So I have been planning to go to a UC since the beginning of highschool. But i recently decided I want to go to law school, and I cant afford to go to a UC+ Law school with out drowning in debt. So i’ve decided to go to a CSU. I have a few questions though.
What are the chances of getting into a decent law school with a degree from a top CSU? (Im planning to major in either International relations, psychology, sociology, or history)
Also, what can I do to gear my schedule more towards what CSU’s want? How do theyre preferences differ from UC’s? Right now my senior schedule is set to at
-AP french
-AP psychology
-AP gov
-AP lit
-Math Analysis (pre-calc)
-Physics. The thing is, since ive already taken chem, bio, and AP environmental science, so do i need to take physics? I could have a free period instead.
How do CSU’s feel about extracurriculars? Im in French Honors society, vice president of Photography club, and Model United Nations.
My GPA is around 3.6-3.7 depending on how you weigh it. My SAT is 1640 with no studying (630 reading, 440 math, 570 writing) so should I retake it?
@Julie3 The CSU application is very numbers driven. When applying to Cal Poly SLO, all I had to do was give the number of extracurriculars I was in. All CSU applications care about SAT/ACT and GPA so focus on raising your numbers–so yes, retake the SAT.
Taking a rigorous Senior year schedule is always recomended but as @iamsaucy stated, the CSU’s are very stats driven. Other than Cal Poly SLO, all CSU’s use an eligibility index to rank applicants by major.
EI= (CSU GPA x800) + (SAT Math + CR). To increase your chances, definitely retake the SAT.
Regarding EC’s, Cal Poly SLO is the only CSU that asks about EC hours and they only contribute about 10% towards your application review. Also Cal Poly SLO uses 9th-11th grades in their GPA calculation while the rest of the CSU’s will use 10-11th grades. You will report your 10-11th CSU GPA on the application and if applying to SLO, they will recalculate your GPA based on your self reported 9th grades. Senior grades are not considered in admission decisions.
As far as course selection goes, choose your courses the way you would choose them for preparing for any college. CSU and UC have very similar high school course requirements for frosh applicants (see http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/csu-uc-a-gcomparisonmatrix.pdf ), but you may still want to exceed them anyway so that you are prepared for college as well as you can be, no matter what college you attend.
Be sure to check the net price calculators at both CSUs and UCs. High-financial-need California resident students do not always find CSUs to have lower net prices than UCs. In such a situation, a CSU that you commute to from your parents’ place is likely to be the cheapest after financial aid, but if you have to live on or near campus on your own, a CSU is not necessarily less expensive than a UC after financial aid.
I’d say, take the SAT again. That Math score will get you place into remedial cousrework at the CSU so, definitely take the test again and prep/study math via Khan Academy/College Board sites.
You can get into good law schools from any of the CSUs. Do what you can to distinguish yourself there with a high GPA and get some interesting experience - Oh yeah, smoke the LSAT. .