<p>Brother is a junior in high school with about a B average and when he finally takes the SAT, I'd guess he'd get around a 1650-1850. Somewhat introverted, not particularly intellectual, but a good guy. Undecided on a major, although he tells others he'll study business. Don't consider price when making any recommendations. </p>
<p>He liked San Diego State (probably a reach for him since we're outside the service area), didn't like University of San Diego. Next month he'll be checking out Willamette and the University of Oregon. I suggested he look at Chapman University (somewhat concerned about its graduation rate), Loyola Marymount, University of Denver, CU Boulder, and the University of Arizona. He doesn't want to look at the University of Oklahoma (it'd actually be easier to get to OU from our house than Oregon) or the University of Puget Sound. </p>
<p>Anyone have any other suggestions?</p>
<p>What state are you from? There are a lot of OOS Publics on your list that may be too costly for some families.</p>
<p>I’d add U of Redlands in CA</p>
<p>Check out some of the other US News “Regional Universities (West)”. Trinity (San Antonio) is #1 in that category, but admits 64% of applicants. Business is a popular major there. </p>
<p>Longhaul, we’re from Southern California. And yes, my family is aware of the cost of college. </p>
<p>Thanks for the Redlands and Trinity suggestions. Does anyone know if Trinity is particularly religious? My brother is nominally Jewish.</p>
<p>If you are looking at CSUs, be aware that those with more impacted majors may be difficult to change major at after enrolling. Many of the CSUs are also commuter schools, so they may not be particularly good college experiences for a residential student. The “campus life” tab on the school’s entry at <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com”>http://www.collegedata.com</a> lists the percentage of frosh living in the dorms, which may be a reasonable proxy for residential students (overall is less reliable, since most residential upperclass students live off campus).</p>
<p>Chico, Channel Islands, Humboldt, Monterey Bay, and Sonoma appear to be among the more residential of the CSUs with fewer impacted majors.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf</a>
<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impaction-campus-info.shtml”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impaction-campus-info.shtml</a>
<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impactioninfo.shtml”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/impactioninfo.shtml</a></p>
<p>UA and ASU (in Arizona) are not difficult to get admitted to, and provide the “big college experience”. But WUE discounted tuition is only available at UA for mining engineering, and at ASU’s campuses that appear to be for non-traditional students (as opposed to the main Tempe campus). Oregon only offers WUE discounted tuition for music majors.</p>
<p><a href=“http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all”>http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all</a></p>
<p>Graduation rates tend to be mostly related to student characteristics. <a href=“Higher Education Research Institute”>http://www.heri.ucla.edu/GradRateCalculator.php</a> suggests that a school with 100% white male students with 1150 SAT CR+M and B average high school grades will have 26.4%, 47.3%, and 53.3% graduation rates for 4, 5, and 6 years.</p>
<p>WUE is not important to my family. Even if it were, my brother would not qualify for it at all but the least selective institutions. My parents would never allow my brother to consider Humboldt State which is fine because I think my brother would despise the school although he may like Chico State if he liked SDSU. UCB, would a white male student who doesn’t have to work or take out loans for college have only a 1/4 chance of graduating in four years?</p>
<p>Anyone have any other suggestions?</p>
<p>The 4-year graduation rate for Chapman for class of 2009 was 64.8%. 5-year grad rate for class of 2008 was 71.1%. Grad rates for Chapman have increased steadily since 2005. <a href=“Graduation Rates | Institutional DataMart | Chapman University”>https://webfarm.chapman.edu/datamart-reports/graduation-rates.asp</a>. According to the freshman admission profile for the Chapman class of 2013, 93% of admitted students were in the top 25% of their high school graduating class. Average SAT was 1820. Of course, that’s overall; several departments at Chapman have student profiles that are higher. For the Dodge College of Film & Media Arts, for example, 2013 admitted freshman had an average SAT of 1925. <a href=“Undergraduate Frequently Asked Questions | Dodge College | Chapman University”>http://www.chapman.edu/dodge/apply/undergraduate/undergraduate-faq.aspx</a></p>
<p>Not sure Chapman would work for a Jewish student though (even if it’s only “nominally” Jewish) - it’s not Pepperdine, but is there a way to ascertain how important to its mission and identity Christian faith is?</p>
<p>Trinity is about as secular as you can go at a Texas private college ;-). Look into Austin and Southwestern, too.
Westminster Mesa is an interesting college, linked to Westminster MO (where Churchill made his famous “Iron Curtain” speech and still host to a Churchill library), but deliberately located in the heart of a growing AZ city, working in a consortium with Albright ¶ and a couple other colleges. It’s rather easy to get into but the academics are relatively good for this stats group - downside is absence of a campus and still untested since the first class graduates next year I think.</p>
<p>Christian schools that would be “okay” for non Christians, supportive and within his stats range include Santa Clara, Saint Mary’s of California, USan Francisco, Pacific Lutheran, UPortland, USeattle.
If he’s willing to venture further afield into the Midwest, there are lots of possibilities (Coe, Cornell IA, Earlham, Knox, UN-Lincoln, UKansas, Carroll of Montana…- although Montana is Western, not sure it’s within the territory you were thinking of?)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Graduation rates may be slightly better if the student does not have to worry about running out of money, and does not need to take gap semesters to earn money to finish school. But note that the national average six year graduation rate is only 56% (with lower rates for four and five year graduation), so a realistic expectation for high school B average students in the middle of the college-bound student range should consider that.</p>
<p>Chapman has a very active Hillel. They regularly hold events at the school’s Fish Interfaith Center; for example, a Kristallnacht Shabbat last fall. There are also two Jewish fraternities on campus. The 4th floor of Chapman’s Leatherby Library is home to the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library, with permanent as well as rotating collections. There is also an endowed faculty position, the Stern Chair in Holocaust Education, at Chapman, to ensure that Holocaust education is part of the curriculum. </p>
<p>Also – my S2 is a current Chapman student. There are absolutely no Christian or other religious requirements at the school. And…Google “Chapman Undie Run.”</p>
<p>@LongRangePlan
Thanks for the clarification on graduation rates as well as the stats of the average admitted student. I think I was looking at old data which showed LMU’s 4 year grad rate to be substantially higher, despite having similar freshmen stats. Yes, I agree that being a secular Jew at Chapman should not be a problem. IIRC, Chapman has the most active Hillel of any Orange County university, including UC Irvine. </p>
<p>@MYOS1634
Thanks for the recommendations, particularly Santa Clara University and St. Mary’s College (can’t believe I forgot those!). I don’t think my brother would enjoy Seattle University or USF although University of Portland might be something to consider. I’m also not keen on recommending such an untested quantity like Westminster Mesa to my brother. He’s a full pay male looking at less selective OOS publics and smaller privates with noticeable gender imbalances. The odds that he’ll get rejected from all of the schools he applies to are incredibly small.</p>
<p>As far as the Midwestern schools go, I don’t think my brother has any real interest in those. He considers the University of Oklahoma too far away although that may just be him not wanting to go to the same school as me.</p>
<p>What size of school does your brother like? Rural, suburban, urban? </p>
<p>Whittier College has a business degree and reasonable SAT numbers that your brother should be able to meet. </p>
<p>Santa Clara is best known for its business school and making connections for internships in the Silicon Valley. If your family can afford the pricetag, it is a great school. Like all Catholic schools, he would have to take some religion courses.</p>
<p>He’s unsure about school size although he doesn’t want an urban environment. Note that when I say urban I’m not referring to horizontally developed cities such as Los Angeles. I suspect he’d do better at a smaller or medium sized institution although he may end up loving the University of Oregon when he visits. Though I haven’t vocalized this to my brother, I am concerned about the generally terrible advising system at state universities for non honors freshman. Certainly the advising and freshman support structures in place at my previous LAC was leaps and bounds better than anything I’ve seen at either UC Irvine or the University of Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Whittier College could be a possibility. Until he tours Willamette, I’m going to hold off on recommending it to him. He currently attends a high school which has nearly twice as many students as Whittier. The small size of the school could come as a shock to someone who’s used to being relatively anonymous (it certainly was for me when I started at a 900 student two year LAC).</p>
<p>Chico State, and many other CSUs have an honors program your brother may qualify for. </p>
<p>Would a B student with around a 3.2-3.5 UC GPA and slightly above average SAT/ ACT scores really qualify for the honors programs at a residential Cal State? I was under the impression that the honors programs at all but the lowest tiered CSUs were reserved for the students for whom the middle tier UCs were a lock but couldn’t attend due to personal or financial circumstances.</p>
<p>Note that some of the more residential CSUs have low impaction or are unimpacted.</p>
<p>Each campus sets their admission threshold. My son is a freshman in the honors program at Chico. His overall HS GPA was about 3.3 (CSU GPA was 3.15) and his SAT was 1240/1600. He likes the program alot - read about it at the link below. They even have honors housing - though my son chose a regular dorm. There’s a supplemental ap that includes an essay. </p>
<p>Here’s what Chico says is required:
High School GPA of 3.5 or above OR
SAT score of 1200 or above (math + verbal score combined) OR
ACT score of 27 or above</p>
<p>Using my son as evidence, they really do mean OR…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.csuchico.edu/honors/admissions/freshman.shtml”>http://www.csuchico.edu/honors/admissions/freshman.shtml</a></p>
<p>So an update. My brother toured, UO, OSU, Willamette, and the University of Puget Sound. Liked them all although thought that Willamette was too small. Couldn’t really tell the difference between UO and OSU since they’re both in smaller college towns with plenty of school spirit. I think my parents would rather him go to UPS over the Oregon publics if only because they prefer the smaller private school environment. He’ll soon tour Loyola Marymount and likely Chapman. From what I’ve gathered, my mom would much rather him go to LMU since Chapman is only 30 mins from our house while LMU is about an hour away.</p>
<p>I suggested Chico State as a possible alternative to SDSU. Seemed to be interested in it and according to Google Maps it’s possible to fly to the school from our house with only one connection. For a family that’s relatively price insensitive, I don’t know if the benefits of an honors college (yes he scored somewhat above the 1200 CR+ M) outweigh those of a true liberal arts college .</p>
<p>I wanted to second the suggestion of Whittier: it is very small, but his statistics make it a match. Although it was founded by Quakers, and has preserved the overall philosophy, it no longer has an official affiliation with the Society of Friends. I would also suggest Redlands.</p>