Need help selecting Safety, Match, and Reach colleges

College Search & Selection
1

Hi I’m currently a senior in high school and I need help on selecting my safety, match, and reach colleges.

Weighted GPA (not including college course) - 3.0
Unweighted GPA - (not including college course) - 2.8
Math Courses - Geometry, Algebra 2/Trig, Pre-Calculus Honors, AP Calc AB, AP Stats
Science Courses - Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Physiology, AP Biology
College Courses - Psychology (got a B)

SAT Reading - 520
SAT Math - 640
SAT Essay - 4/3/5
Combined SAT Score (out of 1600): 1160

I previously had IEP for my speech impediment from 3rd grade until 9th grade
I have attended 3 clubs
I am the founder and president of a youth group at my church
I was part of the Legislative Council for 2 years
Participated in 5 dance groups in school
CPR Certified

I am mostly looking for a college in California because for the weather and I’ll be closer to my family, but I’m fine with applying anywhere in USA.
I am planning in either majoring in Biology or Computer Science.
I’m fine with both private and public schools, slightly leaning towards public schools.
Not too worried about tuition, but can’t exceed $50,000 a year.
I do like party schools, but academic is more important.

Any suggestions are appreciated, whether if there is anything I can do to improve my college chances or suggesting colleges I should apply to.

2

If you are a California resident, the obvious choices are the Cal states. Depending upon which Cal state is in your local service area, it could be your safety school.

http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf

Biology and Computer science are usually impacted majors so you need to have competitive stats.
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How Cal States admit:

The Cal states admit by major and eligibility index. They really only consider GPA/Test scores/Geographic location and HS course rigor. Other than Cal Poly SLO, your EC’s are not considered.

You need to calculate your CSU/UC GPA using grades from a-g courses taken 10-11th.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Not sure which courses are a-g and will give you extra honors points, then use this link by typing in your HS name?

https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution

Cal states and the majority of the UC’s use the capped weighted GPA.

Then calculate your Eligibility index:
If you took the Redesigned SAT:
(CSU capped weighted GPA X 800) + (SAT Evidence Based Reading & Writing (EBRW) + Math Score) = Eligibility Index

Eligibility index for ACT:
(CSU capped weighted GPA X 200) + (ACT Composite x10)= Eligibility Index

**CSULB and SJSU use a modified EI for STEM/Engineering majors:
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/index.html

You will then be ranked based on EI and major and they accept from the top down until all spots are filled.
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So based on the EI formula, your EI calculates out to 3560.

I suggest you look at CSU East Bay, Dominguez Hills, Bakersfield, Stanislaus, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, San Marcos for either Biology/CS or both.

Impacted majors and campuses: https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/ImpactedProgramsMatrix.pdf

If you are interested in out of state schools, look at some of the WUE schools where you get discounted tuition: http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all
Just be aware that some majors are excluded from the WUE program.

3

Look at Cal Lutheran, University LaVerne, St Mary’s of CA - run the NPC to see if net costs would be ok.
Perhaps UC Merced as a reach?

4

How about Redlands as a match?

5

If I was previously in IEP for my stammering from 3rd grade to 9th grade, can that be used as an excuse or shown as improvement?

6

Speech issues have nothing to do with your stats unless you were depressed and not functioning at capacity. The thing is I don’t think that’s the kind of thing I would bring up on college applications.