Oh, I am doing a dual enrollment running start program in my local community college in this upcoming senior year too.
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I agree. OP, if I were you I would consider looking at ROTC or joining the military. You need to get out from under your parents.
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That’s great - getting general ed requirements out of the way at community college can save significant money - and that might help you down the road should things go south with continued parental financial assistance.
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That’s fine - shoot your shot and see what happens. But you must have a back up plan - an ace in the hole - that you will be accepted to AND that you can afford (AND potentially afford with minimal parental assistance) AND that would be happy attending. It’s great to go for a dream, but it’s critical to also have some place to land in case it doesn’t work out.
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This is a concern and this is why people on this thread are giving you multiple, affordable options.
You can only rely, financially, on what the schools will award to you and what you earn at a part time job. With a CS degree, from ANYWHERE, you will be employed. You don’t have to go to school in California to interview for a job in Silicon or the major tech hubs.
Basically, this is what you MAY qualify for from the Federal Government (FAFSA):
(Edited to Add: THESE ARE LOAN AMOUNTS)
Freshman year: $5500 (That’s $2750 per semester)
Sophomore: $6500
Junior: $7500
Senior: $7500
That’s $27,000 over 4 years IN LOANS. Scholarships, are limited, competitive, and are not something you should bank on.
With the UC’s and CSU’s, if you are not a resident of the State of California, you don’t qualify for California’s major funding source, and wont be able to qualify for resident tuition because you are hoping to come to California for educational purposes.
Most “scholarships” at the UC’s are in the range of ~$2000. That amount will cover your travel expenses. Remember that the UCs/CSU’s are PUBLIC universities whereby the taxpayers fund those schools.
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The B School is surprisingly competitive too. The 25th percentile capped and weighted GPA last year for Orfalea was 4.11.
On an interesting side note, Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s, did his undergrad at USC. He gave $15M to Cal Poly in recognition of how well they prepare their students for the business world. At the time, 2000, it was the largest ever single gift in the CSU system.
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Can anyone here do private messaging so I can talk about my essays too. Although, looking at my stats I have issues, I was hoping to compensate for it with compelling essays because I really do believe I have a strong character and good essays. My application ideally was going to have strong extracurriculars, good essays, and hopefully a good sat.
Here is the link to the OP’s essay feedback request: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/help-me-choose-my-essays-and-personal-statement/3645198/4
Any essay readers, please respond there.
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COMPLETELY AGREE: My husband’s engineering firm LOVES the Cal Poly trained graduates, as well as the CSUs’, for their well-prepared engineering and software-skilled graduates. These kids/adults come out ‘HUNGRY to prove themselves’. “They are well-prepared, knowledgeable, proactive, and ask questions when needed!”
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I understand you have your dreams. My daughter also applied to UC schools.
But at the end of the process, she learned that even WITH the top nonresident scholarship at some UC schools, the cost was still three times the cost of an in-state school — just to go to another overcrowded public school without enough housing. The UCs were also double the cost of well-regarded small private colleges. That means coming up with an extra $180,000 or more over 4 years, which a federal student loan and local $2,000 scholarships will not cover.
So she went a different route. And in hindsight, she wished she hadn’t bothered because the UCs do not use the Common App and the application short essay questions were extensive.
So when people discourage you regarding the UCs, it is not to crush your dreams, but rather to save you work so you can focus more on efforts more likely to pay off.
At the same time you are considering the highly selective schools on your list, I strongly encourage you to also think more about the possibilities UW-Bothell has to offer and get comfortable (even happy!) with it as a promising alternative option. It has computer science and the UW name is still attached, plus it will be much easier for you to get to campus and afford in case anything goes sideways between you and your parents in the many months between now and when classes start. Best wishes in the process.
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You will be a strong applicant for a well vetted list of schools.
The highly rejective schools have so many fully qualified applicants that it will be hard to push through no matter what the rest of your application looks like. GPA is the top factor for all schools, with rigor up there for most too. They will all get 10-20 times the number of fully qualified applicants than they can take. In 2021, Cal Poly rejected 15,600 4.0 students. Stanford can fill their entire class with high school valedictorians.
Your secret to success is to figure out where you fit into the upper 75th percentile of applicants. That way you’re more likely to get merit help.
If you apply to an unrealistic list of schools, it will be a recipe for disappointment. It is for students with perfect GPAs and test scores. It’s simply a result of too many fully qualified students applying to too few schools.
If it’s any reassurance, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta and Boeing are in the top 10 employers of WSU CS grads according to LinkedIn. Save Apple, the the other 5 are in the top 10 of WWU. You will have good options if you study hard, get good grades and do well on your class projects and internships.
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