<p>Ok... I don't know if you've realized this, but CALIFORNIA HAS A TON OF SCHOOLS!! HAHA... Ok... I'm a New Englander, and I've decided to apply out west. California to be exact... So... This is where I need your help. I've looked and looked and looked and I cannot seem to find a small college that fits my academic records. So. To cut to the chase, here are my stats...</p>
<p>GPA: 2.99
SAT: 1040 combined score.</p>
<p>Now... I know that my gpa and sat scores AREN'T the best, but I'm stuck living with that, so I must move on! I understand schools are much more competitive, and it kills me that I was a star student earlier in h.s. Now, I have a nice resume I'm sending with my apps. Long list of extracurriculars and lots of leadership roles. I could copy and paste it, but I think that you get the idea. I was hoping that you all could give me a hand with plucking out some of the good schools for me and I hope you do! Where can I be admitted?! </p>
<p>Just so add this, I'm caucasian, so, yeah, am I in rough shape??? lol</p>
<p>How small do you want to go? The reason that I ask is that there really aren't a lot of small (i.e., under 1500 students) schools in California. However, given your stats, here are the schools I would recommend you look at:</p>
<p>Reaches:
Santa Clara U
University of San Diego
Loyola Marymount
All of these schools are slightly larger (4000-7000 students but have a smaller feel)</p>
<p>Matches:
Whittier College (nice small liberal arts school outside of Los Angeles, probably a very good fit for what you are looking for)
University of Redlands (mid-sized school - about 2000 students - with good academics,east of LA. Looking to expand its geographic base so sometimes will take a chance on kids just below their profile who are from out of state. )
University of the Pacific (slightly larger school - 3000 students - in northern Calif. Very pretty campus)
University of San Francisco (larger - 4000 students, urban campus)
Chapman U
Humboldt State University (a public school of about 7000 students, nice campus and liberal student body in extreme northern california)</p>
<p>Safeties
Pt. Loma Nazarene (Christian school right on the pacific in San Diego)
Westmont (small Christian school near Santa Barbara)
Cal State Monterrey - one of the newer calif. publics, unique programs, smallish (about 4000 students), south of San Francisco.
Azuza Pacific
California Lutheran</p>
<p>You might also want to consider a few schools in Oregon or Washington State - take a look at Linfield College (Oregon), Seattle Pacific, Seattle University, Whitworth College (Washington), Pacific University (Oregon). Good luck.</p>
<p>OMG You guys are wicked AWESOME! Thank you so much for the replies, and Carolyn, thanks for the in depth college insight, IT REALLY HELPED!!! :) YOU GUYS ROCK!</p>
<p>Obviously, Carolyn has given you a very good list of California schools to look at. The only school that I would add to Carolyn's list is Sonoma State University. Sonoma State's primary focus is on providing a liberal arts, undergraduate education to its students. The school is located north of San Francisco, between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, not too far away from the ocean. </p>
<p>From what I hear, applying as an out-of-state student to any of the California state schools can be tricky. However, at first glance it appears that you are a match, academically speaking. It may be worth taking a look at the school.</p>
<p>Icemaker, Good suggestion - Sonoma is a very nice school with a liberal arts focus. I've actually been trying to get my daughter to look at it. Only thing to keep in mind is that it does have a very small population of students who actually live on campus - might be a problem for someone coming from out of state. In general, with the exception of the most popular Cal States like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State, etc. and the University of California Schools, getting into the cal state schools isn't too hard for out of state students. And they are pretty inexpensive even for out of state students. Some, however, are of better quality than others and most are VERY large. </p>
<p>Another (private) school I forgot to mention was Dominican University, also in the Bay Area. I think they have about 1700 students.</p>
<p>Carolyn makes a good point about Sonoma State. From Sonoma State's website, it appears that only about 2,500 students live on campus (out of 7,500) and the average age of the residental student is 19 (meaning that the majority of residential students are either freshmen or sophomores). So, it may not have a "residential feel" if you are looking for that in a school.</p>