low GPA/okay ACT for Cal States?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello! I am currently a high school senior & my state of residence is California. I have been looking at the Cal State system for college but i am wondering if i have any chance on account of my low GPA. :/</p>

<p>I'm extremely nervous about getting in anywhere, & i have some back story about the reason for my GPA if if even helps.. I did not have a great household living situation. My parents were constantly fighting and their arguments would usually interrupt my studying and homework time. My parents were extremely hostile towards each other, and after spending every night calming each other down after an argument, and then returning back to my studies, my grades suffered. My mood was always bad and i felt constantly depressed.</p>

<p>Thankfully, recently my father has moved out and my parents are in the process of getting a divorce. After my father moved out, i finally had the time to study and on my first try on the ACT I received a 29. </p>

<p>I have talked to my father and he is willing to pay for my tuition to any place, (His income last year was 110k after taxes) but i would like to stay in California in hopes it would be cheaper to stay in-state.</p>

<p>my overall gpa is a 3.06 weighed, 3.01 unweighed. not much of a difference between the two.
i did not take the SAT, but i took the September ACT.
I used the CSU Mentor calculator & it said that my csu gpa is a 3.10.</p>

<p>ACT
comp. score: 29
english: 28
math: 31
reading: 30
i haven't received my writing score yet.</p>

<p>I'm not sure 100% about my major, but most likely I would like to major in English. </p>

<p>I took tons of Pre-AP's my freshman & sophomore year, but junior year I only took 1 actual AP class, AP US History & i received a 4 score on the AP test. Currently in my senior year, i have two AP's, which are AP English Lit & AP Art History.</p>

<p>My top choices I am looking at is Humboldt State, Sonoma State, Cal State Northridge, & CSU Chico.
I live in the Los Angeles County, so the cal i'm closest to & the one my high school considers its feeder school is Cal State LA.</p>

<p>I know my gpa really puts me at a disadvantage, but could I still get into school with this gpa? any help & feedback is greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Here is the formula to calculate your Eligibility index: (CSU GPA x 200) + (ACT compositie x10). Based on your CSU GPA and ACT score, your EI is 649 or approximately 3800 (SAT conversion). You should be in good shape for all the schools that you applied. Chico State EI should be around 3700+ and rest of the schools are lower based on previous years information.
It will also depend upon this years pool of applicants so the EI numbers will change each year. Impacted majors may required higher stats than non-impacted majors.</p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

3

<p>I’m sort of in the same boat as you right now. I would definitely sign up for Parchment (<a href=“http://www.parchment.com/”>http://www.parchment.com/&lt;/a&gt;) which can actually help you see your chances to get into the school. It’s really helpful to get an idea of where you might get in :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I live in LA County too! Did you go to the Cal State Night in Long Beach? What I learned most from Cal States is that they really don’t care about EC’s, only the numbers (transcripts, GPA, SAT scores, ACT scores, etc). Cal States like Monterey Bay have an average of 3.1 GPA for all their students! So don’t be so intimidated.</p>

<p>Please also consider the EOP when applying! That will definitely help out :)</p>

<p>Chance me back please! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1692252-sfsu-and-usf-easy-to-get-into-schools-but-what-are-my-real-chances.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1692252-sfsu-and-usf-easy-to-get-into-schools-but-what-are-my-real-chances.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>PS If you have any more questions about Cal States let me know! All my friends and I are trying to get into Cal States :slight_smile: </p>

4

<p>@regina14: Parchment can give you some guidelines but is pretty useless on predicting acceptances. I would look the common data sets for each school to give you an idea of what kind of stats the in-coming freshman had last year. The Cal States are a numbers game and EC’s account for very little in the admissions process.</p>

5

<p>@Gumbymom‌ agreed, but it gives you a general idea of what your chances are. It was just recommended to me by my counselor. And by numbers game, do you mean they just utilize the EI number and take you for that or…? It’s something I am wondering myself. </p>

6

<p>SJSU is the only Cal State that annually publishes their EI cutoff for each major for in-coming Freshman. If you read the admissions information on most of the Cal states website, they do make reference to the EI. For example, SDSU will rank each applicant for each major based on their EI and will accept starting from the highest until all the spots are filled for that major. On the Cal state application, there are only 4 questions regarding EC’s which include leadership, work hours and if work is related to major. On Cal Poly SLO’s application, EC’s only account for 10% in their admissions and I am sure for the rest of the Cal states it may be even less.</p>

<p><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&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;