I’m currently a senior in high school and I’ve been accepted to San Jose State University as Undeclared.
There’s only one problem, though. I’m not 100% sure if going to SJSU is right for me. I’ve visited the school twice and I do think that the atmosphere, the community, as well as the educational side of the school is great, but the only thing keeping me from choosing San Jose is if I would be better off attending a nearby community college and transferring to UCLA or some other UC that might offer me better/more opportunities than SJSU could.
Some points that might be helpful:
I am a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area so I’m more familiar with SJSU than with the LA basin
I have not been given any type of financial aid at all aside from choosing loans
Leaning toward Political Science and/or International Relations as my designated majors
For any help that I can get right now, decision day is in two weeks and I have in this time frame to decide. I am hoping for any of you to know which path would be better for me in the long-run.
Thank you all in advance.
TL;DR - What’s a better choice for me: Attending SJSU or going to a community college and hoping to transfer to UCLA or a UC in general?
UCLA Political Science is the hardest political science UC program to get into. Even if you have a very high GPA, there is still the possibility that they will not accept the prereq courses that you have taken.
The first order of business would be figuring out whether UCLA is were you truly want to be. Other UCs are a different story as, after UCLA, political science is only impacted at UCSB. (Though UCSB has other Policy/International studies programs besides their PoliSci major. You can also add Political Science as a double major after transfer at UCSB). You don’t want to make decisions specifically for UCLA if you are have not even familiarized yourself with the campus and environment. If you are open to other UCs aside from LA, then transferring from SJSU to a UC under political science is perfectly possible.
The question is whether SJSU is worth attending for the next two years. My biggest concern would not be what UCs will accept you, but the fact that you are paying everything out of pocket. If you are from the Bay and will have to pay for both housing and tuition, then don’t do that to yourself. Save the money and stay at home. Those two years will fly buy. Even if you were going to attend a CSU it would be wiser to attend a CC first if you are not receiving aid.
Your first thought should be what can you do to improve in school. You can see the accepted gpa for ucla xfers at https://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof15_mjr.htm 75% of admits to poli-sci had better than a 3.61 unweighted. There’s a good book you ought to read called “Make it Stick” that explains current research into learning and is designed to help HS and college students.
Back to your question: nobody can tell you which is better, there are risks and tradeoffs.
For one thing, you may not get into ucla, or any UC at all for that matter. If you do go the CC route then look into the TAG program which guarantees admission to some UC campuses if you meet the program rules and gpa. ucla does have a preference (not guarantee) program called TAP. See https://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/ADM_CCO/tap.htm and check if any of those colleges are near you. So maybe you can do the CC route and then go to ucla, others have, but you take a chance and for sure need to pick your grades up.
I’m not sure the name benefits are as great as you think. Grad schools and employers don’t just care about the school you attended, they care about what you did in college (at least if the name on the diploma isn’t Stanford or Harvard). Getting good grades, getting to know profs so you get good recs, finding internships and other positions – that’s all on your shoulders at any school. I know someone from a CSU who is pulling in over $300K/yr these days. He was poli sci, worked as a volunteer during school for a local politician, got a full-time job in the office after graduating, a few rounds working for lobbying firms and for city and state politicians in their district office and today he is a happy and well-paid PR and consultant. I guarantee you there are many UCLA and other UC poli sci grads from his year nowhere near as successful.
Counting on the school to offer “better/more opportunities” is setting yourself up for failure; it’s going to be up to you to build the record and find those opportunities that lead to a good future.