Some things happen for a reason! Hubby got invited to a conference at a very nice resort in Monterey, CA the same dates we are planning to travel. So we are going to tack on a couple relaxation days after the conference and then hop over to Colorado.
So this begs the question - are there any potential match schools for D23 in the Bay area? Granted there is no snow which is a biggie. BUT the weather is at least temperate and I recall there are many beautiful areas with trees which is big for her. AND itâs closer to home.
Iâd like to visit a college while in the area even if itâs not a perfect match just for the experience for her.
UC Santa Cruz is near Monterey and would be an easy visit. Itâs too expensive OOS to be a match for your 45K target, but it does have lots of trees.
Santa Clara University is supposed to be a very nice school (we havenât visited, since they donât have a program S23 wants). I donât know if they offer enough merit aid to get down to your 45K.
I know that some of the CSUs have WUE tuition, but I donât know enough about them to make specific suggestions!
UC Santa Cruz is gorgeous! You are literally walking between giant redwoods with periodic distant glimpses of the Pacific Ocean⊠and the town of Santa Cruz has a great beach and seems really fun.
I think we are going to visit Santa Cruz the town just for fun. I canât imagine sheâd have a chance of getting admitted to UCSC - and also Iâll double check but I think the UCâs are notoriously expensive OOS I think.
The CSUâs however are well within budget and there are quite a few in the area - so Iâm researching those right now.
For Santa Clara I had read good things about it and so I read up on it a lot yesterday and ruled it out, even if it turned out to be affordable. I canât remember the reason. She wants to do Biology/Chem/Physics.
Yes, the UCs are very expensive OOS. Too expensive I think. I wouldnât want to pay that much if we were OOSâŠ
However, I donât see why she wouldnât have a chance of being admitted, as long as she has all the a-g requirements. If it is a school that interests her and you decide it is affordable, you could always calculate her UC GPA and compare to typical admitted students. (Youâll want to calculate her CSU GPA if you are looking at CSUs anyway.)
Thank you - the CA public schools are a new fun little niche for me to learn about since she hadnât considered CA schools at all before this (maybe haha).
I keep thinking about the stories I read about kids picking a school they never thought theyâd end up at.
Iâm curious why you ruled it out. Our DD is a SCU grad, and itâs a great school. Pricey, but terrific in many ways. Iâd be happy to PM you any info you might want from my perspective.
OK so I was wrong - definitely too pricey! Also probably a little too small and less âdiverseâ than she is looking for. Also she wants to go somewhere where natural sciences are a huge priority. There are trees there but they are palm trees haha. And no snow.
Ok, Iâm going to go for the low hanging fruit here: visit Cal State - Monterey Bay! If she wants physics, it will not be the school for her. But lots of biology, environmental science, and I believe a lot of research opportunities. There are around 7k students, so not tiny but not humongous either. It gives a feel for the type of campus and itâs only 13m away from downtown Monterey (per Google Maps).
Other California publics you may want to consider are:
Cal Poly-Humboldt: This is the newest Cal Poly campus, and the poly campuses emphasize a lot of hands-on learning. This one, from what Iâve read, is more in the boonies though, which she may not want. This school is mid-size, with less than 6k students.
In terms of colleges for a visit this trip, if you want a long day trip you could visit Cal State: Fresno (2h40m away), but unless she was particularly interested, that seems like a long ways to go just to visit a campus, especially as itâs a commuter campus.
Cal State: Chico is a school you might give more serious thought to. Itâs too far away from Monterey for a day trip, but is not too far off the interstate if youâre driving down from Washington. But there are about 15k students here, and 60% of first year students live in the dorms (vs. about 15% at Fresno, for instance). (Humboldt & Monterey Bay are considered residential campuses.)
All of these schools are WUE schools with tuition at about $8600âŠwell within budget!
@bethy1 Might help narrow things down if you would give us some idea of what sort of fields/professions your daughter is considering aiming for when you mentioned â+Grad School/Researchâ
If Law or Medicine are on the table, achieving a superlative college GPA + (in the case of Med) a specific undergrad course program is important.
Beyond that the kind of colleges that might be of more specific interest to a particular student would vary greatly if the student were interested in pursuing graduate research in Classics or Comp Lit as opposed to STEM Fields like Engineering, Math or Econ.
Another option to consider is U. of San Francisco. Have no idea about the quality of their science facilities, but they offer all of her majors of interest, and if you were going to spend any time in San Francisco anyway, then it would be easy to add on a visit. Obviously, run the NPC first to see if it would work financially, as Iâm not quite sure if itâd hit below $45k. But itâs a mid-size school (6k undergrads) in a big urban city with great medical care, and would be a relatively short flight home.
Yup I thought CSU Monterey Bay for sure for a visit . . . though I hear the aesthetic is rough (but weâre on a budget here!!)
Chico was my radar even earlier than this ever since looking seriously at UNR. I just have to make sure she doesnât see the references to âparty schoolâ. As a college alum myself and parent to me the term party school can also mean âsocial, outgoing and friendlyâ school. At least some of the time! Sheâs at a âpartyâ high school right now and she desperately wants fellow students who take their education seriously.
You guys are all amazing thank you for the input!!!
Taking a hard look at Saint Maryâs College of California. There would so many perks to a LAC for her. This one seems really nice and is a little bigger than some. Sure there is no snow but it looks like it also doesnât get to hot in that area? She hates the heat. It could come in just at budget depending on merit. And there is no app fee.
Sheâs visiting her first LAC - Puget Sound - next week so weâll see what she thinks about small liberal arts schools after that.
We might do a formal visit and then drive through a couple of the others to and from. Including of course CSU MB.
Moraga is on the hotter side of the hills, and will be over 100 this weekend. Itâs about 10 degrees warmer than Stanford and 15 degrees warmer than Berkeley.
Ah good to know - thanks! Iâm not very familiar with the Bay area. Itâs known for being more temperate but mountains and ocean make a big difference as they do up north in WA state!
Moraga is hotter than Berkeley, but itâs not usually 100 degrees! We are having a heat wave right now in the bay area, we received heat alerts from the national weather service for Sept 1-6. I wouldnât write it off for climate alone, if there are other things she likes about it.
Agreed! Plus most of the time she wouldnât be there in the summer if she didnât want to be. I think sheâd like the weather the rest of the year but snow is one of her goals so weâll see. This is a girl whoâs been dreaming to going to school in Canada or the state of Michigan for a few years haha!
But Iâm finding that we need to cast a wide net and just see where she feels like sheâs at the right place.
UPDATE
Iâm still so grateful to all the responses to this thread and I still come back often to revisit the suggestions and will continue to do so as our search continues to evolve!
Our family has settled on visiting New England first and doing a College-palooza tour. I posted an update in the Parents 3.0-3.4 GPA thread and will post it below. In the meantime here is her/our updated Application list for IF she goes away to college next year. Her heath is still a big issue, unfortunately:
Safties (we think):
Colorado State
Western Michigan
UMaine
Washington State
University of Nevada - Reno
Endicott College
Targets:
UMass
UConn
U New Hampshire
Clark U
University of Puget Sound
Reaches:
U Denver
U Minnesota Twin Cities
University of WA (in state, Arts and Sciences)
Budget for Tuition and Room/Board is still 40k - 45k per year
Her GPA is still 3.9 and holding. But her SAT - while decent with very little prep - is not worth submitting. I ran a bunch of NPCâs and her results were better TO.
She and I will likely go visit the colorado schools next after our familyâs New England trip.
Things have been slow at our house despite EA deadlines approaching. D23 has a lot of other things to deal with besides college apps and I fear she is feeling a little paralyzed. I secretly have plans A, B, C, D . . etc lined up in my head. The goal is to keep as many options open for her for as long as possible as the year unfolds.
Our whole family is doing a week long college visit trip at the end of October to New England. Itâs as much for inspiration for her as it is to visit particular schools. In other words - while this is an area of the country she is interested in, we are also going just for the general college exposure. We are also looking forward to some fun touring of historical sites as my hubby is a major history buff.
Currently the schools we are visiting are listed below - subject to change even during the trip if she develops preferences. Some of these will be just casual walk-throughs to see if there might be further interest. Some are Safeties and some might be reaches - not sure. She has a fairly unique profile and stats. She thinks she wants a large school but we are forcing her to look at smaller schools as well.
Maybes: University of Massachusetts Boston, Roger Williams University, University of Hartford
Iâm planning on keeping several schools in my back pocket and see how things unfold
