<p>Hello, I want to go to college in california but I'm not really sure where to apply to. I'm currently a high school senior and have pre med interests. </p>
<p>I would be going out of state too. So far all I know is UC Davis. </p>
<p>My current GPA is a 4.0 and my SAT score is 1590 but I'm planning on taking it again this fall along with the ACT. </p>
<p>So any california colleges suggestions? I don't really prefer schools heavily known for partying and its greek system also. </p>
<p>All of the UCs are excellent. Stanford is awesome as always and so are Pacific and Santa Clara.</p>
<p>UCLA? UC Berkeley? </p>
<p>If you are interested in. The UC’s you need to calculate your UC GPA see link: <a href=“GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/</a>
Your GPA looks competitive, but your SAT needs improvement. If you are looking at UC Davis and UC Irvine, you would need around a 1900+. For UCLA/UCB or UCSD, at least at 2100+. Great Essays and EC’s will also help your application.<br>
How much can your family afford?? For Privates, you should look at Stanford, University of Pacific, University of San Diego some of the Claremont Colleges (Pomona and Pitzer).
Good Luck</p>
<p>The Cal State system would seem appropriate.</p>
<p>Since you are out of state, you would pay out of state tuition for UC schools. You might want to also consider USC because the cost would be be equivalent to the UC’s with the UC out of state tuition rate. If 4.0 is your weighted gpa, it is low for UCB, UCLA, USC and perhaps UCSD or UCD. You’ll need to raised your SAT to at about 2050 for UCB, UCLA and USC and also have about a 4.3 weighted gpa. For USC, you need about 3.8 or higher unweighted. Also, you need to have about at least 4 to 6 total AP and honor courses plus extracurricular activities, etc.</p>
<p>Stanford, Cal Tech and the Claremont colleges appear well out of your range. You should check their websites. You might want to consider California State Universities and other private colleges in CA.</p>
<p>For lower ranked UC’s, your gpa is about right. However, you should raise you SAT score to around1800 to have a good chance for admittance. You should look at the UC website and the “a thru g” UC course requirements. Some of the requirements might state, for example, 2 years of foreign language. Most of the UC applicants admitted are going beyond the UC minimum requirements, for example, by taking 3 or 4 years of a foreign language instead of the required 2 years.</p>
<p>Lastly, if there is hardship or adversity in your life, your chances of being admitted to the UC’s or USC (or even the Ivies or elite colleges) are higher, even if your stats are a little low. The kind of hardship or adversity I am referring to are: under represented minority, low income family, single parent, both parents have no college, etc.</p>
<p>I am not selling USC, but USC and some private schools are more likely to give merit money to qualified students than public schools such as the UC’s.</p>
<p>The public California colleges will be too competitive and too expensive. Stick with the small privates.</p>
<p>The CA St. Universities (CSU) are less competitive and in my opinion probably the “middle of the road” in CA. They are not at the bottom tier like other schools I won’t name for I might offend someone. For many CSUs (other than the impacted ones such as Cal Poly, SDSU, CSULB, etc., if you have > 3.0 gpa and <3.5 (most applicant > 3.5 will likely attend a UC or maybe Cal Poly depending on the major), you can have a low SAT score and get in. You don’t need extracurricular activities like the UC’s. Out of state tuition is lower than the UC’s. The UC’s admit the top 9% and I think the CSU’s admit the top 25 to 33%? I am somewhat familiar with CSUs and I know that their criteria for admission is much lower than the UC’s. </p>
<p>There are 23 Cal States in California and like UCBUSCalum stated that many are impacted and can be as competitive as the UC’s especially Cal Poly SLO and SDSU. All the Cal States use an Eligibility index to determine admission except for Cal Poly SLO which uses a alogrithm and bonus points: <a href=“http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dcal%2Bpoly%2Bslo%2Bmca%26fr%3Dipad#search=“cal%20poly%20slo%20mca””>http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dcal%2Bpoly%2Bslo%2Bmca%26fr%3Dipad#search=“cal%20poly%20slo%20mca”</a> SLO also usse 9-111th grades for GPA. </p>
<p>The CSU’s use your (UC GPA x 800) + (SAT CR + SAT Math) = Eligibility Index. The higher the index the greater chance you have for admission. Many schools have minimum cutoffs for each major such as SJSU: <a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-10079.11705.html”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-10079.11705.html</a>
Unfortunately most schools do not publish them. If you plan to attend the more competitive Cal States, you SAT EI should be around 3900+ to stand a good chance.
Cal States are also around $30-35K/year but again do not give much financial aid to OOS. As an OOS, your best chance for merit and financial aid would be the small privates: Santa Clara, Azusa Pacific, USC. Occidental, Loyola, Pepperdine etc… You need to do some research to see if any of these California schools are a good fit, personally and financially.</p>
<p>I recommend looking at the Claremont Colleges, they are highly selective, but they are some of the top ranked liberal arts colleges in the country. </p>
<p>The Claremont Colleges are considered the West Coast Ivies so they are highly selective. An SAT of 1590 is not even in the running to be considered for admission at any of these schools. Unless you can increase your score by at least 500 points, you really need to look elsewhere. Pitzer (1 of the 5 colleges) is a test optional school, so if you might have a slim chance there. Financial aid is also not great so with a pricetag of $65K/year, you need to have deep pockets.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Pitzer meet need? Being test-optional, it may be a great choice for OP (as a reach) and more reachable than USC.
Note that some CA universities are religious (as this may make a difference for you)
Pepperdine and Azusa Pacific are evangelical/conservative Christian with strict religious requirements.
Santa Clara and Loyola are Catholic; Santa Clara is nominally Catholic (many religions are represented and you can meet the religion requirement with classes outside Catholicism or even Christian thought) whereas Loyola has recently begun a campaign to be more in synch with Catholicism/Catholic thinking and values.</p>
<p>OP, the contrast between your GPA and your SAT score needs some explaining. Do you know whether this is typical for your high school? Maybe ask your guidance counselor.</p>
<p>“Santa Clara and Loyola are Catholic; Santa Clara is nominally Catholic”</p>
<p>"… Loyola has recently begun a campaign to be more in synch with Catholicism/Catholic thinking and values." </p>
<p>I didn’t even know that, and my son is a senior there! I think he has taken one remotely religious class, and I don’t think he has been to church yet. </p>
<p>I just reviewed their mission statement and it does seem a little different than it did four years ago. </p>
<p>^ There’s big alumni pressure to focus more on Catholic identity, due to some feeling the school has “strayed” too far from “Catholic values” by not requiring enough classes/inviting guest lecturers that are not Catholic/diluting the “Catholic character”/admitting too many non-practicing students, or that the school’s definition of these values didn’t match the older alumni’s
Or, it could just be a markting ploy while they’re trying to distinguish themselves more from Santa Clara and St Mary’s. 
</p>
<p>OP: it should still be noted that neither Santa Clara nor LMU require Bible Study and Chapel attendance the way Point Loma or Pepperdine do. </p>
<p>I secon Dustypig’s question in #12: is the discrepancy between test score and GPA typical at your school or did something happen?</p>