If you are talking about ELC, then the transcript submission and calculation is not done each year for each CA HIgh school.
I am not aware beyond the ELC that the UC’s are able to get class rank since transcripts are not send in until a student enrolls in any UC. UC’s do not have access to transcripts unless they are specifically requested by the school for a supplemental/augmented review. I believe the information previously posted may have been misinterpreted.
Now on to the SLO discussion since we have sufficiently derailed the purpose of this thread.
There is already a charge less scale for low SES with subsidies/grants and many colleges provide (UCs and USC do). It sucks for the middle incomes that make too much, but not enough. Ideally tuition should be affordable for all qualified.
@DarkSkye CSU got substantial funding in the last 5 years and community college is free for two years. We aren’t going to get everything but people who are unfortunate and really, really underserved do have opportunities. Kids I know and mentor who are amazing would not be able to afford Berkeley if not for financial aid package offered by the UC he’s applied to. I am at least comforted by the fact that poor kids will have the oppty.
Now, for the mid class, it does kind of sucks. It absolutely sucks that costs continue to increase but I think the entire education cost structure needs reform. They won’t truly do anything as long as people continue to chase the colleges up the elite ladder.
Agreed. Its just at odds with the general mantra of a progressive state to continue with such high tuition while pushing the college dream on everyone.
I have been researching Cal Poly vs. UCs and here are a few things I found. Cal Poly pros include small class sizes, classes taught by professors (as opposed to grad students), and strong reputation in California. But there are some negatives as well: Registering for classes is hard, and if you aren’t able to register for classes required for your major you may not graduate in 4 years. That seems like a big one if graduating on time is important for you. Cal Poly is not an R-1 research university (meaning it doesn’t offer PhD degrees) and for that reason it doesn’t appear on many ranking web sites, or is ranked lower. Cal Poly is not as well known outside CA as UCs. The university is also smaller. The campus is not comparable to, for example, UC San Diego, and it has fewer services. For example, UCs offer health insurance to students (UC SHIP) but Cal Poly students are on their own.
I don’t think Cal Poly is for everyone. It needs to be a good fit. My son is only a freshman and my daughter just got accepted last week so we are relatively new in the game. We agonized over the differences between SLO and a UC. For my son, we went with SLO. It is a small school. His instructors know him and want to help students succeed. He’s in ME and he is doing milling, drafting, CAD/CAM and welding in year one. That’s exactly what he wanted to do. Hit the ground running. You can call and email real people and they will respond promptly. The department chair is totally on top of what students need what classes and my son has been able to register for what he needs. We’ve learned degree planner and have his entire 4 years planned out. It’s up to him to pass his classes and progress but we can see that it is possible to graduate on time. We have been nothing but impressed with SLO and we would be happy if my daughter decides to go there for Aero.
my friend who’s two years older than me (and currently a sophomore at UCLA) got into UChicago off the waitlist + USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley and got rejected by SLO
So, we’re still waiting on UC decisions and thus haven’t made a final decision. But SLO is currently in the top spot. We’ve visited 2-3 times pre-Covid, and one visit we were given a tour by students whose parents are close friends.
SLO has 20,000-21,000 students, all undergrads, which is about half as many students as Cal, UCLA, Davis, etc., when you include grad students. I/we actually prefer the “mid size” feeling. Big, but not too big. The campus is huge, in terms of size, one of the largest in CA, at 9,000+ acres. UC San Diego has about 2,000 acres. So, in terms of sheer acreage, UC San Diego isn’t close.
USNWR has ranked SLO the #1 West Regional university for something like the last 28 years in a row. Being a West Coaster all my life, there are lots of universities that I’ve not heard of in the Mid West and East Coast. But here in Silicon Valley, SLO is ranked #14 in terms of most alumni hired:
As for research, you’re correct, there’s probably not a lot of research positions available at SLO, but it’s an undergrad-focused institution, which gets you into your major right away and their philosophy is “learn by doing.” Hands on immediately. Also, when there’s a UC strike by GSI’s, SLO is obviously unaffected. SLO has smaller class sizes, nothing wrong with that either.
You don’t think there are registration hassles at UC’s? I’ve been on these forums for years, UC’s have the same problem. That’s one of the many reasons I/we sent my D18 to Michigan. She will graduate early with two minors and has not had any registration hassles.
As for health insurance, we have private health insurance, so that’s not an issue for our family.
@gumbymom I know this is off topic for slo but regarding ELC UC’s used to go by either ELC or statewide for top 9%. I know my son made top 9 thru the statewide path as he was able to take the SAT this fall. He sent his SAT scores to the UCs so they would be a aware of this, as he’s not sure if he made top 9 ELC. Do you know if UCs will consider statewide this year? He sent SAT scores recently as soon as he realized. Not sure if it was too late and shouid he notify admissions of each UC or let it go.
Where did you learn there was no health insurance? On my son’s financial award for SLO it looks like there is a health insurance grant in some amount. Is that not similiar to UCShIP which is something my other son receives at Santa Cruz?
So I have a 4th year at SLO and a potential incoming freshman … my son has never had issues getting a full schedule each quarter. He was waitlisted a few days but ended up getting into the classes before the first day of class. Remember most times parents are posting because there is an issue. There are thousand of other parents whose kids are not having any problems getting classes and they don’t take time to post about it. It’s a great school! And yes graduation rates for 4 years may be skewed by the 5 year programs.
