@chookgoo: I hope I did not come off too harsh and I do know how you feel when you see your kid working hard and not getting into their choice schools. My younger son just finished up his third year at SDSU as a CS major and I am sure he will tell anyone that at least for his major, there is no such things as easy A’s.
One great fact about SDSU that I really think makes it an exceptional school (in my mind) is the Alumni Network and the Alumni Mentorship program. Thanks to the many Alumni’s that go out of their way to help SDSU students, my son was able to land a great internship position for the summer. To me and my son, this makes his hard work worthwhile.
I wish you and your daughter all the best and I am sure she will shine at SDSU.
I understand your daughter being disappointed, but SDSU is far from “settling”. Both my kids had over a 4.0 and around 30 ACT scores. They were admitted to basically all UCs except Berkeley and UCLA. In both cases my kids felt that the State Colleges of Cal Poly and SDSU offered more than schools like UCSD, UC Irvine, UC Davis or UCSB. My daughter gets much more practical experience in Biomedical Engineering at Cal Poly and my son will get a much stronger alumni network at SDSU for Accounting/Business than going to the UC schools (other than UCLA and Berkeley). Interesting thing is of all the schools mentioned here the one with the strongest party reputation is still a UC school (UCSB).
I’m not sure who told you about grades, but that too is misleading. There may be more A students at UCSD, but professors are also much less likely to give Cs, Ds, and Fs. My daughter has several kids from her high school who study moderately and get around a 3.5 at UCSD as she studies non-stop and gets a 3.0 at Cal Poly. I will be very surprised if in two years your daughter tells you that it is easier to get A’s at SDSU than in high school. I hope she enjoys SDSU, excels, and looks back in 4 years and knows that it was the best place for her.
@chookgoo I came across your comment and I wanted to correct you because what you said was not only insulting, it was incorrect. USD is most definitely not more competitive. SDSU has a lower acceptance rate and the average GPA of incoming students is now a 3.8. USD does not have the same opportunities whatsoever. UCSD is a wonderful school but the atmosphere is not for everyone. SDSU has the rep of a party school because of things that happened years ago. It is not easier to get As at SDSU than any other school. SDSU is better than a good portion of the UCs and definitely many of the private schools in the area.
Please research more into schools before you talk down on people who chose it. I know people who turned down UCLA to go to SDSU. It just seems slightly ignorant of you.