<p>I’m not sure I’d leave the task of finding a good safety school to a kid who doesn’t see the point. I helped my son identify at least 10 schools that I felt would be safeties and fits. We visited the ones that sounded best to him and he put a lot of thought into his choice of 2 of them to apply to EA. By December, he had 2 acceptances with good merit $$. He had very good reasons for his choices; both are near interesting cities, have a strong international focus and met his other criteria (strong academics, low sports emphasis, no Greek presence, quirky students). He would have been happy at either. He got accepted at his other schools and went to one of them, but we were both relieved to have those 2 early schools in hand. Of course, not every family has the resources to visit multiple schools before applying, but I will say, we found the descriptions in the Fiske Guide to be extremely accurate.</p>
<p>I’d be happy to have the kids in our school embrace the state schools, instead of “well, of I don’t get in anywhere else, I guess I’ll go to…(insert state U)” My third son was the only one who said he’d be happy to go to our state school. In some schools it’s such a stigma, as in I’m JUST going to go to U." Parents are just as bad, but I enjoy asking where THEY went to school–most of these successful adults? The dreaded “U”!!!</p>
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<p>Yes, it does seem common to see posts from students from (for example) New Jersey who want to go anywhere but Rutgers – sometimes the private and out of state public schools that they are considering are not necessarily better, but are are more expensive. That type of attitude does appear to be more common in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states.</p>
<p>*Quote:
Baseline CSU eligibility would accept an in-state 2.5 GPA and 900 SAT CR+M student to a non-impacted campus and major. However, population growth has outpaced the building of CSUs and increasing capacity…
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<p>Right…so build more campuses or add more buildings to existing ones that have space. </p>
<p>The problem is that not allowing for kids to commute to a local CSU just causes more aid/debt to be needed for room and board elsewhere. </p>
<p>Grow the ones in demand. Beef up the ones that are in populated areas but aren’t filled to make them more attractive.</p>
<p>Put one in southern OC to lighten the demand for Fullerton, LB, and SD.</p>
<p>Lucky for us, most kids in our large urban/suburban district choose to go to our state schools and are happy to do so. Of course they’re back-ups for some but not for most. Kids just apply to several different instate u’s. So usually a directional state u. is the safety school while one of the two big state u’s are first choice. However, the directionals are popular on their own too. </p>
<p>My two S’s only applied to state u’s. because that’s where they wanted to be. One went to his first choice big state u. and the other S went to his first choice, a directional state u.</p>
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<p>First, you have to convince voters that post-secondary education is at least as important as K-12, health and welfare, prisons, and tax limitations or cuts. When the money is not there, or is consumed by what voters consider higher priority, capacity cannot be increased.</p>
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<p>One of the newer CSUs is in San Marcos, between LB/F and SD.</p>
<p>Of course, Orange and San Diego counties tend to be have more conservative voters who prefer lower taxes, so one can argue that they may “deserve” a new CSU less than some other parts of the state that are (slightly) more willing to pay taxes.</p>
<p>We have a great state U that would have been a really good fit for my son too and he had many friends who were very happy at UVM. My son wanted to go farther from home and H and I were fine with that. UVM isn’t exactly a bargain anyway, even for instate students. For most students in VT our CC system and our state colleges are their only (and an excellent) option.</p>
<p>I attended a small LAC (Antioch), U of MN, a small professional school (Antioch/New England) and ASU (for a PhD). All programs were excellent. At U of MN, I was able to take a few graduate level courses as an undergrad. They were very well taught and with small class sizes. The intro courses were very large (800+ students) but really well done and I felt I learned a lot. I accessed the TAs and the profs had office hours and were actually there.</p>