Hey guys! I’m a female senior currently applying to colleges and I was wondering if someone could chance me. My stats aren’t great and for the most part, I know what to expect, but I just wanted to get a few more opinions.
Stats-
GPA: 2.83
SAT: 1150, 570 english, 580 math (Taking again in November for a last time, hoping for something closer to 1200)
Southern California Resident
Schools applying to:
Cal state Chico
San Francisco State
Sonoma State
Cal state Dominguez Hills (my local cal state)
Washington State University (I’ve been talking to the admissions counselor from WSU that’s in charge of my area, and she knows my story, and why I got the gpa that I got. She suggests I apply in January when my senior semester 1 grades will also be able to be inputted as I’ve had a huge improve in grades… she’s fairly confident I will get in)
Northern Arizona University
Arizona State University
Western Washington University
Colorado State University
I’m expecting to get into dominguez hills, SF State, Sonoma state, ASU, and possibly Chico state. I’m not really sure about the other schools or how accurate my understanding of everything is.
FYI, I’m a psychology major (women’s studies major at a few schools), on a pre-med track, I do have some extra curriculars and things to make me stand out. Also an immigrant from Brazil, but I’m mostly focusing on cal states as well, that only look at stats.
CSU’s admit by Eligibility index and major.
EI= (2.83 x 800) + (1150)= 3414.
For Chico State, an EI of 3700+ can be competitive so that school looks like a Reach.
Psychology is an impacted major at both SFSU and Sonoma, so it might be a slightly more difficult admit.
CSUDH is your safety school since it is not impacted and local.
I think that NAU is a solid Match school. ASU is probably a Match school. I cannot comment on the rest of the OOS schools on your list.
Have you run the Net Price calculators on all the OOS schools to make sure they are affordable?
You might want to add 1 or 2 more non-impacted CSU’s to your list so you more choices.
https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf
I’m actually only interested in these cal states, and couldn’t really see myself at any other campus. As of right now, the washington schools are going to provide me with the most money as far as scholarships and grants are concerned, and the arizona schools are going to be a challenge, but I wanted to apply just to have more options. I have not checked Colorado yet.
Chico state is pretty high on my list right now as far as where I want to go, I heard of two people last year, one including my friend, who got in with 2.7-2.9 GPAs and less than a 1150 on the SAT. Both undeclared, and both got in. So in my mind, chico was a near match school.
I’m not sure how accurate the PrepScholar calculator is as far as acceptance percentage, but when I put in my stats for cal state chico, it was near 96%… Not sure how that all plays out.
Also, I thought it was harder to get into NAU than ASU?
Thanks for the response!
ASU and NAU based on the common dataset have similar overall GPA’s for their enrolled students: 3.57 vs. 3.51 but ASU’s SAT score ranges are higher in general 1120-1350 to NAU’s 1030-1220 so I would say NAU is a slightly easier admit.
Since CSU’s admit by EI and major, you would be compared to all Psychology major applicants while Undeclared applicants would be in their own pool. Psychology in general is a popular major so more applicants= more competition. From Chico States Web Page: Outside of our local admission area applicants will have an elevated index due to impaction. We will not know the index cut off until we have reviewed the characteristics of the entire applicant pool.
Average admitted stats for Chico state:
CSU GPA: 3.55 SAT: 1,115 ACT: 22
The PrepScholar calculator does not take into account major and local vs. non-local applicant differences. Best to go by the common dataset and admitted student stats data and how you compare.
Gotcha that makes sense!
So, so I have a better shot as applying undeclared and later declaring as psychology? And would that also mean that my SAT score is above their average and my gpa is lower? For Chico?
Yes, your SAT score is above the average and GPA is below the average for Chico State. Again you will be compared to the other Undeclared applicants and the EI thresholds for admission can fluctuate from year to year so there is no guarantee of an acceptance until they review the applicant pool.
Okay, thanks for the help!
CSUDH and SFSU are not impacted at the campus level, so 2950 admits to non impacted majors. However, psychology, but not women’s and gender studies, is impacted at SFSU, so psychology at SFSU will have a higher threshold than 2950.
Additionally, SFSU admits frosh to pre-psychology, according to http://www.sfsu.edu/~prospect/apply/impacted.html#psych . The admission to major for undeclared or pre-psychology students is described at https://psychology.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/F18%20Application%20Complete.pdf .
https://admission.asu.edu/freshman/apply says that ASU will admit frosh applicants who complete the specified curriculum with one of the following:
top 25% in high school graduating class
3.00 GPA in competency courses (4.00 = "A")
ACT: 22 (24 nonresidents)
SAT: 1120 (1180 nonresidents)
https://nau.edu/admission/freshman-admission-requirements/ describes NAU admission criteria.
Thank you for the response! So because my SAT is 1150, does that mean I’m automatically going to get accepted into ASU? Or is it still a holistic approach?
Also, would I have a better shot at applying to SFSU with Women’s Studies? Because I’d be okay with taking either one, especially because I’m pre-med as well.
If you are not a resident of Arizona, you need a 1180 (not 1120) SAT to get automatic admission to ASU by SAT score.
Since women’s and gender studies is not an impacted major at SFSU, and SFSU is not an impacted campus, admission is by baseline CSU eligibility (2950). So you should be able to consider SFSU women’s and gender studies as a safety.
If you are pre-med, costs are important to consider, since you want to save money and minimize debt because medical school is expensive (hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even the application process costs several thousand dollars). However, you need to do much better in college than in high school to have a realistic chance of admission to any medical school (probably 3.7+ college GPA overall and in science courses, among other things), and realize that medical schools are all either reach, high reach, or unrealistic reach, no matter how strong your application is.
I would apply for Women’s Studies at SFSU since Psych is impacted and will require a higher EI to get an acceptance.
If you meet the ASU admission requirements, then it is more or less automatic. You are a non-resident for Arizona, so you need to meet the 1180 SAT threshold or the 3.00 GPA in competency courses.
https://admission.asu.edu/freshman/competency-requirements
@Gumbymom @ucbalumnus Thank you, I will apply to SFSU under Women’s studies and attempt at a 1180-1200 for the SAT in November. Hopefully that will increase my chances for other schools and create automatic admission to ASU. Does that mean it’ll be automatic acceptance to NAU as well? Or is that another scale/requirements?
@ucbalumnus linked the admission requirements for NAU in the post above. Here is the link again: https://nau.edu/admission/freshman-admission-requirements/
Meeting the admission requirements and being admitted are 2 different things. If you meet the admission requirements, then you should be admitted. Each school determines whom they admit and since you are a non-resident then you cannot expect an guarantee. ASU and NAU are not too difficult of an admit, but you never know so keep all your options open.
@Gumbymom Okay thank you! The way I see it, I have a decent shot at NAU and ASU, but will have an automatic admission to ASU if I raise my SAT by 30 points. There is no way to get automatic admission to NAU because I do not have a 3.0
Although, because NAU has rolling admissions, would it be possible to apply in January when I have my 1st semester grades? If I get a 4.0 this semester, is it possible to raise my overall gpa from a 2.83 to a 3.0?
Since NAU is rolling admissions, I would call just to confirm that your 1st semester Senior grades will be considered for admission as a Freshman. If you are looking for financial aid however, the earlier you apply, the better.
Here is a HS GPA calculator so you can determine different GPA scenarios based on your grades.
https://gpacalculator.net/high-school-gpa-calculator/
Okay, thank you. I will look into it some more as well as use the GPA calculator.