My child has been accepted to all colleges she applied to. She thinks she would like to double major in Communications and either Design or Technical Theater with the ultimate goal of becoming a Creative Director. She has narrowed her schools to the following: UC Davis, Long Beach State (Honors Program), Chapman University, Cal State Fullerton (Honors) and UCLA. We live in Central California, so she will live at these schools. She was pleasantly surprised at getting accepted to UCLA and has made this a more difficult decision. She will have to apply to Communications as Junior and we have heard it is very competitive. She was given awesome merit aid at Chapman making it the same price as a UC. My concerns with her attending the Cal States is that they are both commuter schools, and she will be living on campus. Any advice would be great!
Congratulations to your daughter. I think she should visit all of the colleges she is considering and meet as many of the faculty and other students as possible to make her decision. After that she should have more of a sense of where she sees herself fitting in and being happy and productive. Good luck!
I lived in Orange County and knew more than a handful of kids who went to Fullerton. All lived at the school. They, of course, could get home in 45 minutes, but I think most do it more at first and then get into the school activities and rarely go home. Same with Chapman. The kids I knew who went there lived at the school but could easily get home in just a few minutes. Didn’t go home that much.
That was true for me in college too. School was about 35 miles away, and I never went home. Once I ran into my brothers at a movie theater (Star Wars!) as they were leaving and I was lined up to go in. Hadn’t even called home to say I was ‘in town’.
I would not choose Chapman over UCLA or Davis. I would not choose Cal State honors programs over a UC. If money is an issue, I would choose the least amount of debt over the above preferences.
@bookmouse Thank you for your comments. We visited Davis last weekend, and have visited Chapman. We will be attending Bruin day at UCLA in a couple of weeks.
@twoinanddone I attended high school near Fullerton, so I am very familiar with the area.
@AboutTheSame Price is a consideration, we are still waiting for our aid offer from Fullerton.
So is she admitted undeclared at UCLA, and does that mean she gives up the Technical Theater/design program if she goes there? Does Chapman have a Technical Theater program? (I know they are big in theater, don’t know if that includes Tech.)
What school gives her the best ability and options to do what she wants? I think they all have communications…
@blueskies2day She was admitted undeclared to College of Letters and Sciences at UCLA, and would need to apply to both majors there. She was admitted to Design at Davis and Long Beach and Communication at the others. Chapman does have a technical theater program. We are headed to Long Beach and Chapman tomorrow to get a better feel for things there.
@mamato3
Super familiar with a few of your choices. If you get this in time, head to Bruxies across the street from campus on Glassell for lunch. It will give you the vibe of this very Orange County campus. The town is adorable. Aside from the campus being super small, it is a little piece of heaven there - feels super safe and charming out of this world, but again, it is pretty tiny. UCLA is Chapman times 100. If you can deal with the size and the “feel” of Chapman (you will see what I mean) it could certainly give her all kinds of options. Was she admitted to Dodge?
I don’t know how hard it is to get into Communications at UCLA, but I know we didn’t consider UW (Washington) for my CS student she was admitted pre-science and would have to apply to this very competitive major as a junior and Admissions director said most had a 3.8 + to get into major. Too much pressure for two years and didn’t want to risk not getting into major. But UCLA is so awesome, can you find out what typical gpa needs to be and how many get in to Communications, that kind of thing? So many would be envious to have admission there, but it has to fit your student.
UC Davis is so different that UCLA, much quieter on weekends, that kind of thing. Never looked at the state schools, so don’t know them at all, but it seems these three are the superior choices, but it matters what she likes more! Certainly, she will know which one she really likes best after visiting. Good luck, love to hear how it goes!
This will sound snobby and elitist and totally CC but I would pick a UC. The UC system is really good, and a degree from UCLA or UCDavis will carry more weight than from a Cal State school that, although an excellent value and having dedicated faculty, is a bit unknown outside of California. With that said, I have some good trends who graduated from Long Beach and Cal State LA who would strongly disagree with me!
Ask in this subforum: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/
@CADREAMIN I grew up in North Orange County, so I know the area pretty well. We always went to the Orange street fair. She was admitted into Wilkinson for Communication. From what I have read about UCLA Communication program, you need a very high (3.9ish) GPA to get into it. We will see how she likes it next weekend. Thank you!
@LBowie I think she is realizing that, which is why she applied to UCLA in the first place. Thanks for reaffirming that!
@bopper Thanks!
Pleas take what I said with a grain of salt. In fact, I might as well retract it. I don’t know what made me say it. My Cal State LA friend is now a Distinguished Professor in the UC System and the Long Beach friend is a professor too…at Long Beach!