we didn’t have a deposit in, I wouldn’t want to be waiting until the last minute because my student does not cope well with last minute, not to mention the possibility of losing internet (which we do a lot) or computer glitches, etc.
8 Likes