Am I screwed? (evaluate my GPA, which classes to take senior year, etc)

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi,
I’m a rising senior & have a pretty low GPA as a result of some mental hurdles. I live in CA, & wanted an outside opinion on the best schools I could get into given my poor GPA (preferably in state/on the west coast-including Nevada). My freshman year I had a 4.0 with Algebra 1 & Honors English 9, General science, health/geography and PE
My sophomore year is when crap started to hit the fan. This is when I finally went to a psychiatrist for my major depression, and got started on prozac which made me 10x more unmotivated than I already was. I got a 3.33 first semester and 3.0 second. I took Honors English 10, biology, world history, PE, & Geometry, and Spanish 1.

Junior year was pretty much the same deal. I was doing a little better mentally but it didn’t show much in my GPA since my classes were harder. I got a 3.1 and took AP English 11, chemistry, algebra 2, world history, & Spanish 2.
For my senior year, I’ve been indecisive between taking 3 APs (English, Gov and Photo) in order to show an increase in my effort level, or taking only 2 (English or Gov, and photo) in order to save my GPA.

I got 1130 on the SAT without studying, so hoping to get at least 1170/1180 in august as I’m studying for it this time. I plan on taking the ACT as well.

If it helps, my school is ranked pretty highly among others so my 3.1 has a little more weight up against a 3.1 at any other surrounding high school.

I’ve been in ASB all 4 years (class president sophomore year)

I’m black & female (not sure if affirmative action has THAT much of an affect)

I’m very indecisive so I’ll probably major in something general like communications or business.

So here are my questions:
What do colleges want to see more? Increase in GPA or increase in rigor?
Should I include my circumstance (my depression) in the application to sort of explain myself or would I just sound like I’m whining since everyone seems to have some sort of mental issue these days?
I’m in CA, so which state schools/schools in general on the west coast do you think would be ok target with my stats?

Thanks so much in advance. I’m freaking out. Lol

2

UC/CSU GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/



What is your local Cal State since get priority?

http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf



What can you afford to pay since your mental health issues cannot be addressed in the Cal State application so no explanation of your low grades. Also CSU’s do not use 9th grades in their GPA calculation? Would you consider private schools?

Unweighted GPA 9-11?

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College budget?

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I’m willing to take out loans, but without loans, I can afford $15,000-17,000 per year out of pocket, including room & board. My local cal state is CSU Sacramento. All high schoolers in my area with a 2.0 get automatic acceptance so I know I have that option, but I would REALLY like to avoid going there if possible. Lol. Not sure of the UC/CSU GPA as I’m not sure whether or not to enter them as weighted or unweighted (ex: for B’s in AP/ honors, do I enter as B or A?). My unweighted for 9-11 is right around 3.0 I believe & yes I’m considering private schools. Just would prefer a larger school as far as population but I realize I may not have much of a choice. Lol.

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To calculate your UC/CSU GPA, you first find using this link which of your HS which classes are designated as UC Honors (weighted). Not all HS designated Honors classes are UC approved for the weighted honors points.

https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution

You then enter your grades from the a-g courses in 10-11th (not weighted). So B’s for the UC approved Honors/AP courses will be B’s etc…
You then count up how semesters of UC approved Honors/AP classes you have taken 10-11th and enter them into the Honors slot. Most UC’s and all CSU’s cap your GPA with 8 semesters of honors points.

6

CSU’s admit by eligibility index and major. Non-impacted CSU’s such as Channel Islands, Dominguez Hills, Stanislaus, East Bay and Bakersfield will accept applicants with a minimum Eligibility index of 2900 SAT or 694 for ACT.

Eligibility index= (CSU/UC GPA x800) + (SAT Math+ CR) or (CSU/UC GPA x200) + (ACT composite x10).

Once you have this information, you can post your EI and see where you stand for many of the Cal States. SJSU is the only Cal state that publishes their EI thresholds for each major.

http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/index.html

I would also run the Net Price calculator for the Cal States since living away from your local CSU will add to your costs. Figure a minimum of $20K/year for tuition/room/board/transportation. As a CA resident, you could qualify for Cal Grants that would lower your cost of attendance along with taking out the minimum in student loans $27K for 4 years total.

https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/paying-for-college/financial-aid

Some privates to consider would be Whittier College, Redlands University, Cal Lutheran, Cal Baptist, University of La Verne.
The Western Undergrad Exchange (WUE) will give reduced tuition to applicants in the Western states so you might want to check out this link for schools: http://wiche.edu/wue

http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all

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Okay, so assuming I calculated correctly, my UC/CSU GPA is 3.16.

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What does the CR in the eligibility index stand for?

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Nevermind, I assume CR is the critical reading portion. Lol. My Eligibility Index total was 3,659.

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You could get into a number of Cal States except for the most competitive such as San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, Cal Poly Pomona, some majors at San Jose State.

All Cal states give local applicants priority so you can use Sac State as your safety.

For many Cal States being a non-local will mean you need a higher eligibility index than local applicants. An example, Cal State Northridge as a non-local, you would need an EI of 3700. You can check each school’s website for non-local applicant EI’s.

You should definitely apply to some of the non-impacted campuses I listed. You can also look for campuses that have your intended major as open/non-impacted for a better chance. Here is a link to determine which majors are impacted for each campus.

https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/ImpactedProgramsMatrix.pdf

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Okay great. Thank you so much. Would it be realistic to apply to Cal State Long Beach and/or San Jose State after getting my El up with my senior grades (if I apply regular decision)? Or will my senior grades even count?

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CSU’s do not use Senior grades for their admission decisions only 10-11th grades and only have regular decision with applications due Nov 30th.
Your Senior grades in your a-g courses will be considered only to make sure you meet the minimum a-g course requirements by end of Senior year and you need to pass them with a C or higher to keep your provisional admission. Depending upon major, I would apply to SJSU. Cal State Long Beach would be a long shot but it is your application fee money to use however you want. Long Beach is an impacted campus so all majors are impacted meaning they have higher EI threshold for all their majors.

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Ugh, kinda sucks that I have to rely on SAT/ACT now to redeem myself. Those apps are super pricey, so I’ll probably pass on Long Beach. Thank you a ton though, super helpful!