Cal State schools purely numbers driven?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I'm helping a young friend with college apps. </p>

<p>Am I missing something or are the Cal State schools totally void of any information other than grades, coursework and test scores? </p>

<p>Is there no place to talk about ECs?</p>

2

<p>Zip codes! Be sure to account for service areas, especially with regard to impacted campuses and majors. Make sure they know about CSU Mentor.</p>

<p>Cal Poly SLO, and Pomona allow a teeny bit of room to list a few EC’s, at least for engineering applicants, high school class of 2011.</p>

<p>Campuses That Have Higher Standards
<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU…_standards.asp%5B/url%5D”>Cal State Apply | CSU…_standards.asp</a></p>

<p>Major vs campus impaction
<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/SAS/impactioninfo.shtml[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/SAS/impactioninfo.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Impacted Programs Matrix
<a href=“https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documen...ramsmatrix.pdf[/url]”>https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documen...ramsmatrix.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>service areas
<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publicat...rviceAreas.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publicat...rviceAreas.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>I’m not seeing anything other than “just the facts” for her three schools, CSULB, CSUFullerton, Sac State, and SJSU. Definitely no place to add anything other than courses and gpa. Just wondered if I’m missing something.</p>

4

<p>I think not.</p>

5

<p>They are completely number driven. The only other factor of admissions, at least from what I have been told in school, is where you live. If you live in Orange County, you are more likely to get into Fullerton than Long Beach and vise versa.</p>

6

<p>Except for SLO, which uses a “Multi Criteria Admissions” process (that does not appear to be documented publicly beyond a general description of what criteria are included), the CSUs basically do this:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Check a-g course requirements as described here: [CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - High School Subject Requirements](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Freshman: Admission Requirements | CSU)</p></li>
<li><p>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></li>
<li><p>Calculate eligibility index as described here: [CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - Calculate Your Eligibility Index](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)</p></li>
<li><p>For non-impacted majors at non-impacted campuses, eligibility index of 2900 using SAT or 694 using ACT admits a California resident. A non-resident needs at least a 3502 using SAT or 842 using ACT.</p></li>
<li><p>For impacted majors or campuses, rank order the applicants by eligbility index and admit starting at the highest until the number to admit is reached (however, non-residents need to meet the non-resident threshold listed above). San Jose State reported fall 2012 thresholds here, although other campuses do not report this type of information: [SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/static/admission/impacted-degrees.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/static/admission/impacted-degrees.html)</p></li>
<li><p>Local area preferences may be applied as described here: <a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
The degree of local area preference varies by campus.</p></li>
</ol>

7

<p>ucb,</p>

<p>I’m still confused-sorry! :-(</p>

<p>Student has about a 3.87 gpa, probably a 3.9 (her counselor should tell her tomorrow) and a combined CR and M of 1130. She’s from the San Diego area.</p>

<p>I know schools don’t take race into admissions, but she is Hispanic and she lives in an area that is not known for high SAT scores. In fact, her local high school average for three sections on the SAT is around 1275-1300 and her score was 1730. However, she attends a different high school due to the fact that they lost their home in a fire 2 1/2 years ago, and were living with a friend or relative for a while. The school she attends has a stronger reputation than our local high school and kids do take AP classes. She’s taken two AP classes and the rest are standard college prep courses. </p>

<p>Her area of interest is Photography/Digital Communications.</p>

<p>What can I and she understand about admissions possibilities to her Cal State schools? Based on the link you sent, it seems all her schools will give extra eligibility points to locals; thus, she’s at a disadvantage, particularly at Fullerton and Long Beach, unless she applies to SDSU. Is this correct thinking?</p>

8

<p>Is the 3.87 GPA as calculated using the method in [CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - GPA Calculator](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU) ?</p>

<p>If it is, then her eligibility index using SAT would be 3.87 * 800 + 1130 = 4226, using the method in [CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - Calculate Your Eligibility Index](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU) .</p>

<p>This is actually fairly high for CSU applicants except perhaps at the most selective CSUs like CPSLO and perhaps SDSU. A freshman applicant with eligibility index of 4226 would have been admitted to SJSU for fall 2012 in any major except for math or occupational therapy, according to [SJSU</a> Admission<a href=“although%20one%20particular%20concentration%20of%20art,%20animation%20studies,%20had%20a%20threshold%20of%204200”>/url</a>. Of course, the thresholds will likely be different next year, depending on how many applicants for each campus and major there are.</p>

<p>Please see the CSU campus and major impaction information here:
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impactioninfo.shtml]Impaction”&gt;http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impactioninfo.shtml]Impaction</a> | Student Academic Support | CSU](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-948.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-948.html)
Note that art is impacted at all of her target campuses, and communication is impacted at all but Sacramento.</p>

<p>Yes, SDSU would give some preference to her, though it is one of the more impacted (selective) CSUs to begin with. If she lives in northern San Diego county, she may also be “local” for CSU San Marcos, which is less impacted than SDSU.</p>

<p>If she needs an ironclad admissions safety, she can apply to a non-impacted campus where her major is not impacted, in which case an eligibility index of 2900 should give admission (assuming all other needed things like a-g courses are in order). However, it would be surprising if she did not get into at least Sacramento or San Marcos, with San Jose being rather likely also.</p>

9

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<p>Boy, I’ll say. There are two Cal States in the San Diego area - SD State and Cal State, San Marcos. And kids who live in north county have almost no chance for the highly-impacted San Diego state. If you live north of the 57 freeway you might as well live in San Francisco. Unless you are a compelling academic high flyer or a recruited athlete, you are going to get redirected to San Marcos.</p>

10

<p>Her zip code puts her very near SDSU. Should she add this to her list? She really wanted to move out of San Diego, but they do have sort of what she’s interested in studying.</p>

<p>It’s been really challenging to nail down schools because, while her interest is photography, we’ve looked at a number of majors:</p>

<p>art-photography (not really what she wants)
digital communications
media arts
graphic design
design/visual communication
advertising</p>

<p>I can assume these are all impacted majors at most schools but still, trying to look at every school with each major is just too time consuming.</p>

<p>She loves the program Syracuse (NY) has to offer, multimedia photography and design, but was hoping for a school like that here in Ca. She will apply there, though. </p>

<p>She also has a couple of high reach schools, UCLA and USC, on her list. </p>

<p>She has some safeties that are part of the Western Tuition Exchange, Univ. of Utah and Univ. of Colo. at Denver, in addition to Sac. State and SJSU.</p>

<p>ucb, yes, I think that gpa would be for the a-g courses. She’s only had three B’s in high school. Still, is it really just a crapshoot once eligibility is established?</p>

<p>I’m encouraging her to take the SAT II Spanish and possibly the literature.</p>

<p>The family lost their home in a fire and were displaced for two years, so this college app. wasn’t really a thought until this summer when they were beginning to settle back in; consequently, she never thought about taking subject tests. For the Cal State schools, though, does it really matter?</p>

11

<p>Impacted Cal States give large preference to local residents. (But one has to do some digging to find out what is considered San Diego State’s “local” catchment area.)</p>

<p>According to those in Fullerton who have spoken to the local press, it also helps to apply earlier in the month at least to that campus. (Not rolling admissions, but when the Class is full…)</p>

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<p>Perhaps a good essay topic for the UCs, who just love applicants who have overcome adversity in life.</p>

12

<p>It certainly looks like this student would have no problem being admitted at any of the desired CSUs</p>

<p>SDSU is selective, but that GPA is high enough, I think. (My S was accepted there in 2011 for engineering with a lesser GPA but higher SAT. We are also out of SDSU local area. )</p>

<p>Overall, CSUs are really numbers driven. If you really want the scoop for each of these schools, check out their Common Data Set.)</p>

13

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<p>It is only a crapshoot to the extent that the thresholds for any given impacted campus or major are not known beforehand, although one can get some idea. Note that selected major can make a large difference in admission selectivity.</p>

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<p>Neither SAT subject tests nor essay matters for admissions at CSUs, which are purely GPA, test scores, major, and local area driven as described in #6, except for SLO. Even SLO’s Multi-Criteria Admissions process does not list them: [Freshman</a> Selection Criteria - Admissions - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo](<a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions)</p>

14

<p>Very good info. Thank-you, all. I have encouraged her to apply to SDSU and to get the app into Fullerton by this weekend.</p>

<p>Oh wait! I see a glitch! I just realized that her school is north of the 56 but her home is south of the 56, very close to SDSU. When her family was displaced, they stayed with friends and relatives (bumped around to 4 different locations) and thus, she ended up at that high school.</p>

<p>Which zip code will they use for determining eligibility? The school or the home? Ugh. So maybe she won’t apply to SDSU if the zip code that counts is the school and not the home. Bummer!</p>

15

<p>To figure out which CSUs’ local service areas she is in, use this chart:
<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note that it appears to be based on which high school that one graduates from, not ZIP code or residence location (except for those which list “State of California” as the local service area).</p>

16

<p>I did see that, ucb. Thanks again. I guess she can just take her chances.</p>

17

<p>We’re looking at Cal States too. DS has an index number of 4100 and really wants to go to Long Beach for film (screenwriting). Our local is Northridge so there should be no problem there although he would like to get farther away.</p>

18

<p>The way it was explained to me a few years ago at a Cal Poly SLO information session was that the Cal States/Polys are objective, going strictly on numbers, whereas the UC’s are more subjective (taking into account special circumstances, etc…). Since admissions are so tough every where she would be safe to apply to SDSU as a safety, and then whatever other ones she wants.</p>

19

<p>Q:art-photography (not really what she wants)
digital communications
media arts
graphic design
design/visual communication
advertising</p>

<p>I can assume these are all impacted majors at most schools but still, trying to look at every school with each major is just too time consuming.</p>

<p>A: No need to assume. See the list of majors by CSU campus along with which majors are impacted.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

20

<p>Is she also applying to the UC’s? Her GPA is strong.</p>