<p>I'm a first year Journalism major at UC Irvine, looking to find a school in or near the Bay Area to transfer to for fall of 2009. I applied and was rejected from UCB and Stanford, so I'm not keen on re-applying, but I want to find another place to go. I'm having trouble finding schools to apply to, any suggestions please? In high school I had a 4.0 GPA for all 4 years, and was involved in loads of extracurriculars. Thanks.</p>
<p>I really relate to the Cornell thread, which I just found.</p>
<p>I'm not as excited about my classes as I want to be, but I've at least decided on what I want to do with my life, and why. I am homesick, although this is not the main reason I want to transfer. The campus feels cold to me, and I now know I dislike being at a commuter school, especially if I'm not going to be a commuter. I do have a few friends, but I keep expecting to meet these 'like-minded people' college is supposed to produce, and everyone seems the same to me. I've joined clubs related to my interests, but I just don't feel like this is right. I at first tried to give myself 'tough love' by saying it's all a part of growing up, but college should be enjoyable, not something to endure. I figure I should give half or a full year to this school to get a good transfer record, or I don't know, I just need to get out. I also will probably go to grad school, so I just need to find somewhere in Nor Cal that will work, and isn't just the best of the best. Thanks.</p>
<p>San Francisco State University has a strong, solid journalism program - one of the best in California. </p>
<p>While it is an urban campus and hence has a relatively low on-campus residency, its location in the heart of San Francisco, and status as the city's only public undergraduate university, gives SFSU a thriving and vibrant campus life.</p>
<p>I'd suggest checking it out if you're planning to continue studying journalism.</p>
<p>That's good to know. I think my only worry about USF and SFSU is that I would ultimately live at home, and I don't want to just go to those schools for the home life... But I live ridiculously close to dorm there.</p>
<p>Any more help/advice?</p>
<p>Just make sure you don't "downgrade" schools</p>
<p>That's actually my worry. I applied to UCB and Stanford and was rejected in high school, so currently the only ideas I have are SF State, USF, Sonoma State, Notre Dame de Namur, U o Pacific and CSU Monterey. I really don't know how to choose anymore.</p>
<p>Why do you want to be in the Bay Area specifically?</p>
<p>you may want to consider San Jose State. Its a big school in the heart of downtown san jose, not nationally ranked, but respected locally.
Santa Clara University is also another school up here. Its a small private with only about 4000-5000 students.
And if you dont mind being a little south of the bay, look at UCSC. Its about 1.5 hours south of San francisco.</p>
<p>hope that helps</p>
<p>Sonoma State's journalism program is good - it's more theory-oriented than practice-oriented, but that's just a different style, not necessarily a drawback. SSU is a small, LAC-style state university... not sure about campus life, but I'd expect it to be fairly good. They do a lot of excellent work related to digging up under-reported stories - Project Censored is based there.</p>
<p>UCSC does not have a journalism program. The only undergraduate journalism program at any UC campus is a literary journalism specialty at UC Irvine.</p>
<p>Specifically, so I can be closer to my family. I want the full college experience without being so far away that my family life is shut out too. I have an unusually close relationship to my father, especially after the divorce, and I don't want college to mean sacrificing that, I want the college experience in ADDITION to it. I applied and got into Santa Clara, but it was quite pricey compared to Irvine. </p>
<p>And I just found out that I can't apply to SF state, so so far it is for sure USF.</p>
<p>Wow. So. I went to my counselor today and that was no help at all. She basically told me I was on my own. I mean I know that they're not here to guide me through leaving them, but they were unnecessarily cold and seemingly stupid.</p>
<p>There is also Saints Mary , and UCD isn't that far away. You should just call/email the schools your interested in. How many units have you completed in UCI? After certain point HS grades don't matter for a transfer student.</p>
<p>Notre Dame de Namur is in a nice location (belmont-ish). I live around there and passed by it once, it's pretty decent. </p>
<p>Santa Clara is like mini-stanford in my opinion. It has a nice, small campus with a vibrant campus life. Sure, it's not going to be as good as the life you'll get at UCB/UCLA, but it's still pretty sick.</p>
<p>Saint Mary is pretty small. Nice campus though. </p>
<p>UOP isnt in the Bay Area. I was never a big fan of it because it is in Stockton (which isnt the nicest area...). However, the buildings at UOP are pretty sick. It's kind of like USC with a horrible off-campus location, but a really nice on-campus. </p>
<p>SFSU is a small campus in VERY foggy weather. If you like cold weather, sure - be my guest. lol It really isnt in "the heart of SF" considering the fact that it is on the outside border close to Daly City.</p>
<p>SJSU is in silicon valley. You also got connections with the SJ Mercury (one of the best newspapers in the nation to work for). The weather is pretty nice and the campus life is cool. I would choose SJSU > SFSU if i had to pick one of those two. </p>
<p>You know, have you ever consider just attending a CC here and then trying to transfer to UCB or something? UCB is a pretty decent school (im sorry, might i add it's the best public school, lol).</p>
<p>You are going to leave UCI for USF? Are you serious? Did you consider the consequences?</p>
<p>You are 100% guaranteed admission at USF. By the way, if you are really deciding to go to USF, you can call Charles Skinner at USF to check out your status. Charles Skinner is the transfer counselor at USF. He is a very friendly person.</p>
<p>Forgot to mention. He is the one that will be evaluating your courses (credt transfer)!</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>If you do not feel totally comitted to any of the options people mentioned I would seriously consider a community college for a year and then make your decisions. At a community college, you could be one of the main writers for the paper, get a good GPA, and then decide. Could also apply to several in the area and then check them out over christmas break. Check to see where people go once they graduate from the various schools and who they write for while in school. Also, see what kind of internships they get. Find out the drop out rate from the departments by graduation
good luck
I hated chapel hill the first year, and half of the second. I finally found a coed fraternity that was not your typical fraternity and made tons of friends</p>
<p>What do you mean, the "consequences"? </p>
<p>I'm at the point where I worked so incredibly hard in high school, and UCI is where I ended up, but it isn't where I want to stay. </p>
<p>I do worry that USF is just a down-grade, and I will try for Davis, and maybe community. Like in HS I had a 4.1 overall GPA, took APs, loads of ECs, 1850 SATs (maybe not the best but I was pretty proud), if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>If UCI isn't your thing, please don't concern yourself about any alleged "downgrade."</p>
<p>Neither UC Irvine nor USF are "major name" universities. Once you drop past the "Harvard" and "Cal" level, I really don't think the name matters.</p>
<p>I would hazard a guess, in fact, that USF may have substantively more intimate undergraduate programs. The UCs are notorious for ginormous undergraduate class sizes.</p>
<p>The community college idea is also not bad. I'd strongly recommend Contra Costa College in San Pablo if you plan to do that.</p>
<p>CCC has, by far, the best community college journalism program in Northern California and one of the top 10 in the United States. The weekly student newspaper - The Advocate - is vibrant, modern, well-equipped and has a strong sense of mission and purpose. The program is intimate, personal, run by a professor who really cares about his students, features a strong alumni network and offers a wealth of opportunities to grow as a journalist.</p>
<p>Check their Web site: The</a> Advocate.</p>
<p>I'm an alumnus of CCC Journalism, and was editor in chief of The Advocate during the 2006-07 academic year. I left with several Best of Show honors, a pair of national reporting awards, Pacemaker Finalist ranking, several schools recruiting me to transfer, thousands of dollars in scholarships, a clipfile runneth over with quality stories, and reporting, editing and managing experience that will pay off for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>If you want to get in touch with the journalism department chairman at CCC, let me know - I can give you his contact info.</p>