‘Chance’ Our Daughter At CSU Campuses

Colleges and Universities A-Z California State University - GENERAL
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With the UC application deadline passed and CSU deadline coming, we are letting our daughter apply to up to seven CSU campuses in case the UC Merced (her top choice) dream ends in disappointment.

We’re hoping the great community here can provide some insight on her chances at the CSUs she’s picked out.

Her stats and info:

In-state Resident
First Generation College Student
Small, rural public HS in Far Nor-Cal
27th out of 197 Students
3.71 Overall Weighted GPA
3.54 10-12 A-G Weighted GPA
1040 SAT
3872 Eligibility Index
4 Years Field Hockey
4 Years Track & Field
4 Years Drill Team
4 Years Youth Cheer Coaching
Interned For Large Labor Union 2 Years
Taken all available AP or Honors Classes
Cal-Vet Fee Waiver Eligible
Intended Psycology or Sociology Major

Schools She’s Considering:

San Diego State
San Jose State
Fresno State
San Francisco State
Sacramento State
CSU Monterey Bay
CSU Channel Islands

Thanks in advance for helping!

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SDSU: Reach (EI of 4200+ can be competitive but 4300+ is more realistic for the majority of majors)

SJSU could be a Match to a Safety depending upon major and concentration.
EI threshold last year for Psychology was 3850
EI thresholds for Sociology/concentration: Sociology 2950
Sociology - Community Change 3200
Sociology - Race & Ethnic Studies 3650
Sociology - Social Interaction 4000

If local, Fresno state is a Safety. If not, then a Match

Sac state, CSUMB, SFSU and CSUCI: Safety to Match schools

Best of luck to her.

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@Gumbymom as always, thanks for the great info.

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CSUCI: campus not impacted, psychology and sociology are not impacted majors => safety (admits at CSU baseline of 2950). See https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/Pages/impacted-degrees.aspx .

In the “Far Nor-Cal”, are you in the local service area for CSUC (Chico)? If so, it should be a safety, since it admits local area applicants at the CSU baseline of 2950, and psychology and sociology are not impacted majors there. See http://www.csuchico.edu/admissions/apply/first-time-freshmen/admission-requirements.shtml .

The other far north campus, HSU, is not impacted, and psychology and sociology are not impacted majors there, so it should be a safety.

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CSUMB listed EI threshold for last year’s admissions cycle for out-of-area applicants to impacted majors (psychology is an impacted major there, listed at 3501 for those admitted for fall 2018): https://csumb.edu/admissions/impaction .

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@ucbalumnus thank you for the great info. We ARE in the CSU Chico area, but our daughter doesn’t want to attend. The other information you provided was immensely helpful…thank you!

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I am pretty confident she’ll get in all the schools you list except SDSU.

You’ve got a few days left under the extension. I’d really encourage her to add Sonoma to her ap list. It is really unique among CSUs - in that it is small and very residential, has great weather and is pretty close to the beach. It really feels like a private school when you walk the campus. Apply, to keep the door open, then visit after you have your answer.

Good luck.

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@NCalRent actually, it’s funny you mention that. We did an EPIC road trip Sunday and let her visit Sonoma State, San Francisco State and then finished with San Jose State last. She didn’t like San Francisco State, so that’s off the list now, but liked Sonoma and San Jose State. We think she’s pretty sold on those two as her top CSU’s now, followed by Monterey Bay and Channel Islands as safeties I suppose.

She’s still hoping for UC Merced, though; It was her favorite campus. She liked San Jose State’s Greek culture, though, and that doesn’t exist at UC Merced in the same fashion. She just really liked the vibe at both schools…and it’s weird because they are so different. Urban vs rural, Big vs Small, UC vs CSU.

She gets tuition covered under the CalVet Fee Waiver, so we of course would prefer her to maximize that benefit by going the UC route, but it’s up to her. Going from little Corning High school to a large CSU or even UC campus worries us as parents, but eventually they have to take that leap of faith.

So, after submitting for Psychology at UC Merced (top choice) and UC Santa Barbara (REACH, hoping essays and ECs win the day), she’s only submitting CSU apps for the following:

San Jose State (top choice) (Psychology, Social Work second choice)

San Diego State (Psychology) (The ‘what if she gets in?’ option)

Sonoma State (Psychology)

Sacramento State (SAFETY) (Psychology)

Channel Islands (SAFETY) (Psychology)

Monterey Bay (SAFETY) (Psychology)

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Note: here are last year’s SJSU thresholds (may change this year):
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/

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@Gumbymom Does SDSU break down the Eligibility Index by major like SJSU does? Also, there is a form to change your major on Cal Poly’s site once you have applied…Does SJSU offer the same? Thanks for your help! I’ve been searching for the answers to no avail and thought I’d come to the expert!!

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@CaliMck15: Sent you a PM since you really need to start your own thread if you have any questions. College Confidential considers it rude to “hijack” another posters thread.

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Our Daughter only ended up applying to three of her CSU choices:

San Jose State
Sonoma State
CSU Monterey Bay

She has now heard back from all three with acceptances. Stats are posted at the top of the thread.

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SJSU was just voted as the most underrated school in America by CollegeVine. Don’t know much about the others but I know there’s at least one really solid choice in the bag! Congrats!

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@ProfessorPlum168 Yes, she’s excited about that choice. She’s still waiting on UC Merced and UC Santa Barbara, but San Jose State is at the top of her list right now.

Thank you for the kind words.

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Congrats!

There isn’t a bad choice among them but, I’d vote for Sonoma. SJ is really big, still has a commuter vibe and traffic is AWFUL, MB is a more reasonable size, not much traffic but, the campus is still kind of isolated from civilization by what my kids refer to as the Zombie Apocalypse Zone. I am sure it will be beautiful one day but, right now the campus is surrounded by what feels like scorched earth and lots of dilapidated structures from the old Fort Ord. It gives it a creepy feel. Sonoma is a nice size and a somewhat insular campus - really nice dorms and traffic that’s not too bad in the immediate area - suburbia on one side and more rural space on the other.

Tour them all, talk to students about their experience and follow her heart.

good luck with the rest of the process

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At SJSU, 57% of frosh live in the dorms, according to http://www.iea.sjsu.edu/Reports/CDS/CDS2018-2019_wo_J.pdf (section F1). Note that frosh outside of approximately 30 miles from the campus are required to live in the dorms, except for non-traditional students, according to http://www.housing.sjsu.edu/housingaz/freshmanoncampushousing/ , although some from within approximately 30 miles may choose to live in the dorms.

So it is likely that somewhere around 43% of SJSU frosh are commuters.

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My daughter is majoring in psychology also. We have to choose from SJ state, SF state and University of Oregon. Still haven’t heard from CSU San Luis Obispo, but hear they’re still sending out offers.
Traffic is really awful in San Jose, but the weather is great. We live about 45 minutes away.

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@Flournoy_Parent I saw that your daughter was accepted to UCSB. Congrats on the UCSB acceptance. Your daughter must be so excited with all the choices.

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@ProfessorPlum168 We are still kind of processing it. This was her ‘shoot for the stars’ application. My wife and I think she’s sold on UCSB now, but doesn’t want to say so because it’s literally the farthest from home at just under eight hours in a car. With that said, she’s grateful, as are we, that UC’s evaluate admissions the way they do. Her stats were well below the 25-75 percentile for UCSB. She had very good essays, though, and a solid track record of ECs. She got accepted. Stats are a big deal, but this whole process is truly unpredictable.

We are so grateful to have been ‘walked’ through this process on the CC forum by folks like you and @Gumbymom . This community is amazing. Every question we seem to have about ANY campus always seems to bring us back here for an answer.

For us now, as parents, we get to sit back and watch our first born baby, all of 17 years old, weigh options we never had. We’ve worked hard as parents to provide opportunities we didn’t get. It’s bitterswet. All the campuses she’s been accepted at are great schools that have strengths and weaknesses. We’re so grateful.

Thanks again!

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@CalmCollegeMom Very exciting! We loved the visit to San Jose State. Such an ‘easy on the eyes’ campus. That culture of having full sport contingent is hard to beat, too. College Football games are hard to beat.