Northeastern University itself only uses “NU“. But on this site, NEU is the more commonly used abbreviation for Northeastern.
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That seems to be the list of more residential general* CSUs. Except for SDSU, these are in lower population areas, where many of the “local area” students are still too far for reasonable commuting (e.g. consider the population density in the far north of California, where Humboldt and Chico are).
*CSU Maritime Academy is also likely to be more residential, but it is a specialty school focused on ships and shipping.
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Do any of these schools have a reputation as a suitcase school, meaning that students stay during the week but then go home on the weekends?
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NUOakland may be a possibility but NU itself is out of reach, as would USC (CA), UCSD, Tulane.
Seconding Chico (Honors), Whittier, Drexel, West Chester, SUNY Albany, Loyola NO, UUtah, JMU, VCU, St Joe’s (Philly), Cal Lutheran, UPacific, Cal poly Pomona and Cal Poly Humboldt, St Mary’s of California
+Santa Clara, USD, and Chapman as reaches.
UCSC will be a reach and will the housing crunch be a problem?
What about Fordham as another reach?
Goucher as a safety? American as a reach?
Probably not your favored environment, but you’d have a shot at Penn State Bellisario.
Since your school is rigorous, apply to the honors program whenever possible. Definitely at college of Charleston and try your luck elsewhere (such as IU).
Clemson really is the odd one out. Your sister will probably be okay if you don’t apply - a sibling is not enough to justify applying there.
As s.o mentioned upthread, apply to a CT state college in case you’re branched at Storrs and don’t want to spend 2 years at the branch. That college+IU+CoC+St Joe’s in Philly (or Goucher or similar) are your likelies/safeties along with Cal poly Humboldt, Sonoma State, and Cal Lutheran.
St Mary’s, Whittier, Chico Honors, UPacific, Cal poly Pomonaa re solid CA matches.
(Some of these colleges are small but you’ll be surrounded by thousands of students).
If you apply to 6-8 of these, you’re sure to have 2 East Coast acceptances and 2-3 California acceptances.
Start applying there (especially if the app is free!)
After that, any university you add is cherry on the cake. You KNOW you have several choices to choose from and are only adding universities that improve on these (due to size, rigor, reputation, facilities…)
The scattergrams don’t indicate whether the students were hooked or not.
In order to have a shot, you need to look at the average numbers on thr CDS (or onCOLLEGEDATA) it’s a safety if you’re in the top 25%, a match if you’re above average, a reach if you’re average or toward the bottom of the 75-25 spread. (The bottom 25% are hooked, ie., athletes).
Are you okay with the health policies in Southern States (UoSC, CoC, Clemson)?
With the CSU’s, local applicants get priority so there will always be students leaving on the weekends. Due to their locations, Cal Poly SLO, Humboldt, Chico, Monterey Bay would have the least amount of students leaving campus. San Diego state and Sonoma State would have more commuters but many live within close proximity of the campus. SDSU has a pretty vibrant student life as opposed to Sonoma, so probably not as noticeable that there are less students around.
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A solid urban university with a strong college of communication that’d also be a good match: Marquette University. Very urban campus: Fordham Lincoln (high match/low reach) and Point Park in downtown Pittsburgh (safety).
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I would suggest that you take a look at a map of Southern California and look South at the campuses from Santa Barbara down to San Diego because it sounds like you want a “SoCal” experience. (Please don’t call it “Cali” since state residents don’t really like that “name” and they will know you are OOS.) Our state schools are very diverse in geography, weather, location, personality. Each school is extremely different. Look at what the web sites indicate for the area and size of the school.
There are a number of California State University Schools and UC’s, but you may be surprised at the variety of those schools and the cities in which they are located. Your UW GPA will limit your admittance to the UC’s and top CSU’s unless you apply to Merced-which is in Central California. Farmland.
Public transportation is not great, so everyone tends to drive cars- everywhere. This adds to your expenses. I know you’ve mentioned that students from your school have been admitted into SDSU. Did any of them actually attend?
Please check the California schools’ websites. Get as much information as you can. Make sure you have met the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.
Housing is a big issue at schools like Santa Cruz and other publics where upper division housing is not guaranteed.
SDSU is impacted for Communications. That means too many students desiring that major and not enough seats/staff.
Communication is an impacted major at SDSU. Students can only be admitted to the pre-major, and will be restricted from taking certain classes available only to majors, until the impaction criteria are met. Transfer students must meet the impaction criteria.> Blockquote
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Hi! What about ed’ing to Santa Clara? Do you think I would likely have an in?
You can try Santa Clara, but their acceptance rate has gone down over the years. I’m not sure your 3.47 GPA will get you an admission ED.
When my kid applied back a long time ago, the school was need aware for admissions. It looks like that isn’t the case any longer (except for international students). So…if you are full pay, that won’t help you in admissions because admissions won’t know that. And I guess I missed your annual college $$ budget. SCU is very expensive now.
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Three things 
ok 4.
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It’s not So Cal - so is it really your top choice ? Chapman seems a better fit based on description or LMU/USD for more difficult but in your preferred geography.
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Are your parents willing to spend $82k a year - more as that’s the cost this year - maybe over $90k when you graduate ?
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Odds are better than EA most likely and you don’t know if you don’t try. But should you try if it’s not your top choice….according to third party info sourced twice, the ED acceptance is 80%+. No clue if true but if so, that would be in your favor but if it’s not your top realistic choice, then you should not ED.
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Make sure your parents understand #2.
Good luck.
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I’d pick Chapman over Santa Clara for Communication.
I would say your odds are decent (as high as 1 in 2) if you apply ED to either one (or LMU).
Run the NPC with your parents and make ABSOLUTELY SURE your parents are okay paying whatever amount each NPC spits out, and can pay it out of pocket (from income&savings). The NPC results are likely to differ for each university.
Once your parents make it clear they understand the costs and are fine paying, choose your ED.
When you say you want California, are you okay with all its areas (ie., farmland, desert, cool&misty forests…)? Most areas in California are nowhere near the beach, for instance. Some have advisories if one has asthma or allergies due to the smog or intense air pollution (Bakersfield). You need to be ready for water restrictions, heat waves, and the risk of megafires (*). Obviously heat waves hit all areas of the US and few regions are spared but I want to make sure you know all that applies to California, too. The lack of public transportation, especially when compared to the “DC to Boston” corridor, is pretty shocking too. In short, CA has advantages and disadvantages (but popular culture rarely shows the downsides).
Obviously it also means no Winter, cool&dry or warm&dry or hot weather year-round, no aligators near the beaches, surfing spots, and from the south of LA to San Diego, swimmable waters, plus the tech industry and a vey dynamic economy that, if it were a country, would make it 5th in the world.
(*video: Are Natural Disasters Actually Natural?: Crash Course Climate & Energy #9 )
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i think i’m really just between usd, (kinda chapman), and scu. i would ed to san diego if i could but they don’t have it. I’m nervous if I don’t ed to scu nothing in california would pan out.
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i’m ok with all the weathers. the only school i’m considering ED is santa clara, but it’s probably second on my list (but i feel like my #1 usd is slightly unrealistic)
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For communications — I would strongly recommend Ithaca College. Wonderful teaching, facilities, and programs. You’ll get merit aid. They have a semester in LA to scratch your CA itch.
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There’s ED1 and 2 but you are bound. There are CA schools that will admit you.
USD doesn’t seem to offer anything early.
You might email and ask them if you apply early, will they decide early so that you can apply ED2 elsewhere if needed.
I agree Chapman is superior for communication but communication is a wide subject. What specifically is your interest ?
the health policies are definitely a concern. that without a doubt will be looked at when i make my choice
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Ihaca with the (preprofessional!) semester is such a fantastic idea for this student 
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Santa Clara is a harder admit though - 3.67 unweighted average GPA, bottom 25% SAT is 1260-1300 with the average higher (lots of STEM students with 700+ scores in math) v. USD 3.95 weighted (if using the typical weighting system, that’s probably ~3.5 so close to yours) they didn’t report their scores for CDS but it used to be in the 1200s (so, you’d be within 60-80 points of their SAT average, v. 200 points below for SCU).
Chapman’s avg weighted is 3.7 and their average SAT is 1260-1300, below Santa Clara. However its focus is less STEM and more communication&entertainment industry.
For USD, just get your application in ASAP.
We are also CT residents. My kid applied to both USD and SCU. She chose SCU. Another parent here also had a kid who applied to both. @mominva
What is it about USD that you like more than at SCU? Perhaps that will help us with helping you.
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I like USD’s semster schedule, with the interterm considered. I also like the location much better and that i would go in undecided/major switch is easy. I think they both have similar pros (good spirit, greek life, can get to know professors, both have solid comms program) but i think i am going to get waitlisted at usd and if I don’t ed to scu, either waitlisted or rejected. the admissions rep at usd is aware it’s my top choice- i’ve interviewed and talked to her at my school as she came to visit