<p>GPA wise you are on track for the UC’s, USC and SCU. SAT – you are on the low side but you have many chances to retake it. I would also take the ACT and two SAT2 subject tests if the schools you are applying to require them. My kid did much better on the ACT and we used that.</p>
<p>I would do several things.</p>
<p>(1) Hire a qualified tutor to get your test scores up. Here is a link for the best place that we found and helped my kid raise his scores from truly mediocre to the top 1% nationally: [Compass</a> Education Group](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/index.shtml]Compass”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/index.shtml)</p>
<p>(2) Get really clear on what major you want and if you want to go to grad school immediately after undergrad or if you want to work.</p>
<p>(3) Research schools. I am going to take a guess and say that you are Asian. We are Asian mixed and the bias for the UC’s in our community is irrational. My kid was accepted to the top UC’s for engineering and then we put community bias and the published rankings aside and looked at each program very carefully for fit and teaching methodology. What we realized is that the UC’s were not a fit for our son and we chose an extraordinary school that too many Asians dismiss out of hand because it is not a UC. My son ended up choosing Cal Poly SLO with only 11% Asian students as opposed to a UC where some campuses are almost 45% Asian. Bottom line, some people thought we were crazy to turn down UCLA and UCSD, but we fell in love with the program at Cal Poly SLO and it is an amazing engineering school. Zero regrets.</p>
<p>So, figure out your major and then start looking at schools that are strong in your major. If my kid were undecided then maybe a UC would have been a fit. But that was not the case. We wanted a hands on engineering program.</p>
<p>(4) Next figure out how and where you want to live and what kind of campus culture you want. Each school has a distinct culture. Do you want a school with a religious base? Do you want a liberal school that is socially progressive or a conservative school that leans to the right or do you want a politically neutral school? Do you want a school with fraternities and sororities and a large on campus population or do you want a commuter school? Do you want a party school or a subdued bookish school. Do you want the Bay area, LA, or San Diego or Nor Cal? All these factors are important. The best thing to do is hit the road and start touring schools. Our tours eliminated most of our choices and solidified our final ones.</p>
<p>(5) Then think about price – is money a factor? If not then you are lucky one.</p>
<p>Schools I wold look at if you want a private in California would be:</p>
<p>Stanford (retest for sure)
Calremont Consortium (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvy Mudd or Pitzer for the liberal ones)
USC (conservative / very loyal alumni)
Loyola Marymount (a true private school experience)
Chapman (great male/female ratio for men)
Santa Clara (religious base, good for jobs in Silicon Valley)
All great schools</p>
<p>Publics with a private feel?</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO (politically neutral, outstanding for STEM majors)
UC Santa Cruz (extremely liberal/left leaning)
UC Santa Barbara (party school, but a good one)
UC San Diego (A real up and comer / superior to many top UC’s / suburban)
UC Irvine (majority Asian / but a real up and comer)
UCLA (only for those that feel comfortable fighting for attention and resources. This school is more like a city with about 60,000 people associated with it on a daily basis if you count all students and employees. The squeaky wheel gets the oil at this school.)</p>