Chance Me at CSUs, UCs, etc. please

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everyone! I’m a rising senior in Colorado and I’d like it if someone could chance me. Here are my stats.

Personal stuff

  • 100% white male rip, idk what income scale but I know my family probably makes 140k per year so no FAFSA for me lol
  • competitive and well-known public high school, largest high school in the state

Senior year classes: CP SciFi, CP Narrative Art in Literature and Film (apparently this gives University of Colorado credit yay), Physics Honors, AP Enviro, AP Art History, Pre-Calc Honors, Spanish literature and film independent study, and a climbing course for PE credit

Other good classes: Bio H, Chem H, Spanish 3/4H, AP Spanish Lang (4), AP Spanish Lit, AP World History (4), Geometry H, English 10H, AP Human Geo, AP U.S. Gov, AP English Lang, Debate for two years, English 9H

GPA: 4.31 (W), 3.5-3.6 (UW) - I got Cs in Geometry H both semesters (10th grade) and a C in Chem H (1st semester of junior year), but 2nd semester of junior year I got all As and two Bs.

Test Scores:

  • 32 ACT, 33 superscored (34 English, 36 reading, 29 math, 31 science)
  • 1290 SAT with 620 math and 670 EBRW which is kinda blehhh compared to my ACT score but I’m retaking it in August with the hope of getting a 1400+

EC’s (no leadership positions oops)

  • Cross Country 9-11
  • Ecological Action Club (kinda 11) and definitely next year
  • Spanish Honor Society 10-12
  • Model UN 9-10
  • Speech and Debate 10-11
  • annual volunteering at the local public library for 10 hours per summer (won’t do it next summer because I’ll be over the age cutoff)
  • work experience
  • National Qualifier in the U.S. Geography Olympiad

College stuff - I’ll probably major in Environmental Science with maybe a minor in Geographic Information Systems or something like Natural Resources Conservation.

All of my California schools are here and I’m clearly OOS so please take that into account.
UCSD
UC Davis
CSUSM (safety)
SDSU (top)
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly SLO
Soka University maybe
Chapman University??
I’m mostly going for CSUs because there is no way that my parents will pay full tuition for the UCs (I don’t blame them).

CSU Eligibility Index:
I think it’s 4338 for the SAT and 1092 with my ACT score (I calculated my CSU GPA to be 3.81 but it was really confusing so I’ll probably redo it a few more times)

Let me know if I need to give any more info!

2

The CSUs are less expensive than the UCs, but still offer little or no financial to out-of-staters. You would likely pay ~$40,000 per year at a CSU, as opposed to ~$60,000 per year at a UC. This is still going to be a lot more than your costs to attend an in-state school like CU, Mines, or Colorado State, so the CSU option may not impress your parents either.

You might be able to bring the cost down at CSUSM or Cal Poly Pomona, if you can qualify for an ou-of-state discount through the WUE program. However, the more popular CSUs, including SDSU and Cal Poly SLO, don’t participate in WUE.

Soka is one of the wealthiest schools in the country, rivaling top Ivies on an endowment per student basis, and offers very generous financial aid. They don’t have traditional majors, but there is an environmental studies concentration that might work for you. Soka is predominantly female and Asian or Asian-American, so as a white male you might qualify as an underrepresented minority.

3

@Corbett Thanks for the reply! I’ve been dreaming of going to school in California since I was a freshman basically but I’d still be very happy with CU Boulder especially if I don’t get accepted to all of the California schools I’m looking at. I just really hope I can get a scholarship at SDSU or CSUSM since they’re less competitive than Cal Poly SLO. I have no idea what to think about Soka honestly, so I’m basically only applying there because my parents think it’s interesting. I think my best bet is qualifying for a WUE discount at CSUSM if they offer my major, but I hope I can possibly get some scholarship money at SDSU since my ACT score puts me in their Achievement Scholarship territory.

4

CSUSM does offer an Environmental Studies major, but it does not appear to qualify for the WUE discount. It isn’t included on the list of WUE-eligible majors at:

https://www.csusm.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/out-of-state/what-is-wue/index.html

5

CSU’s give little to no merit aid to any applicants including CA residents and no need based financial aid to OOS students. CA residents are eligible for need based aid in the form of Cal Grants at the CSU’s. SDSU is the 2nd hardest CSU to get admitted into while Cal Poly SLO is probably the hardest admission for the majority of their majors.

CSU’s also give priority to in-state local area applicants so you will be expected to pay full fees at around $36-40K/year to attend. The WUE discount will help reduce costs at the CSU’s that participate.

Run the Net Price calculators on all schools of interest. The Academic Achievement Scholarship requires a 4.0 GPA to qualify and highly competitive for SDSU.

You need to calculate your CSU/UC capped weighted GPA and OOS honors courses do not qualify for the extra honors points in the calculation.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

You are then ranked by EI and major and they accept from the top down until all spots are filled.

SLO is the exception which uses 9-11th grades in the same calculation with a cap of 8 semesters of extra honors points. They have a more complicated MCA score which does take into account your EC hours, work hours and if work is major related.

Regarding the UC’s, with the average UC capped weighted GPA of 4.0 at 6 of the 9 campuses, your chances are as follows just based on admit rates and not major specific:

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%

6

Thank you for all of the information, especially the Rogerhub link and the UC stats. I’m happy with going to a CSU because CSUs are most likely where I will get accepted, since I’m somewhat squeaking by with the UCs. Even if I don’t get merit scholarships at the CSUs, as long as I get accepted, I’m able to afford them since they’re not much more expensive than CU Boulder (my top in-state choice). I’ll definitely save the information that you provided because I know it will help me tremendously!

7

Keep in mind that most CSUs are much less selective and prestigious than CU-Boulder. CSUSM, for example, has an ACT range of 18-23. This is well below the level at CU (25-30); it’s more comparable to a school like Colorado Mesa (18-24). Yet for you, CSUSM would cost more than CU (and much more than Colorado Mesa).

For many people (possibly including your parents), the prospect of paying more money for a less prestigious school may not seem like a great deal. This is why most CSUs aren’t very attractive to out-of-staters. CSUSM undergrads, for example, are 96% Californian.

SDSU (23-28) and especially Cal Poly SLO (26-31) are the probably the two most selective schools in the CSU system, so they might be more attractive as CU alternatives.

8

http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all

I think OOS tuition at all the CA schools is simply not worth it. The WUE program makes some more reasonable but, note it doesnt always apply to all majors. Still, Take a good look at the WUE school list. IMHO, the academically best in CA are UCM, Chico, CP Pomona and Northridge. Others outside CA, UNR, Boise State, Wash State, Portland State, Or Inst of Tech and U of Utah are all very solid.

With your stats, I’d suggest you also apply to more CA privates, U of San Diego, Loyola Marymount, will probably offer some merit aid.

I’d take a hard look at CO colleges, they make in-state a pretty compelling value and offer lots of variety - from tiny lib arts in Durango, to Tech focused in Golden, to BIG school in college town of Ft. Collins and more. You must be able to find one that works for you. California will be here when you graduate.