I plan on applying out of state to CSULB in the fall. I had terrible grades my freshman and sophomore year, but great grades my junior year and a pretty good ACT score.
Freshman GPA : around 2.8
Sophomore GPA : around 2.5
Junior GPA : 3.4 first sem 3.6 second sem
Cumulative : 2.9
ACT : 28
I realize CSULB is selective and near impossible for out of state applicants but i plan on having the same/better grades than last year.
Long Beach is the most popular of the Cal States and gets, on average about 70,000 applications for freshman spots.
Your academics need to be above average. (Don’t be swayed by some of the lower stats accepted because those generally include local students and athletes with the local high schools).
As an OOS applicant, you will be expected to pay over $36k per year all 4 years since instate residency won’t apply to you coming to California for educational purposes.
CSULB will not consider your Senior year grades for admission purposes. Senior grades will only be used to maintain your provisional admission if accepted.
You need to calculate your CSU GPA:
https://secure.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp
(Only AP/IB courses in 10-11th grade are eligible for the extra honors points since you are OOS).
Based on your posted stats, CSULB is a Reach.
Long Beach is pretty unlikely with a 2.9 - especially as an out of state applicant.
There are other CSUs but, I’d imagine you have local options that will be a better fit.
Good luck