Should I increase my California college list?

State Forums
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<p>Rising senior
I am thinking of majoring in Business and/or International Relations, or Business with an international focus. I want to minor in Chinese.</p>

<p>My List of Schools (in order of preference all in California)
1. Stanford
2. USC
3. Santa Clara
4. UC Berkeley
5. SJSU (only as a safety) </p>

<p>I know my college list is fairly short, what universities in California are good in Business and/or International Relations? </p>

<p>What about Cal Poly San Luis Obispo? I heard it was a pretty good school. </p>

<p>SATs
June: 1820 M:620 CR:600 W:600 w/9 essay</p>

<p>I will be retaking it again. I will probably take only 1 SAT II, in US History. </p>

<p>GPA and academic rigor
Unweighted 3.8
Weighted 4.2</p>

<p>Junior Year
AP English Language
AP US History
Honors Pre-Cal</p>

<p>Senior Year
AP English Literature
AP Art History
AP Calculus AB</p>

<p>My school doesn't offer that many AP classes until JUNIOR year and I took 5 out of the 7 that we offer.</p>

<p>ECs
3 years of football, 1 year varsity over 600+ hours of practicing. We were Regional Champions in our portion of the state. ( I won't be playing football senior year)</p>

<p>Chinese Club 4 years. I was also a dancer/performer for our annual fundraising dinner.</p>

<p>Tutor at Kumon Learning Center (Since April of Junior year) I tutor kids ages 5-14. Twice a week for 5 hours. Over 100+ hours.</p>

<p>Volunteer on a hospital on air force base. I will only have 56 hours by the end of the summer but I think the football and job make up for that.</p>

<p>A tutor to high school students who did not pass the CAHSEE (california high school exit exam). For 2 weeks for 1 hour a day.</p>

<p>I know the ECs kinda look weak but football was major chunk of my time. I probably some more tutoring for kids in my high school.</p>

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<p>SLO is a great school for Business. You should add that to your list as well, but keep in mind that it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere (~halfway between LA and BA) so you won’t have as much an advantage in internship opportunities duing the school year as, say, SJSU.</p>

<p>How will finances look for you? I ask because 3/5 schools you listed are private and non of those have historically offered much in aid to able-paying families, and tend to get very expensive if you’re paying R&B. I would suggest a couple more publics, like another UC or so.</p>

<p>I think it will be realized that football was a big commitment, especially if you had gone on to a post-season competitive level. I actually think that’s a great one and am wondering why exactly you wouldn’t want to follow through with it for Sr year? Is it only because you don’t feel it can benefit you since you don’t plan on playing collegiately, or are you trying to free up as much time as possible for other ECs? If it’s the latter, IMO I would only drop something like that if I were almost guaranteed to be able to do something original or unique that would make me stand out in applications, or if I were able to land something to do with my intended major.</p>

<p>Overall, I think you’re ECs are well rounded as they are (successfully competitive level sports, lots of tutoring, and a cultural club (which is a big plus if you’re fluent in Chinese or pass an exam shoing so). I know this has nothing to do with which schools you should apply to, but I just don’t see your ECs as ‘weak’, especially if you’ve been doing a lot of them for 3-4+ years (shows commitment, determination, growth that you can reflect upon in application essays, etc).</p>

3

<p>^^^^
My family isn’t rich. It’s middle class, however I am looking toward private schools more because they provide an more intimate atmosphere and much smaller class sizes. And a lot of public schools for the first 2 years just do Gen Ed classes, or hardly any classes associated to your major. </p>

<p>I am not playing football next year because it took up way too much time, and I wasn’t hardly getting any playing time. I wasn’t a midget out there but I wasn’t the hulk. Therefore I just became the practice hero, and would never be a starter or even a 2nd stringer. I just tried my hardest with my given abilities.</p>

4

<p>

That can be true, but it’s worth saying that without the prospects of merit aid, affording college is the hardest for the middle class because they don’t qualify for (enough) need based aid, and they don’t have the capital to pay for tuition outright. What mostly ends up happening is the student or the family taking out astronomical amount of loans to finance the education, which is not the ideal way to go about it.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to distract from private. In fact, privates are sometimes cheaper than publics because privates have more control over what aid they can offer and may go out of their way, financially, to make sure an accepted student can in fact attend there. It’s good to have some privates on your list for that reason. Apply and then compare the FA from the ones you’ve received acceptances from.</p>

<p>

Same exact thing here. I played for 2 years (among other sports) and we won our division my Senior year despite the fact that I only played in 1 game. The rest of the games I was a padded cheerleader.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the great advice. I’m starting to see why the middle class in America is starting to shrink. A typical American family has 2-3 kids, multiply that with college tuition, then you are talking the price of a couple of Ferraris or Lambos. Then the family has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to provide for the education and when that’s not enough the kids have to take out a 50K loan or so, then they are automatically in debt. Not the best way to start off, the “American Dream”. </p>

<p>Do you have any tips on increasing my SAT score? It seems that I have “plateaued” at the 600-650ish mark for all 3 sections. And sometimes on given days when I take practice tests, I score well below my norm. Yesterday I got a CR 640, W 550, and M 560. I know I totally bombed those two sections. And I feel bummed out about it. But I usually get 600 or withing striking distance like 590 or 610 or so. </p>

<p>I got an 1820 in June. I am fairly confident that I will break 1900, but my goal is to crack 2000. How can I do that since I feel like I have reached my “ceiling”? </p>

<p>Thank you for your advice and I truly appreciate it! </p>

<p>And btw, I know how you feel about football. A lot of my teammates, respected me because I was usually the one to step forward when anything was asked, for scout team. But all the coaches just looked as me as another piece of meat to get pound by their starters. But anyway, I’m glad football is over for me.</p>

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<p>I’d visit the SAT prep forum and look at the “Best of…” or w/e thread. I’d read over Silverturtle’s guide for grammar if you haven’t already and review some math because those are the easiest sections to increase your scores. </p>

<p>Why not UCLA? </p>

<p>Also, if you like private colleges, you’ll want to checkout the Claremont colleges. I’m not sure of anything business-related there, but they’re pretty selective and might give you the intimate feeling you’re looking for.</p>

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<p>I think Claremont McKenna is really good for business.</p>

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<p>

Cost is the very problem. Tuition increases have outpaced inflation every year for a decade, and now that student loan debt is bigger than all other consumer debt - combined - some are talking about it being the next ‘bubble’. Just 1 generation ago, almost everyone could pay for college themselves by working part-time all school year or full-time all Summer. With the rise in demand for higher education, school and municipalities saw a cash cow and are cashing in.</p>

<p>For me, it’s interesting to consider how it would be like if the Fed didn’t offer Stafford loans? Something tells me the incentives for the school are missaligned when they know they can charge at least up to a certain amount and will get 5-7k of that up front from the Fed and now the tax payer is holding the debt until the student pays it off (yes, I understand it’s fairly difficuly to drop federal student loans, but it does/can happen). I’m not saying the loans are the problem, but the cost sure is. . . anyway, that’s for another time and place.</p>

<p>Right, there is an SAT subforum here you can check out. What have you tried for SATs so far (self-study, group study, prep books, prep software, online tools)? I took the SATs 4 years after I graduated HS, so I was a little rusty on some stuff and I used some prep software that I think really helped me out. I think it was called eKnowledge or something. I think it costs a fair amount of money, but it was free for me as an AD service member. Not sure the actualy cost though. I also agree that math is the easiest to improve since it’s mostly just practice, practice, practice.</p>

<p>I second the possibility of UCLA, and if I were you, again, I would consider at least one more UC and/or CSU.</p>

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<p>CSUs might be your best bet for a business degree. The only UCs I know of that offer undergraduate business degrees are Cal and Riverside. Plus, the Cal States have smaller class sizes than the UCs, and the professors are full-time instructors, as opposed to researchers. I agree that SJSU and Cal Poly are good choices, and you might also want to consider SDSU if you want to try for a school in Southern California.</p>

<p>Also, if cost is an issue, there’s nothing wrong with going to your local community college and getting your freshman and sophomore class requirements out of the way on the cheap, but check the “rate my professors” website to make sure that whoever teaches the business classes is a good instructor.</p>