They are need aware - meaning your wealth helps. They like rich kids.
Of 1370 in the last class only 318 got need aid.
Pet Peeve regarding your misconceptions of the Cal States especially when several of the CSUâs are ranked higher than some of the UCâs such as Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach. Academics at these CSUâs are top notch and SLO and SDSU have admit rates lower or comparable to some of the UCâs. Remember that one students ânot up to standard schoolâ is anotherâs dream school.
You are a wonderful applicant but keep an open mind. Yes, the CSUâs will also not consider your SAT score and National Merit status, so probably not worth your time based on your statement but you still need a guaranteed/very likely admission which is usually your local Cal State. What is your backup plan if not admitted to any schools on your list?
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Where is this family standard coming from? How much do you, or your family, know about the different CSUs and what they have to offer?
Also, why not look for undergrad business programs, rather than History?
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There was a student a few months ago rejected at SDSU, accepted at Berkeley.
Your have a really great record, and some nice activities and accomplishments, but you need to recalibrate your list and find more actual safeties and some true matches, as most of your safeties arenât safeties and your matches are all reaches.
From your list of safeties, the only one that I think actually might be a safety is UW. Santa Clara might be a low match but not a safety. Villanova is not a safety (probably a match to low reach) and William & Mary is a reach. Iâm guessing the UC Davis is a match, since it doesnât consider test scores. Iâm also not even 100% sure that UW is a safety, but itâs probably a reasonable bet. Iâd start here and try to find some true safeties that you really like.
Your matches are all reaches as I mentioned before. Applying ED would help at a few of them - Wake, BC, Vassar, or Bates. But, you would only want to do that if they are a top choice. If you apply to any of those four in regular decision they are reaches - Wake and Vassar had the highest acceptance rate at around 20% and the other two had acceptance rates in the low-mid teens. That makes them reaches for anyone. Being male could help you at Vassar since it has a higher acceptance rate for male applicants.
Your reaches are all pretty high reaches.
In short, with this list, you run the risk of not getting in anywhere, or possibly just getting into UW. But again, I donât think even UW is a true safety. Really take the time this summer to find some actual safeties and targets that you would be happy to attend. Then consider which of the many reach schools that you have on your list you actually want to apply to. Between your current matches (which are all reaches) and your reaches, there are more than 20 schools. You wonât be able to reasonably do a good job on the many many many essays youâd have to write to apply to that many reaches, so youâll need to cull that list down.
Iâd also echo otherâs comments that your list is wildly varying in terms of size, location (urban versus rural), Greek life, sports culture, curriculum (some have a rigid core curriculum (ie, BC), others have an open curriculum (ie, Amherst). You should really think hard about what you are actually looking for and that should, in turn, help you to identify some good safeties and matches as well as to narrow down your reach list to schools that actually match your preferences.
Good luck! If you take some time to really hone in on what you want and recalibrate your list to have true safeties and matches, you should have some good results next spring.
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How strong is your actual interest in the study of history? Do you look forward to exploring this field for four years as an undergraduate (including, potentially, through study abroad), or do you regard history as more of a âfiller majorâ as you anticipate obtaining an MBA in the future? Along these lines, if pursuing top undergraduate academics in history genuinely represents your current ambition, then I believe a greater number of LACs should be of interest to you.
This is a pretty lousy attitude, Iâll be honest with you. Maturity means being able to look below the surface and perceive reality with greater nuance and depth and less superficiality. Put in college terms, it means that a college is more than how it is ranked according to some magazine. There are some excellent CSUs which, in some cases, will give a student a better experience than the UCs, especially students who want to do hands on practical learning more than theory (and that is simply a preference, not a judgment of superiority).
So maybe look a little deeper than a number and see what schools actually offer - not how many people they exclude or how a news magazine thinks they compare to other colleges based on criteria that may or may not be the same criteria you should be using for evaluating colleges.
Good luck to you.
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Currently, doing research with my kid, since he is applying for college this coming year.
Thank you for helping to increase my kidâs chance of getting into Cal Poly SLO, MIT, CMU, Harvard, and Cal with your amazing inability to do proper basic university research, and most of all, your winning personality.
BTW, I am a Cal Poly SLO engineering graduate and went on to get my MBA from Harvard Business School and a fellowship at Stanford for AI. I am also a senior executive at a Fortune 50 corporation.
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And the irony that the very statement where OP derides CSUs as being beneath him is riddled with grammatical errorsâŠ
I believe the Greeks warned us about hubrisâŠ
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Simply put, we have different opinions on such topics. I will rather go to community college than go to csu. Also my parents would not immigrate here just to let me attend state school. Simply impossible. If I go to cal state, I will go to community college instead ans transfer after two years.
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I think you need to open your mind to different colleges. There are a lot of wonderful colleges out there that would welcome you as a studentâŠthat might not be in the elite group or have well known namesâŠbut might have terrific academics even so.
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I will rather go to community college and transfer to a UC instead of going to cal state.
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My ECs are geared towards history, so it will be very hard to apply business. I also want a history foundation before applying business, but I am going to double-major in both history and business in college.
I plan to apply as history since I love history! I also do plan on double majoring in history and business in undergrad since I also have a strong interest in business, but not until junior year of hs so my ECs donât match up
This is simply not true. Your ECs do not necessarily need to align with your possible undergrad major.
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If I plan to work abroad(which is likely), in countries like the UK or China, they strictly abide by the rankings and only QS top 100 schools worldwide will make a considerable candidate, which the CSUs are not in there. Attending a top 100 QS school will definitely make my life much easier later.
If I plan to work abroad(which is likely), in countries like the UK or China, they strictly abide by the rankings and only QS top 100 schools worldwide will make a considerable candidate, which the CSUs are not in there. Attending a top 100 QS school will definitely make my life much easier later. Thus, not attending a top 100 QS school will hurt my employment much
I also am very interested in history so I plan to apply for history. I do not have any intentions to switch majors afterwards in college.
If I plan to work abroad(which is likely), in countries like the UK or China, they strictly abide by the rankings and only QS top 100 schools worldwide will be a considerable candidate, which the CSUs and a lot of state schools are not in there. Even if I want to attend a CSU, attending a top 100 QS school will definitely make my life much easier later. Thus, not attending a top 100 QS school will hurt my employment much.
Since you are considering working in the UK, have you considered any colleges there?
@MYOS1634 any suggestions for this student who plans to work abroad after college?