<p>I was wondering which university, CSU or UC would be my best match. </p>
<p>I am an incoming senior at a rigorous high school in California. I have wanted to be a civil engineer since 6th grade. I am a white male, veghead (vegetarian), and have low income ~45K (family of 6).</p>
<p>I have 3.41 non-weighted, 3.63 weighted CSU and 3.83 weighted Gpas.</p>
<p>Sat- 790 math ( I LOVE math, 510 reading, 580 writing (have beeen studying all summer and expect to raise CR to 600-650 and writing to 650-680)</p>
<p>5 Ap Classes and 6 next year. passed 1, I was sick both weeks of testing so scores are not so great for junior year
World history: 3
Calculus AB 1
Physics B 3
Language and Comp. 2
US History 2</p>
<p>senior:
Calculus BC
Physics C
American govt.
economics
Literature
Latin V</p>
<p>Sports/Clubs:
soccer (9-11)/12
track (10,11)
Cross Country (11)
MASC (11)/12
Star Wars Club (9)
rubiks cube club (10) [treasurer]
cultural connections (10,11)
science Bowl (11)/12 [team captain]</p>
<p>extra curricular:
bird rescue~300+ hours (yes, 3 hundred, my mom makes me)
Horse rescue~20+ hours
Fawn rescue~17+ hours</p>
<p>a list of 5 schools would be nice. most compatable and must have civil engineering</p>
<p>The complete list of California public universities with civil engineering is:</p>
<p>CSUs: SLO+<em>, Pomona+</em>, Chico+, Fresno+, Fullerton+<em>, Long Beach+</em>, Los Angeles+, Northridge+, Sacramento+, San Diego+<em>, San Francisco+, San Jose+</em></p>
<p>In the CSU list above, + means campus impaction (minimum threshold is greater than the CSU minimum eligibility of 2900), and * means major impaction for engineering majors (minimum threshold may be higher for the specific major). UCs tend to consider essay and other factors, so assessing admission chances is more difficult.</p>
<p>Try running the net price calculators on the various CSUs and UCs to see financial aid estimates.</p>
<p>Here are the UC frosh class profiles, but be aware that selectivity may be different for engineering compared to the campus as a whole:
[University</a> of California - Freshman class profiles](<a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors)</p>
<p>I would respectfully differ with Mom2 in her post above regarding the UC’s giving the best aid. There is little or no merit aid, except Regents for the very highest-ranking students and those tend not to be particularly generous.</p>
<p>Your aid for both schools will be made up of federal EFC-generated Stafford (un & sub) loans, as well as work study and need-based Cal Grants. Since you’re low income, you should qualify for the maximum amounts.</p>
<p>Because the COA to attend a CSU is generally 10K lower than a UC, you would be much better off financially with a CSU.</p>
<p>Furthermore,since you’re looking at a civil engineering major that tends to be a more practical than theoretical degree, you would probably prefer to be at a CSU, given that practical education is the reason they exist.</p>
<p>The schools mentioned in post #3 will give you a wide range of options. As far as reputation goes, the two Cal Poly’s - SLO & Pomona - rank the highest. </p>
<p>[CSUMentor</a> - Financial Aid - PAIS](<a href=“http://www.csumentor.edu/finaid/pais/]CSUMentor”>Cal State Apply | CSU) gives a Cal Poly Pomona net price of $9,301 for the same parameters. That is a $999 difference, which may be significant, but an order of magnitude less than the approximately $10,000 difference in list price.</p>
<p>The OP should run the net price calculators to get financial aid estimates rather than making assumptions based on comments in this thread.</p>
<p>thank you all for posting. I was thinking cal poly slo, but I was not sure if i could get in to it with my grades. do you think I am a match or reach for cal poly slo</p>
<p>Looks like your gpa is pretty far below the average, so reach. Consider that the engineering gpa may be somewhat higher. Not sure though, because Eng is 30% of the enrollment.</p>
<p>Please don’t rule out private colleges. The financial aid can be very generous. We paid less for private college in CA for both of our sons than we would have for the state schools that accepted them.</p>
<p>You may want to look at Fresno and Northridge as matches, and SLO and Pomona as reaches. Northridge and Fresno are respected schools. CSULA is less respected.</p>
<p>thanks you! also what private colleges with civil engineering would be good. My friend is going to embry riddle and another one will be going to florida tech. are they also good schools?</p>
<p>As with public schools, you can get financial aid estimates for private schools by searching for the net price calculator on the school’s web site and using it.</p>
<p>There may also be a few large merit scholarships to shoot for with a higher SAT or ACT score:</p>
<p>Florida Tech is not an exceedingly prestigious school, but it’s aerospace engineering programs are very good and the close proximity to NASA means potential internships. Melbourne, Fl is a nice beachy town but it can get full of tourists/retired folks. It is quite nice there and the surfing is pretty good (for Florida standards, for a California native the surfing probably sucks… lol) But overall I’d say it’s a very nice place to be :)</p>
<p>As far as money, my friend Matt got a 28 ACT and was valadictorian but only got like 50% of his tuition funded by the school. However, I think you should apply to the schools you want to go to and compare the financial aid packages after you get in and get scholarship offers. Florida Tech is private so it is pretty expensive but you can’t always predict how much money they are going to offer you (unless we are talking about automatic scholarships) </p>
<p>Take a look at the threads tha ucbalamus posted, they’re very helpful.</p>