Hello! We are new to California and have been reading about how difficult it is to get admitted to UC/CSUs as well as how expensive they are after factoring in the room & board. This is disappointing as we believe in public schools and institutions of higher education.
I’m hearing anecdotally that some private, religious-affiliated colleges offer merit-aid that make the private colleges more affordable than UC/CSU. We’re hoping to identify private, secular (not religious-affiliated as my DH is an atheist) colleges in California that have strong faculty mentorships and opportunities for undergraduate research in life sciences. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.
If she is high stats & you have high need, the Claremont consortium of colleges is amazing. If you need to hunt for merit to bring costs down to CSU/ UC level, university of Redlands is a good option. Even with merit, it’s VERY challenging to get below that 25-30k of California public schools. Housing in California is almost always more than tuition. Kids can cut costs after freshman year by renting with several students off campus.
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Schools like University of the Pacific, Occidental College, and Whittier College may have had religious affiliations in the past but no longer do (or are only very loosely related). I know students who have received enough merit aid to bring costs down to UC level but not CSU level.
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Thanks so much. Unfortunately, we do not qualify for financial aid. We are approaching the college process with an extremely open-mind… My S24 – after reading Jeff Selingo’s “Who Gets In and Why” and only the 1st section of Ron Lieber’s “The Price You Pay for College” – is also thinking about Community College and Transfer Assistance Guarantee for 6 out of the 9 UCs.
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Thank you for the recommendations!
Does your son want to stay in California or is he open to other States?
What are his stats (gpa, course rigor, any test taken…) and what’s your budgrt v. efc?
Tell him what your budget is and run NPCs together on : SDSU, UCSC, Whittier, Pitzer, Occidental, Chapman, and, if willing to look further, Whitman, UPuget Sound, Willamette, Lewis&Clark, UNM.
He should definitely apply to UCs and CSUs.
cc+ TAG is a great academic choice but the college experience isnt the same if living at home& commuting, and attending a residential college.
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Regarding CC TAG, make sure that the major of interest is still available through TAG. Some popular majors such as Engineering/Business Admin/CS are no longer available to TAG at UCI and/or UCSB.
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Thank you for your advice! DH did the community college route to a 4 year then grad school, while I went straight to a 4 year. Currently, S24 is thinking about staying in CA, but who knows what he’ll be thinking in 2-3 years!
Great point! Thank you, @Gumbymom, for all of your sage advice in the forums for all these years!
Student loan debt in California is on the lower side compared to other states, according to Interactive Map - The Institute for College Access & Success . However, if you are a high income family, you may find the list prices of UCs to be on the high side if you would not get financial aid (see the net price calculators).
In terms of admission selectivity, UCs may seem more selective than they generally are because:
- Many of those posting here are aiming for CS or engineering majors, which tend to be more selective because they are more popular than their capacities.
- Many of those posting here are aiming for prestige / selectivity / exclusiveness and will not consider the less selective campuses UCM, UCR, and UCSC.
- Many applicants overreach because they compare their exaggerated weighted HS GPA to the UC-recalculated weighted-capped HS GPA in campus profiles that commonly results in a lower HS GPA than most weighted HS GPA calculations.
CSUs are generally less selective, but much of the attention seems to be on more selective targets like CPSLO engineering, SJSU CS, or nursing at any campus.
Starting at community college (which is very low cost in California compared to many other states) and transferring to a UC or CSU as a junior is a well developed pathway in California. UCs and CSUs target having about 1/3 of their graduates being students who started at community colleges.
Among private colleges in California, much of the forum attention appears to be focused on the most selective ones: Stanford, Caltech, USC, and the Claremont colleges. If UCs are too selective, these will be also. Many of the other commonly mentioned ones have religious affiliation, with varying levels of religious requirements (e.g. Pepperdine, Chapman, University of the Pacific, and the various Catholic ones). Here is a list of private colleges in California: List of colleges and universities in California - Wikipedia . But many of them are probably not what you want (for-profit, limited majors and programs, and/or religious).
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I am not aware of any religious requirements at University of the Pacific. Can you fill me in?
University of the Pacific is Methodist affiliated, although it does not appear to have any religious requirements (“varying levels of religious requirements” in the previous post was inclusive of zero religious requirements).
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Thanks for clarifying. My son was admitted to UoP (but decided not to attend). I was pretty sure they don’t require any religion courses, chapel attendance, etc. It’s a gorgeous campus and offers decent merit aid.
Mills College is a good one; women’s college in Oakland with a long history of feminist and social justice advocacy.
I know you specified California, but I’ll throw in a couple of Pacific Northwest ones: Lewis & Clark College, University of Puget Sound. Both might tick your boxes.
Mills will be closing its undergraduate instruction (no new frosh after fall 2021, most likely will stop conferring degrees after 2023):
https://www.mills.edu/announcement/index.php
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Oh damn. Didn’t realise. Thanks for clarifying.
@ucbalumnus Wow! Thank you for your thorough post. I had not considered the 3rd bullet point re: overreach because of the UC-specific GPA. Fascinating.
Regarding 2nd bullet point, we actually have UC Merced on our list to visit! Good point re: the considering CSUs other than the highly impacted ones (campuses and/or majors).
Thanks for the Wiki link. I crossed the Wiki list against Jeffrey Selingo’s Buyers vs. Sellers list and it appears that Occidental, University of the Pacific and Whittier College are ones to learn more about. thanks again to @oneofthosemoms and @myos1634 who also mentioned these.
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Here is a UC-recalculated HS GPA calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Most HS GPAs listed on UC web sites are the weighted-capped version, unless otherwise specified.
CSU-recalculated HS GPA is the same as the UC weighted-capped HS GPA, except that a semester college course is counted like two semesters of high school courses (and grades) for CSU, but one for UC.
Minimum HS course requirements for UC and CSU are listed at University of California Counselors . For the most competitive UC campuses and majors, going beyond the minimum is a good idea. Courses which fulfill the a-g categories for California public and private high schools and some online programs and community colleges are listed at University of California A-G Course List .
So basically UCB is renting Mills college space to offer a “bridge” program?