Colleges in California

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm looking for some colleges in California since that's my dream place to be. I live in NY and my parents say I can go as long as I get enough money to pay for it with our EFC around 10K. </p>

<p>Basic Stats:
GPA: 3.4 UW, not sure of weighted but higher with mostly honors classes, 2 APs, USH(5) and Chem(4) as a junior w/1 self studied, Psych(5) and taking 2 (English, Bio) next year
SAT: 1350/2000, 690CR/660M/650W
ECs: Not going to write out a list, mainly Science Olympiad w/ medals and some other science things, music related for trumpet, some clubs</p>

<p>I'm looking for any colleges in CA that would probably accept me with enough money, public or private, any size. Probably majoring in psychology but film production/studies courses are a plus. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA): <a href="http://www.lmu.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.lmu.edu&lt;/a>
Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, CA): <a href="http://www.scu.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.scu.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

3

<p>In addition to Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara, check out: </p>

<p>Occidental, Pitzer, U of Southern California. All three might lean towards reach schools because of your grades, but your test scores make them worth a shot. All three are also good with financial aid to varying degrees.</p>

<p>Also consider: </p>

<p>Chapman U, U of Redlands, U of San Francisco, U of the Pacific, U of San Diego, and possibly Whittier. All of these schools would be likely to give you decent financial aid and potentially some merit money.</p>

<p>One tip: Steer clear of Pepperdine if you need big money, they tend not to be very generous and rely heavily on loans in the packages they do offer. </p>

<p>As for public schools, The UC's are also not terribly generous with out of state students unless you land a merit scholarship (your stats are low for that), and the UC out of state cost is steep. Still, if you'd like to take a look at some of the UC's, I'd recommend UCLA (big reach), UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Irvine for your interests.</p>

<p>You might, however, take a look at some of the california state schools which are very inexpensive, even for out of state students. In particular look at: San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Chico, and possibly Cal State Monterrey Bay if you're looking for something a little different.</p>

4

<p>Since you're looking for "any college," I'll go ahead and list a few.</p>

<p>Occidental College <a href="http://www.oxy.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.oxy.edu&lt;/a>
Pitzer College <a href="http://www.pitzer.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.pitzer.edu&lt;/a>
Scripps College (all girls) <a href="http://www.scrippscol.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.scrippscol.edu&lt;/a>
Pepperdine University <a href="http://www.pepperdine.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.pepperdine.edu&lt;/a>
University of San Diego <a href="http://www.sandiego.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.sandiego.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This is the only northern cal one I can think of:
University of San Francisco <a href="http://www.usfca.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.usfca.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Reaches: Claremont McKenna College <a href="http://www.claremontmckenna.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.claremontmckenna.edu&lt;/a>
University of Southern Cal <a href="http://www.usc.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.usc.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Hope this helps, good luck in your search! I live in the Bay Area, and you'll definitely love California.</p>

5

<p>If you're looking for money...</p>

<p>Occidental gives out a lot but it probably wouldn't for your stats unles you really stand out.</p>

<p>Whittier gives out substantial aid, and it would be a safety for you, they may very well pay for you to come.</p>

<p>Chapman gives out a decent amount.</p>

<p>USC does as well but need higher stats by far.</p>

6

<p>Thanks everyone for all the information. For some of the privates, I heard that they were Catholic or otherwise affliated with a religion and I was wondering exactly how religious would they be? Because I'm not very religious and although I don't mind being around some religious people, I don't want campus life to be filled with it or have people trying to convert me or anything. I do like USC but I'm not sure if thats a possible reach for me.</p>

<p>carolyn- about the UC's, Ive heard about Santa Cruz and like it but what about Riverside/Merced? And I know they aren't very generous for OOS kids but would they at least cover the need based aid I would need? Because my parents are willing to pay some, just can't do a lot.</p>

7

<p>funny... i'm in california wanting to go to school in ny. trade me places! </p>

<p>the only privates mentioned that are religiously affiliated would be USF, USD, LMU, SCU (catholic) pepperdine, and chapman (christian), i believe... as for these institutions concentrating on the religious aspect i think you will find that it is present but not dominant, especially in larger cities like LA and SF. also, what kind of social life are you looking to have? does that matter? </p>

<p>financially, the state schools (CSUs) would probably be the best bet, but you would also probably have to deal with annoyances like impacted majors (almost all are like this), and large class sizes whereas privates would give you more personal attention.</p>

8

<p>Yeah, I wish I could trade but I wouldn't wish the cold weather and tons of snow on anybody unless they loved it. NYC is cool though, much better than where I am at least but I'd rather have LA in warm weather all year round. </p>

<p>Thanks for the info although I'll probably look into that more. In terms of social life, I'm just looking for friendly people with a nice mix of intellectual, artsy, tech-oriented and I dont mind some preppiness as long as not everyone on campus is like that. Open-minded and accepting is mainly the biggest thing I like. I'd like to participate in different activities, with a few parties and going to places in the area. I'm really open to a lot of things, I just want to be able to have things to do around campus and in the surrounding area.</p>

<p>I feel ignorant here but what are impacted majors?</p>

9

<p>An impacted major is one that is declared by more students than the college can accommodate.</p>

10

<p>If you are a female then you should consider Mills and Scripps. Since their applicant pool is about half of other colleges they have slightly higher acceptence rates.
California IS a really cool place to be. I grew up there but decided to leave because I fell in love with a college outside of it. If you want the full California experience you should go to a college in a great city. The ones already suggested are good. I'd highlight:</p>

<p>University of California, Santa Cruz: I think you'd have a good shot at this one and I would suggest you seriously consider it. Santa Cruz is my favorite city in all of California. It's a happenning and very happy city. The beach! It's excellent! And of course, it's a great school. One of the best in undergraduate education among the UC's as it as a much lower student/teacher ratio.</p>

11

<p>Anoel:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Reach (out of state)
UCSD: Slight Reach (out of state)
UCI/UCSB/UCD: Match (out of state)
UCSC/UCR/UCM: Safe Match (out of state)</p>

12

<p>Anoel,
There's often a difference between "meeting your full need" and "offering a good financial aid package." Grants and merit scholarships are "free" money. Loans and work study are not - you have to either pay them back or earn the money. You want a financial aid package that is heavy on the free money, not the loans/work study.</p>

<p>Example: Both College A and College B offer you financial aid packages of $30,000. But College A's package is set up like this: $20,000 a year in loans, $6,000 a year in work study, and $4,000 in a grant or merit scholarship. College B's package is set up like this: $15,000 a year in a grant, $5,000 a year in work study, and $10,000 a year in loans. Obviously, College B's package is better - you will graduate with half the amount of loans and have to work less hours to make up work study.</p>

<p>OK, now consider this: The cost of attending a UC out of state is $39,000 a year (and goes up each year). That's in line with the most expensive private colleges in California, and actually more than some of the colleges on the list I gave you. But - here's the catch, the UC's tend to be more like College B in their financial aid packages for out of state students: they rely heavily on loans and work study with limited grant money. This is because out of state students are not eligible for the main form of grant for the UC's, the cal grant. There are university grants, but again, they are limited. The exception is if you are in the ball park in terms of grades and test scores for the limited merit money.</p>

<p>As I said, there are always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, a mid-range student from out of state will usually get a better financial aid package from private colleges in Calif. than they will from a UC school. By better, I'm not talking about not meeting your full need, but about a package that costs you less over the four years.</p>

<p>Hope this helps clarify what I meant. I'm not saying don't consider the UC's --- just that if you need significant financial aid, I would not count on them offering you the best package, even if they do meet your full need.</p>

13

<p>davidav87, I'm not into all girl schools, I like diversity but thanks for the recs. Santa Cruz is definitely high on my list, I'm just not sure if I'd get accepted with an acceptable package. But it does seem like a college I'd like to go to if I can.</p>

<p>carolyn, thanks for all the money information. I know the UC's are difficult for getting into from OOS as well as paying for them which is why I'm not considering any of the higher ranking ones. I just don't want to waste the application fee if there is no chance I'd be able to get a decent package at say Santa Cruz or Riverside. I don't mind some loans but like in your example, that amount is pushing it especially if I got a better offer from a private. I'm just hoping I'll get lucky and someone in the fiancial aid office will give me enough a reasonable package so it'd be possible for me to go there if I wanted to.</p>

14

<p>Anoel,
The best bet if you need substantial financial aid is to start with substantial research. Ask each school you are interested in for their latest figures on: percentage of students who applied for aid, percentage who had their need fully met, and how the average package broke down. I can give you some of this information if you PM me with the schools you are interested in. Unfortunately, i don' thave specific breakdowns for out of state UC students, but I can give you a broad picture for them.</p>

<p>Then, cast a wide net. When I say cast a wide net I'm not saying apply to 15 or 20 schools, but rather apply to a wide range of well-chosen schools in varying levels of selectivity. </p>

<p>Again, if you PM me after you've decided on a tenative list, I'd be happy to share the information I may have on each schools' financial aid packages.</p>

15

<p>One other thing: You need to compute your UC GPA. The GPA you mentioned sounds like it is your school GPA. The UC's will drop certain classes from your GPA and only consider grades in 10th and 11th grade. The MINIMUM for out of state applicants is a 3.4 UC GPA, but you also need to check whether your test scores meet the minimum for whatever your GPA is. Also, you don't mention SAT II's - you need two of them for the UC's so if you haven't taken them, you need to do so ASAP. Please not that the UC's use your highest SAT I score from a SINGLE sitting, not the highest for all sittings. This is a different than most schools and may affect your stated SAT above. Also keep in mind that the application filing period for the UC's is a small window - November 1- November 30. You can get details at <a href="http://www.ucop.edu/pathways%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.ucop.edu/pathways&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Same site has a useful online eligibility calculator that might be a good place to start:
<a href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/scholarship_reqs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/scholarship_reqs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

16

<p>I looked at the UC website and tried to figure out the GPA. I think I have about a 3.6 if I calculated it right. I'm not sure about one thing though. I have a year of band for the performing arts requirements but I also have a half course each of one arts class, one computer graphics class and one web design class. Can I count any of those for the electives? Also I counted my psych class and not the health and gym classes. Is that right? I'm taking the SAT IIs in October and thankfully that SAT score was taken in one sitting so that remains the same. I was planning on sending most of my applications in November so that time frame is no trouble. </p>

<p>I'm definitely going to do some research on the aid as well as trying to look for what schools I like best, I'll PM you once I've done that. Again, thanks for all your help.</p>

17

<p>For the best weather in the west head to San Diego. UCSC would be cool, but there isn't much to do around the campus, there is a little town called pacifica and some pretty gnarly shore breaks. Downtown Santa Cruz, is pretty small, not much nightlife.</p>

<p>San Diego on the otherhand has countless things and activities you can do around the area. Lots of nightlife in the Gaslamp district and of course you can always find a few parties on the weekend at San Diego State.</p>

<p>I'm biased though, because I go to San Diego state, although I did grow up and around Santa Cruz, the winters are really wet in santa cruz as well, for the real california experience san diego is the place to be.</p>

18

<p>Saved, Nice to see you. How does it feel being a sophomore? Could you please PM me or email me at <a href="mailto:czlaw@aol.com">czlaw@aol.com</a>. I need to ask you an SDSU related favor.</p>