<p>Hi! I'm a high school junior in Florida. I'm going to major in Psychology--I'm thinking clinical, but I'm not positive--and have some sort of involvement in the Dramatic Arts. But, One only biggest desires for a university is its location in California, most preferably Los Angeles. </p>
<p>I can't spend an insane amount of money, though. So what colleges could be food for me? And what scholarships should I look into and how? </p>
<p>I was looking into CSULA, but the psychology department seemed weird. Not to mention, the average highest SAT scor was about a 1450; I scored a 1700 on my SAT. Is that not really anything to worry about? Any help or words would be nice. Thank you. :)</p>
<p>I'm going to California in late October to tour schools, Any suggestion?</p>
<p>What is your CR and Math SAT scores? Those are the ones that count.</p>
<p>There are tons of schools in the LA area. If I were you, I would use the college search function here on College Confidential and look for schools in the LA area.</p>
<p>I think you need to reconsider your options in California. You say you can’t spend an “insane amount of money”. Our costs of living here are insane, especially in Southern California! Our houses are tiny, our freeways are packed! People who come from other states are amazed at how much our housing costs don’t get us! It is really not all blondes who surf and live in immaculate mansions. That’s TV fiction.</p>
<p>Full fee for OOS is about $32K living on campus. Do you know where CALState LA is? It is definitely not on the beach!!! Crosses the 10, 710 and 5 is visually near. The area is very smoggy but they’re working on it. We always see it from I-5 on the way to Northern California.</p>
<p>The state is “broke” so any students from OOS will be looking at paying full fees for tuition. Your 1700 on your SAT won’t garner any merit aid. Although the average SAT score may be at 1400, you have to take into consideration that there are a number of second language immigrants. Recent Latin American, Russian and Somali immigrants who are still working on their English skills and who settle in California attend local universities in SoCal.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that for OOS students attending California public universities you are paying elite private school tuition to attend impacted public universities. Probably only attending UC Berkeley would be worth it but your 1700 SAT scores(CR+M+W) are at least 200 points below what you would need to get into UC Berkeley. Also, CSUs only count and report SAT scores for CR+M) only and do not count the Writing section so you have to calculate what your SAT scores would be if they included only the CR and Math and compare them to reported scores for CSUs. The UCs do count all three components.</p>
<p>If money is any concern, at all, apply to your local state schools, like UF or FSU. These are top-notch institutions, and you would be paying far less than you would by going to any California school.</p>
<p>Besides, FSU has a much better football team than CSULA. :)</p>
<p>If you’re willing to spend a lot of money on college in California, aim higher than CSULA. It’s not a bad school but not on the level of Cal poly SLO or Pomona. There are better and cheaper schools than CSULA in Florida.</p>
<p>Can anyone tell me if two Ds on his high school transcript (geometry and AP English) will mean my son won’t get into a Cal State? His SATs are a 1720 and he will retake those two classes next semester before he graduates</p>
<p>Also, to the OP. Maybe you might want to apply to some UC schools instead of Cal State schools. Try to get into one of the easier UC’s, like Santa Barbara.</p>