So, like Mira Mesa is south of the 56, but they are considered the local plan area and give preference to those students.
Thank you!
@NCalRent well you sound successful. Yea Miramar is only about 500$ for tuiton and it’s in the service area for SDSU. I know some people who transferred from there. If I go to CSUSM I still want to transfer to SDSU. Yes I know that it doesn’t really matter where you come from as long as you have a degree, but I want to cheer in college and CSUSM doesn’t have a cheer team. Thank you for the helpful info I will definitely look into it. Where else did your son apply?
It needs to be less than one page and it needs to highlight something NOT in the application. This will not be read. Start with an outline of main points and then, as @auntbea says, slash and burn mercilessly. They will have an attention span just longer than a twitter-reader; so make it more of a tweet. (I hope you don’t curse ME out) 
I’m not sure if anyone else has mentioned this because I haven’t read through all the responses, and I also can’t say exactly what the appeals board at SDSU is looking for in an appeal essay, but I happened to read your essay-in it’s entirety-and felt compelled to ask that you consider rethinking your second paragraph. I’m especially concerned about the part where you state that,
“On top of overwhelming classes, one of my teachers (my French teacher) treated me very unfairly and penalized me with grades I did not deserve. I do not blame my teacher for my poor performance as I take full responsibility for my results, but it was very difficult to deal with a teacher who would randomly lower my grade in the class…”
mainly because you seem to contradict yourself. At first you say that your teacher treated you unfairly and penalized you with grades you didn’t deserve. In the next sentence you claim that you take full, not just partial, but full responsibility for the grade you were given as well as your teacher’s unwarranted actions. I hope you see what I’m referring to. If you believe your teacher’s actions were exclusively the result of a grudge against you or simply her temperament (although her abusive actions seem to be directed at you specifically) and you did nothing to deserve her awful treatment, you can’t take responsibility at the same time. It wasn’t your fault, according to you. You can’t take responsibility after the fact just because it sounds good, particularly not when your trying to persuade the reader, because it doesn’t sound good. It sounds fake. That’s not a reflection on you personally, I’m simply trying to help you improve your essay.
However, that advice is really only useful if you insist on keeping that paragraph, which I very strongly urge you to not do, Not only is it a poor sample of your writing, but it sounds like you consider yourself to be a victim of your circumstances, regardless of your claims to “taking full responsibility” which seem thrown in there in an attempt to counteract the message of the rest of the paragraph. I’m not an expert, but I do know that the top rated Universities are absolutely unwilling to accept students who feel they are victims of their circumstances. Avoid submitting anything that could even possibly suggest that you view yourself in that way. And revise, revise, revise. Get as many people (preferably talented writers) to proofread your essay as possible.
Oh, and you will certainly encounter instructors like your French teacher in college. Learn the difference between challenging and impossible, and do so quickly. If you encounter the impossible kind, drop the class and try getting into the same class with a different instructor. Or take it next term/semester. Trust me, I learned that the hard way.
Lastly, I can tell that you have your heart set on this one specific school, but ALL schools have their downfalls. If they won’t accept you, it might be because you’re not a good fit, and they would know that better than anyone. It’s foolish to get your heart set on something you don’t know much about. Until you’ve actually been a student at a particular school, you couldn’t possibly know whether it’s everything you’ve made it out to be. There are an enormous amount of great schools and you have the passion, intelligence and persistence to be successful in any learning environment. And if you really can’t get over SDSU, get your Bachelor’s Degree elsewhere, and then apply to SDSU for grad school. Good luck!
On last thought, instead your second paragraph being about what went wrong, use that space to talk about your future plans, and go into detail. I know you want to major in Physics, but why? What exactly attracted you, and how do you plan to contribute to the discipline as an undergrad, a grad student as so on? What specific branch of physics do you plan to focus on and why? Most importantly, how does SDSU fit into your plans and what can you gain from going to SDSU that you couldn’t at another school? What does only SDSU, and no other school, offer that will help you achieve your goals? This could be a Professor, a location, technology, research opportunities, a excellent program or a combination of attributes. Why should they care about helping you achieve your goals? If your really that devoted to going to SDSU you should know exactly what only they offer any how it fits into your short and long-term plans. Having this knowledge will definitely impress the appeals committee much, much more than a detailed list of your problems during your sophomore year in high school. You can’t change what happened with your GPA. Accepting that and working with what you have will show responsibility and resiliency.
If you do include any issues you experienced in the past, keep it short and concise and always include how that experience helped you learn and improve yourself. Such as; “during my sophomore year I took on much more coursework than ever before and found that I didn’t yet have the skills to successfully manage such a demanding schedule. Although I originally regretted my decision and found balancing my personal and professional life extremely overwhelming, I am now able to look back on the experience with deep appreciation. If I hadn’t been challenged academically to the extent that I was, I would have never had the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to succeed as a student and to grasp the level of determination and persistence that is required of me, a level which I now know I’m capable of achieving. I have proven that when I’ve made a commitment I feel strongly about such as my education, I can overcome anything…”
@ItsJustSchool Thank you for that! Lol why would I curse you out? And yes, I’m trying really hard to cut it down so far it’s at 2 pages, but i’m still working at it
@Ambeth you’re not the only person who said the paragraph about my teacher was a problem; my counselor said the same thing and my English teacher said it was a kiss of death, so I deleted that whole passage. I think what you have to say is very very helpful, so thank you I might not be able to explain why I wanted physics as I think it might make my essay too long, but I am adding that SDSU is the only school around me that has a Diviosion 1 cheer team, as CSUSM (a school I got into) does not. I also will tell them that I want to be a part of their physics program because of the excellence it holds. I changed a lot about my essay, and it’s been edited by three people so far.
Thank you everyone for the help!!