<p>I am a junior in high school & I was wondering what universities in Cali would be good choices for me. I go to a private, catholic high school & am currently a part of NHS, Key Club, National Spanish Honors Society & a few sports teams. I have also completed 50+ service hours. I live in Texas and want to attend college anywhere in Cali & my parents would pay for some of the tuition but I need to apply for scholarships. Here's my GPA and Sat:
-3.95 UW GPA (Honors and AP sophomore through junior year)
-Estimated 1900 SAT
Thanks!</p>
<p>What is wrong with UT and TAMU?
You are not getting any aid from CA publics, so that is out. USC is going to be a stretch, but you can try. USF, Occidental, Santa Clara, Golden Gate, UOPacific?</p>
<p>Haha nothing is wrong with those schools, I would just much rather go to school in Cali, but thank you for your suggestions:)</p>
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<p>It is HIGHLY unlikely that you would get scholarships that are for all four years. Outside scholarships are usually for SMALL amounts, they’re hard to get, and they’re usually ONLY for freshman year.</p>
<p>You need to focus on schools where you will have funding for ALL FOUR years. </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>
<p>oh…and if you really want to go to school in Calif, don’t call it Cali…only people who aren’t from Calif call it “Cali” … </p>
<p>A native Californian</p>
<p>Stanford is in California, but probably don’t apply unless you take the SAT and do really well.</p>
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<p>Why?</p>
<p>What’s so great about California as a state? You have to realize that Northern & Southern California are probably as different as Austin and Houston. And a school in a small town far from major metropolitan areas will be very different from a school in L.A. What are you thinking of when you think “I want California?”</p>
<p>Small or big school? Urban or rural? Liberal or conservative? And what do you want to major in?</p>
<p>What @mom2collegekids said. Hearing “Cali” or “SoCal” is like enduring fingernails on a chalkboard. “NorCal” seems to be alright.</p>
<p>Pt. Loma Nazarene is in a great location, as is University of San Diego.</p>
<p>A good match for you is Santa Clara University in the Bay Area.</p>
<p>You have a decent GPA- you can have so many more options if you just bump up that SAT score a little or take the ACT. A 2200+/34 would qualify you for most UCs, and a 2300+ would give u a fairly comfortable chance at UCB/UCLA.</p>
<p>UCB/UCLA likely won’t be affordable. OOS Cost of attendance > $50K; no merit scholarships; no need-based aid to cover the OOS cost difference). </p>
<p>USC is a better choice for OOS students with good stats and high need who want a large university in California. Or Stanford … but admission is very unlikely, even with higher scores.</p>
<p>Run the online net price calculators on each college that interests you.</p>
<p>She will be full pay 55k per year at UC, are you listening, she needs aid to attend. It will be very hard to find money in CA. You will have to go to a much less selective school where you are the top student. That may be fine, just so you know. Do you have any major in mind?</p>
<p>You could try USD, stunning campus, I have seen them give aid to students they really want to attract, but will it be enough? Chapman, LSU same thing. Some colleges will pay for high test scores, but yours aren’t that high. And I see it is only an estimate. </p>
<p>Have you run any NPC to see what some colleges you are thinking of would expect your parents to pay? You might find this is really unrealistic. But maybe you can try for merit at a couple of places.</p>
<p>EDIT: Why do you have two same threads going? and you are giving info in the other one about 200k income so you won’t get any need aid, don’t bother with the NPC.
<a href=“California Universities Recommendations? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>California Universities Recommendations? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Schools in California (not “cali” please!) are very geographically different. It’s like comparing San Antonio, to El Paso to Amarillo, to Houston. </p>
<p>Our schools are not all beach weather and sun. “Anywhere” in California could be, large, small, hippie-like, extremely liberal or conservative, fiercely competitive and in locales of forests, desert, and rocky coastal. Most of our large schools get hundreds of thousands of applications from "EVERYWHERE’ in the world, so the competition to get into our schools is fierce.</p>
<p>Your STATS are “okay” but not good enough for merit at private schools, so scholarship monies are out, unless the privates need more students from Texas. The California public schools are out of money, so they wont give you a dime: which means that your parents would have to pay full costs at $55,000 to $65,000 per year. You didn’t take the SAT in the fall to qualify for national merit, and you don’t really know your SAT score, so this will limit your choices even further.</p>
<p>Why would you just want to go to “anywhere” in California for 4 years? It is all so vastly different. I wouldn’t want to, and I live in California!</p>
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<p>There are large merit scholarships, just very few of them that would be super-reach ones for anyone (e.g. Stamps at UCLA, total of 5 offered to OOS students).</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids @auntbea @ItsJustSchool thanks for the heads up, but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal how you abbreviate California lol. I completely respect your opinions, but I feel that I should use whatever term is most fitting (in my case ‘Cali’). I have friends in California who go back to the “Cali” term… But I’ll take that into consideration. Thanks!</p>
<p>@BrownParent thanks, but I just wanted to know the good schools I had a chance at in California. & I have two different threads because I wasn’t getting clear nor helpful responses under the 1st one</p>
<p>Hey there! Fellow applicant looking in CA (I’m a senior though), I would take a look at University of Redlands, Whittier, Loyola Marymount (right in LA), Occidental College (also in LA), USD, USF, Santa Clara, and Soka University of America. I wouldn’t waste time with the CSUs and UCs, they offer essentially no aid to OOS students. </p>
<p>Definitely study for the SATs/ACT, a higher score will bring a better chance of merit money. And have a clear talk with your parents about what they are willing and able to pay, tell them that any college searching done without that information is basically a waste of time. Then, run some NPCs (Net Price Calculators) with them. You plug in a bunch of financial information, and it gives you a rough estimate of how much the school will cost you, provided your financial situation isn’t complicated by a divorce or multiple properties or a small business. If they can pay what the calculators say, then great! If not, either drop the school or look into merit scholarship possibilities (all spelled out on the school’s website). Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I second suggestions of Whittier and Occidental. You would probably get a decent merit aid package from Whittier, and you might get one from Oxy. If you’re willing to venture outside of California on the West Coast, look into Willamette, Whitman, and University of Puget Sound.</p>
<p>@butterfreesnd thank you so much! That was very helpful:) good luck to you & I’ll take a look at the universities you recommended! Do you think I have a chance at Pepperdine?? I would LOVE to go there</p>
<p>I didn’t see Chapman mentioned. It’s in Orange and they often give merit aid. I’d also second the recommendation to look at LMU. </p>
<p>You need to find out how much your parents will pay. Then have them run the NPCs on your schools’ websites.</p>
<p>Right now, your SAT will not likely get much/any merit at the schools that you’d likely consider. </p>
<p>Unless your parents will pay for nearly all costs, a Calif school that is familiar to you will not likely be affordable. </p>
<p>You can try St Mary’s of California…they have given merit for a 1900 SAT. </p>
<p>Focus on the M+CR and ACT. Schools don’t care about the W score on the SAT.</p>
<p>@Elle16 I definitely think you have a shot at Pepperdine if you get what you are projecting on your SATs. Do you have ECs related to religion or your faith? It says in their CDS that that is considered very important in admissions. </p>
<p>The only thing I might be concerned about with Pepperdine is that it’s $55k/year and, according to their CDS, their merit aid is only so-so. Out of 3165 undergrads about 500 were receiving merit aid, and the average was $18800. So not terrible, but not great. All depends on what you can afford. </p>