Good morning all. Hope the holidays were good to you and your families. D is showing more interest in looking at school and even has a list. She doesn’t want to be far from home (we are in CA) and the schools closer to us are mostly publics so I am finding it hard to diversify her list with small private schools.
Redlands, Chapman, Occidental? Loyola or Pepperdine or Santa Clara?
@roycroftmom, I have a couple of those schools in mind. I took her to Occidental for a tour and they showed us the oldest smelliest dorms. That was a big mistake.
@lilmom are you in northern California or southern California? When you say she wants to be close to home, does she mean a 1-2 hr drive or is she willing to take a 1-2 hour flight? If she is willing to fly, you might look at schools in Oregon and Arizona as well. We are in So Cal and my oldest goes to UC Davis. Not close enough to come home on the weekends but easy enough to fly home for Thanksgiving, Spring Break, etc.
You might consider looking at the Claremont colleges or even USD or USF. USF, LMU and Santa Clara are Jesuit while USD is Roman Catholic. What does she think about USC? Chapman is really expanding their health sciences and STEM programs if she is interested in that direction.
Well, D2 '20 has started to hear from a few schools on his list. Does anyone here know anything about Canisius?
I don’t…
I’ve never heard of it. What made him put it on his list?
@lkg4answers, We are in SoCal (more Central Coast) and I get the feeling that D would like to be 2-3 hours driving from home. She has Cal Poly SLO, UCLA, some of the Claremont Colleges, Cal and UCSB on her list. We will also be visiting UC Davis (probably the farthest she’ll want to go), LMU, UCSD and USD. (San Diego is my hometown.)
We are looking for OOS schools that are a short plane ride away to add to her list - perhaps Portland and Seattle areas.
@lkg4answers, he is getting some recruiting interest from that school.
Excellent basketball at Canisius. Also Jesuit so committed to educating the entire person.
@lilmom I went to UCSB undergrad and to Cal for grad school. My husband did his undergrad at UCLA and grad at Cal. My oldest is a sophomore at UCD and when looking for “fit” we toured just about every California school and all of the schools on your list. My two cents about tours (and take that for what it is worth) is below.
If you tour SLO, do the general tour as well as the college tour. We found the college tour to be very helpful. We also did the housing tour but it was at the end of a long day and was very generic. If SLO is a top contender, spend some time on the SLO forum as their admission criteria is different from the rest of the CSU’s so you will want to make sure you put down as much info as you can (work experience, junior high classes, etc.).
Claremont Colleges - Make sure you go when classes are in session and kids are around so you get a feel of the small colleges and energy on the campuses compared to other schools you are touring.
UCSB - The info session before the tour was very helpful. Plan on driving around or having lunch in Isla Vista so you get a feel for where the students live.
Cal - Love my alma mater but really hate how they treat prospective students. Tours and info sessions feel like cattle calls.
UCSD - The info session and student panel this year was better than it was when we went 3 yrs ago. It is a big campus and you need to park off site and take a bus in so allow plenty of time to get to the tour. If applying, make sure you do research on the pros and cons of each of the 6 colleges before you are filling out the application.
UCD - The info session before the tour is helpful. Take the housing tour as well as the general tour. Plan on spending time in the Downtown to get a feel of the college town. Go to the Memorial Union (not on the tour) and maybe the college she is interested in while you are there. It is a big campus (which is why everyone bikes) so plan on a lot of walking. There is a Hyatt Place on campus which is a convenient place to stay.
We also toured Stanford, UCSC, Chapman, LMU, Santa Clara, UCM, USD, UCI and SDSU. Wherever we could, we would try to connect with a kid from our HS who was attending that school. We usually took them to lunch and enjoyed hearing their perspective.
UC & SLO spring break this year is March 25-29. The week before is finals so I would avoid visiting the last couple weeks of March
@lkg4answers, thank you for the tips!
My oldest went to CPSLO and had a great experience but I didn’t know the admissions criteria was different. She will definitely apply as it is a sentimental favorite. What she has to figure out is if declaring a major right away is for her.
We’ve been to UCSB a few times and the atmosphere in Isla Vista is markedly different during the day and at night.
UCLA - D felt it was small! Go figure. It was one of the first campuses she really toured so her perceptions may have changed. Plus, our student tour guide kept mentioning how she changed her major three times from pre med to psychology to history. Lol.
Cal - H and I recently met a young man who is graduating from there. I was impressed with his enthusiasm and how he described his journey to his major. I feel that is the kind of experience D will appreciate. A chance to explore and learn from different disciplines. My two older kids’ college experiences were so linear mostly because they “knew” what they wanted to do. Neither has strayed from their plans. We’ll be visiting Cal and UCD in April.
Sight unseen, Claremont McKenna is one of her top choices. I will definitely take your advice to visit while school is in session.
Yes, SLO calculates a GPA based on 9-11th grade whereas the other CSUs and UCs calculate using just 10th and 11th grade. SLO also looks at total number of years in math, foreign language etc. If you forget to add that you took 1-2 years of math (algebra, geometry) or 1-2 years of foreign language in junior high it doesn’t get added into your total number of years.
April 13 is Picnic Day at Davis. It is a HUGE event and a lot of fun but finding a hotel might be difficult. https://picnicday.ucdavis.edu
@lkg4answers, thanks again for the heads up. Lots of planning to do!
FYI - our family just finished a “walking tour” of the UCD campus and downtown today. In some ways the college and town has changed a lot since my graduation in ‘92 but still feels quaint, small even though there are many more buildings and housing options. We will probably be back next spring or fall when school is in session for a real tour.
lkg4answers
Is there a separate application for Cal Poly SLO vs the other Cal State schools, such that listing the additional years of courses has a separate entry area on the app? I guess I mistakenly thought the CalState application was a single app where the applicant checked off the schools being applied to and paid the fees for the number of those schools?
Same.app, extra section for Cal Poly
@amsunshine if I recall correctly (from '17), when entering grades it said to enter all social studies classes and grades, all science classes and grades etc. For both math and foreign language there was an additional sentence stating that you can include junior high classes if applicable (or something like that). After students entered in all of the other subjects, many didn’t see the comment about junior high classes or didn’t think it mattered. I don’t know if the format of the application has changed but you can find out more information on the SLO forum. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/ Another crazy thing about SLO is that they admit by major over several days. If your student isn’t prepared for that, it can cause a lot of anxiety and stress.
Thanks so much! Very helpful – my dd is applying to both SDSU and SLO so I will keep this information handy and look out for these issues on the app.
re: CPSLO. Yes, acceptances are rolled out in batches. I’ll never forget S’s excitement when he opened his emailed acceptance video.
Happy New Year, all! Kind of wild to see the calendar flip to “next year they graduate,” no?