CSU UC or CC?

<p>I'm having a lot of difficulty choosing which educational path I want to take. To give you all a better understanding of where I'm coming from I'm going to share some back information.
I'm a current High School senior residing in California, so far I have been accepted by Chico, Sonoma, Pomona, and I'm certain I'm getting into UCSC and UCI.
I have a 3.3 GPA and a 1940 SAT score (took once without a calculator or studying) but there's a very apparent upward trend in my academic record. I went from low 2.0's in my sophomore year to getting a 4.5 Junior year. I've always been grouped with the gifted students, however in high school I hardly applied myself as a reaction to the large amounts of pressure I felt from my family. My parents immigrated from Pakistan to the US and my father never got to pursue an education and his family values education very much. Anyway, I was able to realize how much of an idiot I was being partially due to me joining the schools wrestling team. I'm very torn about what to do. My current intended major is Physics but I'm thinking about Economics/Applied Economics. I believe that I have the ability to compete with the students at top 20 ranked universities and because of this I am unsure whether I should attend a CSU or UC and go to grad school at a top university, if I should transfer from a CSU/UC to a top private or if I should attend a CC and transfer. My ideal schools are UCSB, Cornell, Duke, Boston College, Columbia, and U Penn. I would appreciate and value all help or advice any of you can provide. </p>

<p>shameless self bump </p>

<p>The UCs do tend to emphasize the liberal arts majors (including physics and economics) more than the CSUs do (relative to pre-professional majors like business).</p>

<p>Have you discussed with your parents about the costs and run the net price calculators?</p>

<p>Cost does not matter. My parents are more than willing to cover all my costs as long as it’s under $60k/ year. Would you suggest I attend a UC and transfer to one of the schools I listed? </p>

<p>Not sure why you would necessarily want to transfer if you can go to UCSB or UCSC (or most other UCs) for physics (however, a 3.3 HS GPA is not that high in a UC context).</p>

<p>For economics, if your goal is to go on to a PhD program in economics, take a look at each school’s economics courses to see how much math is used in courses like intermediate microeconomics and econometrics (more math-intensive tends to be better preparation for PhD study in economics). Of course, strong math and statistics offerings are desirable.</p>

<p>I’d guess you aren’t a lock for UCI but, what do I know. I’d give you 60/40 odds on UCSC. I’d suggest you take a tour of the schools that admitted you and select the one that you believe will allow you to excel. If you kick butt at CPP, Chico or Sonoma, you won’t have any trouble getting into a top UC grad school. Those campuses have very different feels - one is going to feel more like home to you.
Good luck.</p>

<p>

The adcoms at the top schools say they could easily build a frosh class just as talented from the kids they had to turn away, often 2 or 3 times over. So just being as smart as those kids means little. Your odds of transferring to a top 20 school no matter where you start (CC, UC, CSU) are slim. It happens, but its an unlikely outcome since its harder to get in as a xfer than as a frosh and they aren’t exactly handing seats in the frosh class away. </p>

<p>My advice is to pick a 4-year school that is a good fit for you, do well and get to know some profs so that you get good letters of rec for grad school.</p>

<p>At Chico, Pomona or Sonoma, did you get into the Honors College? (If not, inquire). These have a more residential environment and Sonoma is more focused on the liberal arts so the focus may be better for you.
However, UCSC and UCI may provide a more residential experience and more emphasis on “traditional subjects”. Once admitted, attend an “admitted students” overnight - attend a class, eat in the cafeteria, hang out with students, etc.
The odds of transferring to an elite college (quoting “Cornell, Duke, Boston College, Columbia, and U Penn”) are very very low since very few students leave or drop out. A top university that admits lots of transfers is USC so if Spring of Sophomore year you still feel like transferring, you could apply to that university.
58% USC transfers come from California Community Colleges, and only 11% combined for CSUs and UCs. About 24% come from 4 year colleges outside of CA.
Only 20% transfers to Cornell come from community colleges, but 2/3 transfers are for the College of Agriculture, followed by about 25% in Industrial and Labor Relations and fewer than 15% in Arts and Sciences. About half are from NYS (especially NYS CC).
If your ideal school is UCSB and you didn’t get in as a freshman, you could always attend SBCC and take advantage of the automatic transfer program.
It’s easier to transfer to a UC from a California CC, however based on what you said above it sounds like you’d need a slightly more challenging environment than community college. If you’ve always been with the “gifted” group, the pace of CC classes may be frustrating.</p>

<p>As far as “top universities” that accept a lot of transfer students go, Berkeley and UCLA are obvious ones to note. Among “top” private universities, Cornell is notable for a relatively large number of transfer students.</p>

<p>Regarding Cornell, most of those transfer students are admitted into one of its “contract colleges” though, and a large chunk of those are deferred freshman admits.
Which is fine if you want to major in one of the subjects offered in these specialized colleges.</p>

<p>But if you don’t, for the traditional liberal arts majors, Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences admitted 99 students out of 1,314 applicants for Fall 2011 (most recent stats available).</p>