<p>I keep hearing how hard it is to get into CSULB with the high number of applicants. The average SAT scores however, are something like 960/ 1600. That's waaay lower than the national average. What gives? Anyone know? What's the caliber of the freshmen class this year?</p>
<p>California</a> State University Long Beach - DAF - IMA</p>
<p>I have heard the same thing and the main reason is mainly because it’s popular. Therefore, all majors are impacted which means they have more applicants than the amount of spaces they have to admit students. I have heard that applicants who do not have a 3.70+ GPA do not have a chance as a freshmen or transfer student. This applies to those who are outside of their service area. But, I have been told that even those who live in the service area of CSU LB they must have at least a 3.5 GPA.</p>
<p>But the average SAT score is so low? What gives?</p>
<p>Calif publics use GPA primarily for admittance, so that’s a reason. Plus, local students are given a priority.</p>
<p>The area is densely populated, so it gets a ton of applicants from a certain group of students. Those with higher test scores may be more focused on UCs.</p>
<p>Actually CSUs weigh both GPA and SATs equally. As an impacted campus, most CSUs make little distinction between local or non-local students so I would attribute CSULBs low SAT scores to the quality of it’s applicants which are primarily from the immediate Long Beach area. Someone with higher qualifications would either go to their local UC or either one of the Cal Polys. I suspect most of the 50k applicants to CSULB that I keep hearing about are probably from the lower tier. Just my suspicion.</p>
<p>CSUs calculate GPA as described here:
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - GPA Calculator](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)</p>
<p>They then calculate eligibility index as described here (other than SLO, which has its own method using more criteria):
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - Calculate Your Eligibility Index](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)</p>
<p>Then, if the campus or major is impacted, freshman applicants are admitted starting at the highest eligibility index until the target number of admits is reached. Threshold eligibility indices vary by major applied for, so a higher-stats applicant applying to a major more popular than it has space for may get rejected while a lower-stats applicant merely meeting the CSU minimum may get admitted to an unpopular major with excess capacity.</p>
<p>Local applicants may receive preferential admissions. Some campuses admit any local applicant who meets the CSU minimum eligibility index, while others merely give additional points for being local.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I got a 950/1600 with a 3.0 GPA. I know they’re both low, but my SAT is close to the 960 average last year so I am assuming I still have a chance. I am just trying to assess what I am hearing about how difficult it is to get into CSU Long Beach and the actual statistics from CSULBs number crunchers. There seems to be some discrepancy, but your input is helping. Maybe I’ll write to them after the holidays. I have Cal Poly SLO and Pomona and SDSU as long shots.</p>
<p>All CSULB majors are impacted. See here for more information:
[Freshman</a> Application and Admission](<a href=“http://www.csulb.edu/depts/enrollment/admissions/freshmen.html]Freshman”>First-Time, First-Year Student Admission Eligibility | California State University Long Beach)</p>
<p>CSULB gives preference to local service area applicants, many of whom come from lower achieving school districts such as Long Beach and Compton Unified. This might explain the low SAT scores.</p>
<p>[Local</a> Area Preference](<a href=“http://www.csulb.edu/depts/enrollment/admissions/local.html]Local”>Local Preference Admission Consideration | California State University Long Beach)</p>
<p>I would say Long Beach is impacted but not necessarily hard to get in to. As the statistics show, having a lot of applicants does not instantly make it a Berkeley or UCLA, though many would like to make that comparison. In this particular case, it just means CSULB has a large service area, most of which is composed of lower than average students and it doesn’t attract enough higher achieving students throughout the state to make up for it. The only way a CSU can achieve the later is to have unique majors such as the Cal Polys which are one of the few to offer programs in architecture,and specialty engineering/ sciences/ agriculture programs. If I was living in the bay area, there would not be much of a reason to go down to LB when I’ve got SJSU and SFSU offering pretty much the same programs. If I had the grades, I would probably choose UCI or UCSD if I was going down to SoCal. Besides, not much of a “beach” down in Long Beach. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad school, just not a “first choice” school.</p>