California College suggestions

College Search & Selection
,
1

I am looking for college suggestions for my rising senior son. He’s one of those mathy kids who found the AP calc BC exam easy (he didn’t get that from me!) but also performs very well in the social sciences. He’s planning on engineering but I suspect that’s because everyone says a kid like him should; with exposure, I wonder if he’ll fall in love with computer science, physics, math, or something else entirely. We’re in southern California and he prefers to stay in-state (and frankly, he has health issues and I would prefer that as well).

We are going on a college road trip soon and plan to look at the following schools: UCSB, Cal Poly SLO, UCSC, Stanford, UCB, and UC Davis. We already toured UCLA and Harvey Mudd and he liked both. We plan to make a separate trip to see UCSD. I know we need to add some targets but that feels like a challenging task for an engineering major in California.

He says he doesn’t care about big vs small and I genuinely think he could thrive in either environment. He doesn’t care about athletics or rah-rah stuff at all.

US citizen, male, California resident, large diverse public high school.

*We don’t know his exact rank but do know he’s in the top 2-3% (at least). We didn’t know to play the AP game and there are a handful of his classmates who have taken 2-5 more APs than him.

GPA
UW GPA: 4.0
UC weighted capped: 4.27
UC weighted uncapped: 4.6

TESTING
ACT: 34 (35s in math and science). First attempt and he’s not interested in retesting :woman_shrugging:
PSAT: 211 (he should receive commended status, I think)

COURSE WORK
10th: H English, H chem, H math analysis, foreign language II, electronics, AP world history (5), DE Stats
11th: AP Lang (5), APUSH (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP Physics C (4), foreign language III, engineering, DE micro economics (summer)
12th (proposed): AP Lit, AP US gov/AP comparative gov, AP chemistry, AP computer science A, AP foreign language, MVC at nearby rigorous university. *he may drop AP foreign language if the schedule won’t work (the school is planning to outsource this class to an online school and he’s nervous about how that might work)

ECs/AWARDS
very average. Multiple clubs/academic teams. County-level awards. COVID and the long shut-downs in California made many of the activities he does challenging for 1.5 years and a number of academic teams at his school fizzled/disappeared. ECs don’t really align with engineering (he looks like a well-rounded not spiky kid on paper).

I would appreciate any suggestions especially if there are schools we should check out on our road trip. We are committed to helping him and his younger sibling (who will start college the year after him) as much as possible with college expenses. I think we can make the UCs and schools in that price point work. Stanford and the like are cheaper for us than the UCs but I fully appreciate that would be equivalent of willing the lottery.

2

I think you need to first identify a very Likely/Safety school which none of the schools you have listed will be fit the definition especially if he is leaning towards Engineering which is highly competitive. What is your local CSU or is he ELC eligible which would mean UC Merced as a default UC school?

I would look at San Diego State, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach as Likely schools that he might want to consider depending upon his Engineering major preference.

If you want some private schools to consider but not in the Safety/Very Likely category I would suggest Santa Clara, USC and University of San Diego.

3

UC apps aren’t due until the end of November and it’s similar for CSU. Why not do the roadtrip in late Sept or early Oct when school is back in session and the students are on-campus? Seeing the grounds is worthwhile and it’s entirely possible from the campus & nearby community alone a student could think “I can’t see myself going here” or “this feels right”, but it’s the students that really give a college its vibrancy. You read thru the threads here and you read about kids who realize “these are my people” which is something you won’t discover during the summer.

4

He is ELC eligible. I think our local CSUs are CPP and (or?) CSU San Bernardino. Would CPP or UC Riverside be considered likely based on his stats?

He hasn’t really delved into the engineering specialties (or if he has, he hasn’t shared with me). If anyone has a resource that explains and explores the different fields of engineering for a potential engineering student, that would be great. I sometimes wonder how colleges expect 16-18 year olds to understand the differences between specialties enough to be locked in at time of application.

5

Here is the CSU local admission areas: https://www.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/documents/csulocaladmission-serviceareas.pdf

IF local to CPP, definitely a Very Likely school. Just make sure he is willing to attend any of the possible Safety schools.

UCR is also a Likely School with his academic achievements.

Here is the UC admit rates based on the Capped weighted UC GPA but not major specific. Engineering would have lower admit rates than the overall listed.

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 30% 11% 2% 1%
Davis 85% 55% 23% 10%
Irvine 60% 31% 14% 1%
Los Angeles 29% 6% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 98% 96% 89%
Riverside 97% 92% 62% 23%
San Diego 72% 25% 2% 0%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%
6

“UC apps aren’t due until the end of November and it’s similar for CSU. Why not do the roadtrip in late Sept or early Oct when school is back in session and the students are on-campus?”

My kids are planning to take 5-6 APs each this school year and are involved in multiple time-consuming extra curriculars. Outside of Thanksgiving, winter, and spring breaks, we don’t have an open week to travel up the coast to tour colleges (and they would laugh if I suggested we miss school to do so). I know it’s ideal to tour while school is in session -and we were able to do that with UCLA and Harvey Mudd since they’re within 1 hour of us-but I just don’t see a way to do that under the circumstances with these other schools.

7

If you want a cheap and great school look at u of Az. With a 4.0 you’ll be under $20k all in.

But you have others such as School of Mines (Denver area) Oregon State, Reno, and UW reach) that could work and put you in the vicinity geographically.

Good luck.

8

UCR and UCSC are likely to very likely depending on the engineering major. If you are planning to apply undeclared into the engineering school, then i am not sure.

Santa Clara can be a target as well. CPP would be a safety if you are local.

9

@2kids2cats2crazy:

UCSC does not allow an applicant to apply as Undeclared to the College of Engineering. UCR admits by major into their College of Engineering also no Undeclared or General Engineering.

For UCSC

Important Note for Prospective Engineering Students: Choice of major does not influence the selection of first-year students, except for those applicants interested in a major offered by the Jack Baskin School of Engineering (BSOE). Freshmen who are interested in a BSOE program should be sure to indicate a BSOE proposed major. Students who do not indicate a BSOE program or who apply as undeclared might not be able to pursue a BSOE program.

10

I would run the at U. of the Pacific and U. of San Diego as they have ABET-accredited engineering programs, but I don’t think you’re locked in to a major (or have to apply to a specific major) like you are at many of the California publics. If it asks for academic information as well as financial, the estimate is likely to include merit aid as well. You may want to do the same at California Baptist (also ABET-accredited engineering programs).

I defer to others on the California publics, but in addition to Cal Poly Pomona & San Diego State, I would consider non-impacted Cal States, like Chico or San Francisco as possibilities, as both are also ABET-accredited, and it might provide greater ease for changing majors should your son decide to switch fields.

11

Here are some UC admission rates for the frosh entering fall 2021. However, engineering divisions or majors are usually more selective.

Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2021 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 30% 11% 2% 1%
Davis 85% 55% 23% 10%
Irvine 60% 31% 14% 1%
Los Angeles 29% 6% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 98% 96% 89%
Riverside 97% 92% 62% 23%
San Diego 75% 35% 5% 1%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).

For CPP, you can look up the recent threshold scores (which can change every year, since they are determined competitively) at Freshman Student Profile to make a guess about the likely difficult of admission to each major. Subtract 450 from the threshold score and then divide by 1000 to get the GPA (weighted capped) equivalent. CPP also has bonus points as listed in the MFA tab, but does not say how many bonus points each attribute gives. Local Area lists the local area for CPP.

12

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.