<p>"^I agree completely. As a student who grew up in California, I know firsthand how the system works and let me tell you, it's incredibly hard to get into the UC/CSU of your choice. Why?</p>
<p>They don't just look at GPA/Class Rank/SAT/ACT scores anymore. They want you to have all of those stats in decent standing, PLUS good EC's, PLUS good community service, PLUS a stellar essay/interview, etc."</p>
<p>Not really. CSUs are super easy. A 3.2 will get u into almost all of them but SDSU and Cal Poly SLO.</p>
<p>SLO is the most competetive CSU, and very very good if you are planning on being an engineering major, or architecture. They don't really care too much about ECs though.</p>
<p>SDSU is easier to get into than SLO.</p>
<p>As for UCs, some are difficult to get into by average student standards. Get a 3.5 with some honors and APs, and decent test scores, and u should get into some UCs and maybe Davis, but for the top 3 UCs, yes they are very competetive. Especially UCLA and Berkeley. They are more into ECs than UCSD though, and ur personal statement, recs, and upward trends hold more weight with UCLA and Cal.</p>
<p>And as Sarah Litke goes, i would have to say the UMD college park is better than UCR, and i would say about equal to UCSC. So basically u r going to a school that is worse than UCLA,Cal,UCSD,UCSB,UCI,and UCD in just about every aspect imaginable.</p>