SDSU, UCSD, USC, etc. for a homeschooler

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi,
I really want to go to college in Southern California, but being an out-of-stater (Maryland..), I can imagine that it's going to be somewhat challenging. I was homeschooled my entire life, so my ECs are sort of off the chart:</p>

<p>Sailed on a 30 foot sailboat from Seattle to Florida (Panama canal, I didn't fly); took about 5 years.</p>

<p>Smithsonian student's award for Student Training in Aquatic Research (STAR) symposium presentation.</p>

<p>Self taught in music theory and guitar for the past 5 years.
Contributor to the iPodLinux project. (I started and wrote most of iPodMame [<a href="http://gaming.engadget.com/2006/03/08/ipodmame-brings-pac-man-to-the-ipod/%5B/url%5D%5D"&gt;http://gaming.engadget.com/2006/03/08/ipodmame-brings-pac-man-to-the-ipod/]&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p>

<p>Self taught computer programmer for the past 6-7 years.</p>

<p>Designed and implemented an RSA and bit-exchange cipher in C.</p>

<p>Volunteered at a wetlands research center in Maryland for about 2 years, tagging animals and logging patterns. Salamanders, frogs and turtles were the main focus.</p>

<p>There's a bunch of other stuff that may be relevent to a college, but those are probably the main ones. I attended a community college for 2 semester, earning 16 credits with a 4.0 GPA. That doesn't seem to be enough to transfer, but maybe a college will see that I can actually handle college level work and do well..</p>

<p>I've taken the SAT once already before the College Board decided to change it. I got 730V and 550M, but I'm retaking it in about a week. I'm anticipating around 730V, 610M, and 700W after results from several practice tests.</p>

<p>I took the GED for highschoool equivalency, although I don't know if UCSD/SDSU/USC will accept that.. I'm hoping that they will.</p>

<p>The main question here is this:
Do you think I'm going to get into SDSU, UCSD, or USC? If not, could you suggest some southern California colleges that might be a better match?</p>

<p>Thanks for your time,
Alex</p>

2

<p>"Sailed on a 30 foot sailboat from Seattle to Florida (Panama canal, I didn't fly); took about 5 years."</p>

<p>***!!!????</p>

3

<p>Maybe that doesn't count as an EC? I dunno, but it seems to have influenced my pretty heavily.. What does "***??!?!!!!" mean anyway?</p>

<p>Do you think a college would be interested in the story? I did some pretty cool things in those 5 years..</p>

<p>Thanks,
Alex</p>

4

<p>Bump?</p>

<p>Alex</p>

5

<p>Bump... :]</p>

<p>Alex</p>

6

<p>imphasing:</p>

<p>UCSD: Slight Reach (out of state)</p>

7

<p>UCSD: Reach-Slight Reach (oos)
USC: Slight Reach
SDSU: Safe Match-Safety</p>

<p>UC's, especially the top 3 (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD), are very difficult out of state. USC is also difficult to gain admission too, however, oos status does not hurt you as much there as at UCSD. I would recommend applying to UCI/UCSB/UC Davis as well for some oos matches. Also try the claremont schools which will likely be reaches-slight reaches. Pepperdine and USD would also be safe matches or safeties for you if you are interested in applying to those schools as well.</p>

8

<p>I don't think I'm going to apply to any of the UCs, because I didn't realize that I had to take 2 SAT II tests to apply, and now it's too late for me to get those done.. I would probably be able to do decently (650-700) on the SAT II physics test, but I'm totally unprepared for anything else..</p>

<p>As for USD, I really like the look of that school. It seems to be in a really nice place.. the only thing that concerns me is the catholic nature of the school.. I wonder if they teach a skewed version of the sciences because of the christian nature of the school..</p>

<p>Pepperdine looks really nice too. Thanks for recommending that.</p>

<p>Thanks,
Alex</p>

9

<p>In case anyone is wondering, I got a call from SDSU and the nice lady said that if I put together an official looking transcript with course titles and stuff, they won't question it. They don't even really need to know that I'm homeschooled, so I can completely bypass all that crap.</p>

<p>Alex</p>