I am currently attending Santa Barbara City College as a transfer from Arizona State University. This is only my second semester. My current GPA is 3.3, my high school GPA was 2.9 and My ACT score was 31 overall. I was wondering If I should shoot for UCSB or if should move to a different community college in order to get into either USC, UCLA, San Jose State, Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, Santa Clara University, or Loyola Marymount. I will have to take out loans but I don’t mind if it is worth it. I think I want to work in silicon valley but I am not sure yet. Which Community college should I transfer to in order to get into the best school for the money?
UC’s and CSU’s do not consider your ACT score or HS GPA since you need a minimum 60 semester units/90 quarter units to transfer as a Junior level applicant.
The UC’s offer TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee) and only 3 UC’s have Business schools (UC Riverside, Irvine and Berkeley). With your current GPA, UC Riverside would be your target UC and they accept TAG. Any CA community college would be fine for TAGing to the UC’s.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/index.html
UCLA has a Graduate Business school but not an Undergrad Business school and you will need a much higher GPA if you plan to target UCLA. UCSB offers Econ which you can also TAG but highly competitive.
If you want to work in Silicon Valley, San Jose State and Santa Clara might be the schools you want to focus on transferring so consider SJ City college. For SJSU, local applicants get priority.
This link shows the minimum GPA threshold by major for transfers at SJSU: http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultstransfer/index.html
Cal Poly SLO and SDSU give local applicants priority so if you are considering these schools, it would be best to get the majority of your CC courses completed at Cuesta College for SLO and San Diego Mesa or Cuyamaca college for SDSU.
For USC/UCLA, consider Santa Monica City College.
Stanford or Cal are probably the best but, that really doesn’t help you does it…
Santa Clara and USC are more selective that you think. Neither are very likely to admit you so, their cost doesn’t really matter. LMU - maybe but, it is really expensive and reserves little financial aid for and pro
Assuming you are an in state applicant (which i encourage you to investigate) , UCR, is your only realistic UC (UCI doesn’t offer TAG for Business major.)
As for Cal States, Chico, SJSU and Sac, state are all solid prospects with solid Biz programs. Most of the SoCal CSUs (SDSU, CPSLO, CSULB, Fullerton and Northridge) have a substantially higher transfer threshold for non-local applicants which makes them tough targets if you aren’t in their back yard.
Apply broadly
Good luck
A little confused here. Back in May 2017 you were at a community college according to http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1993167-best-school-for-business-in-slicon-valley.html
Now you are at SBCC but this is only your 2nd semester of college?
you mentioned in earlier threads you are from NJ. This means you are not going to get any financial aid from UC schools. The cost OOS at a UC is around $60K/year and you can only take out loans on your own for around $5K per year.
Btw, Stanford does not have an undergraduate business school.
UCB’s Haas and USC’s Marshall are considered the best two undergraduate business schools in CA. They are also top ten nationally and are probably the most difficult to get into in CA. You need at least around a 3.7+ GPA to have at least a chance to get in.
Alternatively, you might want to consider the business/management economics at the UC’s, such as UCLA, UCSB (econ accounting), UCD, etc. UCLA’s econ is very competitive to get in. As mentioned above UCI and UCR have undergraduate business schools.
Also, there are the CSU’s (San Jose St., San Diego St., etc.) and other private colleges (Santa Clara U., USF, etc.) that have fairly good business schools. At that level, if you want to work in Silicon Valley, San Jose St. and Santa Clara U. are geographically close to that area.
Depending on what your long term goals are, you might want to consider business econ rather than undergraduate business school.
@UCBUSCalum
I stand corrected on Stanford but, i was making a sarcastic point about the nature of the question. Best is highly subjective and the answer isn’t remotely relevant to the OPs future, (from a qualification and budget perspective). This is not intended as a slight but, the OP is at least 3 semesters into school, on his 2nd college, looking to know which other CC to transfer to so he can get into a good Business program.
Because of how they implement their state mandated ‘local preference’ SDSU, CPSLO, CSULB, Fullerton and Northridge are really difficult transfer targets for students not in their local area. I don’t think a 3.3 will do the trick with any of them as a non-local Business major. I think SBCC is ‘local’ to SLO (please double check that) but,i even as a local applicant a 3.3 probably won’t do it there. Now, he could relocate but, that’s will burn time and money as he accumulates units at yet another school.
IMHO, he should set some realistic goals and stop the CC shuffle and focus on quickly getting on with his BS/BA at an accredited institution that won’t bury him in debt. Assuming he’s a CA resident or WUE eligible, I’d add CSUEB (SF and SJ States doesn’t do WUE anymore but, would be a prospects if he is of CA) to my previously listed possibilities - due to his interest in working in the Silicon Valley after graduation.
I should also update that it looks like UCR has raised their GPA for Biz TAG to 3.5 so, that is probably not a viable option either.
http://admissions.ucr.edu/admissions/tag.html
Again, assuming he is a CA resident, i think the OP should knock out his remaining units where he is and apply ASAP as a transfer to several schools, include a couple of dreams like UCB and USC on that list because admission there is highly subjective and it could happen. While pursuing that, be sure to also apply to several more realistic targets like Sac, SJ, SF, Chico and East Bay. See where he gets in then decide based on what’s best for him - rather than were the school fits on some abstract list.
In a previous post the OP said he was from NJ
@mikemac …thanks for pointing that out. I caught from your post and his ASU reference that he might be OOS, which is why i couched my advice in that manner. If he is from NJ and paying OOS tuition at SBCC, for some reason he is trying to obscure that fact - making it hard to offer constructive advice, which I suppose is your whole point… i think we both violently agree that OOS tuition in CA is a silly waste of money.
I stick by the core of my advice, he should stop worrying about the BEST school, set some realistic goals and focus on quickly getting on with his BS/BA at an accredited institution that won’t bury him in debt. Perhaps that’s a NJ school, he hasn’t given us enough info to do more than guess. .That process should take just a couple more years so, taking the time off school to establish CA residency seems like a waste of time. He can easily resettle in CA after graduation.
Im already here so it’s too late. SBCC out of state for me is cheaper than the only good business school in NJ which is Rutgers at 30 k a year in state. Thats why Im saving money at the CC and hopefully can gain residency. Even if I cant I think a top school like UCLA and USC is definitely worth the crazy amount of debt. But my main question is, should I stay here and shoot for UCSB Econ or a relatively easy to get into Cal state school, or should I transfer to a different CC to improve my chances at a better school like the ones I mentioned above?
I am not a CA resident and I am currently in my second semester of college
i find it hard to believe NJ doesn’t have a more cost effective option than Rutgers but. it isn’t my life so i will take your word for it. if you are making ends meet in Santa Barbara, stay there. It may make sense to take a year off school and earn CA residency. If you are going into debt for a CC, you are making mistake that will haunt you for the rest of your life. You gotta find another path.
It may sound nuts but, since you attend a CC in CA, you may be eligible for a WUE discount at UNR and other WUE participating schools. https://www.unr.edu/tuition-and-fees/tuition-discounts#Transfer Programs -Reno has a reasonable cost of living and it is a solid biz program and the reputation should be fine anywhere in CA. Dig into the details and-or call them for more info - this is very nuanced turf. My son is a freshman at another WUE school (Ft Lewis) and was also admitted to UNR - they were very helpful each time i contacted them.
Boise is similar in cost and California profile after you graduate.
Here’s a full list of WUE schools
http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all
Again, they are all slightly different, some excludes certain majors, others don’t take transfers, I would not be surpised it residency requirements differ too. You need to understand the details to see if one fits.
I do wish you well.
Before you go too far down the road of planning on a UC make sure you have a cosigner lined up. On your own you can only get about $5K in loans per year.
I’m not familiar with the rules for CSU schools, but for UC schools this is probably an impossibility. All UC schools have the same policy about residency and UC writes
http://www.calstate.edu/sas/residency/
here are the CSU rules. If you are a financially independent person aged 19+, register to vote, your car, locate all your possessions here, work and meet all the criteria for a year. The catch is you can’t be student anywhere during that period. Can the OP swing that without parental assistance? I am not typically an advocate of this approach, it upends your educational momentum which is really difficult to reestablish. I’'d seriously look at the UNR option.
UCLA and UCSB are about same cost. Like the other UC’s, they are cheaper (tuition) for CA residents than out of state students. I believe UCSB’s econ is well known for accounting.
I already took a year off from school so I would not like to take anymore time off. However, I am living here year round. I have car and a CA license and everything. Would it be wise to take another gap year to acquire residency or would that be a waste of time?
In that case, it is probably a waste of time. Look into UNR, they have a tiered WUE award that makes tuition comparable to a CSU and a lower cost of living than just about anywhere in CA.
You won’t be classified as a resident because you arrived to California for educational purposes. That was your original intent and continues to be because you continue to go to a California school. Taking a year off didn’t do the trick because you werent self supporting and weren’t paying sufficient California taxes for a sufficient amount of time.
Bouncing around from CC to CC doesn’t make you a candidate for residency either.
(Do you even know how much the rents are in Northern Cal, silicon, and the Bay Area??? (No student, that I know of can be self sufficient in those areas).
Also, your budget has to align with UC and CSU residency requirements; if you have to take out major loans that require a co-signer with someone else’s credit, then that’s not being self-sufficient.
Living in California is very expensive when you have to be self supporting and paying full taxes, without help from anyone. The State of California is out of money. They can sniff out an OOS trying to game the system.
I just looked at several of your previous posts where you were advised several times about how expensive the California schools are. You claimed that your family could afford it. Why do you NOW want California taxpayers to fund you as a resident?