I know there are some wise, knowledgeable people in the College Confidential community that could possibly give helpful advice for my high school senior who is interested in applying as an English major for Fall 2020. Her local area CSU is Cal Poly Pomona, but she wants to go away from home. She is trying to narrow down her application choices and wants to apply to a few CSU’s. I’ve done some research and know which schools are her reach schools so I’m interested in know about some of the safer schools that may have good English programs. She did get an F in her sophomore AP Chem class and a D in AP Calculus 2nd semester junior year. Although those grades hurt her GPA, she will have enough A-G credits. Her stats are as follows:
Weighted GPA: 3.63
Unweighted: 3.56
10th and 11th grade: 3.35 (unweighted)
SAT: 1320
EI: 4000
I appreciate any feedback (good or bad) that you may have or any recommendations for websites I can look at to get more information.
Thank you.
Most of the CSUs have reputable English programs. Based on her stats, SDSU and CPSLO are probably reaches, the other CSUs shouldn’t be a problem. Outside the LA area - Sonoma and Chico have solid programs and are highly residential - offering the ‘traditional’ freshman experience. They also have Honors programs she might find interesting. They’d be high on my ‘must tour’ list. Humboldt is also highly residential but its location isn’t for everyone. If she’s more interested in a larger and more urban, school - SJSU, Sac and SF will fit the bill.
Tour a bunch and see what she likes,
I think CSULB will also be a stretch since the average CSU GPA for admitted non-local students in 2018 for English was 4.12. She should be good for the rest of the CSU’s.
SJSU lists the EI thresholds for all majors here: http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/index.html
I have been an English teacher for 25 years. I graduated from Sonoma State and was able to actually take Teaching Language Arts in Secondary Education as an emphasis for my degree. My colleagues have filled in the entire spectrum from the most obscure Liberal Arts colleges, through the CSU’s and UC’s, up to Stanford degrees. I have yet to see any connection between where someone went to school for English and how effective they are as a classroom teacher. It’s just one of those degrees.
My son is a junior and an English major at Cal Poly SLO right now. From what I have seen, it is a very fine program with good and accessible professors. However, it is not appreciably different from the program or professors that I had decades ago. That being said, CP SLO is the toughest admit in the CSU’s and Sonoma State is one of the easiest.
Another serious question is “What do I want from my degree?” If it’s to be a teacher, there are lots of options. If it’s to be a screen writer, that might narrow the choices. Beyond that, I think finding the right fit (geographic, campus size, department size, etc) is the most important factor with this particular degree.
Thank you all for the great feedback. We’re definitely interested in Chico, SJSU, Sonoma, and Humboldt. We’ve checked out the youtube videos and google images of some those campuses, but ultimately my plan is to take a tour or just visit these campuses in person.