However, if the CSU’s will use the CAASPP scores for math an english placements. If you do not have them then students will test for placement in these courses I was told by a CSU AO.
I’m sorry. We tell them to work hard so they can have these opportunities. But it doesn’t mean they get what they want, even if it feels like they ‘deserve’ it. My son has been through a lot, not as good credentials as your daughter but certainly should have been good enough for somewhere UC. Sigh
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I believe OOS students have lower stats bc the UC GPA calculation doesn’t give extra credit / weighting to any honors class taken outside CA
And for many schools - you don’t take APs without having taken the precursor class first
Also think about boarding schools (as an example) - you can’t/aren’t leaving campus to take DE classes (I have a CA resident D24 in a OOS boarding school so she will be in the OOS admission bucket but instate for Tuition bucket)
So you can’t compare OOS GPAs directly with in state
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Now to help him not feel like crap while he decides between Cal State Long Beach, Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona or University of Arizona, knowing his friends are going to the places he really wants to be. We assume rejections from UCSB, Cal Poly SLO and SDSU at this point because his application isn’t as good as we thought it was clearly.
My heart…
I’m sorry too. I don’t think it was the Bs (except for UCLA probably). She must not have “applied widely” to the UCs. My DD applied to 7 of the 9 UCs and has luckily been admitted to two. It looks like your DD applied to only 3? Or maybe 5, if she’s waiting for UCSB and Cal? My DD thinks it’s funny that when her parents applied to UC in the 1980s we only applied to 3 each. We were so casual about it then. Back then 3 was enough. Not now. . .
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I messed up (or her counselor did) in counseling my DD about this. Freshman year she was in a public HS where before you take AP Bio you need to take regular Bio, before AP Physics you need regular Physics, etc. When she switched her soph year to a new private Christian high school, they did not have that policy and I didn’t realize that and I didn’t ask or see it. One of my DD’s regrets now (she says) is not taking AP Physics instead of regular physics, AP Chem instead of regular Chem, etc. She didn’t know her new school’s policies and assumed they were the same as her public school’s. . .
If the person called themselves Native American don’t you think the made it obvious through the PIQ. While the readers are not supposed to care, you know they could not help but moving to a different pile.
Maybe taking him on tours to those places would be helpful and get him excited about other options. And after all, the University of Arizona is called “UC Tuscon” for a reason. Everything I’ve heard about it tells me it’s a fantastic college. Start with that one! But a lot of kids love CSULB and Cal Poly Pomona too. But U of A may be more of the “complete college experience” (as they say). Good luck to him. And UCSB may come through; who knows. Is he CS?
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He is Psych or Criminal Justice (wants to do Forensics so whichever place had the closest, he picked- most were psych).
Yes, he is still grieving a bit, but has opened up to the idea to look at Long Beach and had a good feeling (sight unseen) about U of A from the beginning. I am liking LB the more i look at it- seems to have a little more student life and fun than first impression, but he does like to be part of the sports spectator crowd and so on. He does want the full college experience but is such a beach town person so it might be tough to choose- but neither of those are awful, just not what he expected to be thinking about.
The students at University of Arizona seem quite happy. He may nor may not want to try for law school later so does need to be a bit strategic, though right now he feels like he shouldn’t bother (just wallowing temporarily- this kid is resilient and will work within his reality).
.
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Yes, she only applied to 5. Still waiting on Cal and UCSB. She only applied to where she saw herself going. If it doesn’t work out, she will just do another year at CC and then transfer. Much cheaper this way too. She already has almost all prerequisites and IGETC done anyways. Worst case scenario she can TAG into UCSB, we already know she has the GPA for that even though they don’t have the exact major she wants.
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8AP, 20+DE, 3AA degrees, why didn’t she just apply as a junior at UCs?
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One thing that I have taken away from the high school that all 3 of my kids attended is ‘Do not make a single mistake on your application’. Not one error. Not a spelling mistake, not a grammar mistake, not an opportunity to explain yourself (ec’s etc) if given the chance. Fill out the application and have someone else (an adult, not a peer) read it and then have another adult re-read it. Check and double check before you hit submit because you are also being judged on this.
Those college advisors moved on from that high school after my eldest daughter, but the after school sessions they held for parents and students on how to fill out the application stuck with me. These ‘lessons’ also focused on realistic expectations for everything from acceptance at various campuses in modern day California (2019 and beyond) all the way through scholarships and beyond.
It was a free (!) and valuable lesson and I really think helped all 3 of my kids.
I recognize that not all applicants had the benefit of this advice and I believe it may be a reason why some high performing, well deserved kids haven’t had the success they expected in the application process.
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I think UCSB has oddly kind of limited majors. My teens in 2014, 2016, and 2022 all struggled to pinpoint UCSB majors they were excited about. So I’m not surprised to hear that UCSB doesn’t have the exact major your DD wants either. All the other UCs and Cal States my kids applied to seemed to offer a greater variety of interesting majors. That said, hoping for a UCSB acceptance for my DD on Tues (and for yours too). She chose Financial Mathematics and Statistics.
I don’t know. . .I agree with you but I also saw guidance on the PIQs where supposedly grammar and perfection wasn’t supposed to be the goal but it should read rather more colloquial as if “the AO could read it and feel like the student was sitting right beside him.”
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That should be good enough for UCSC and UCR at least.
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Because you have to be a full time community college student for at least one semester after graduating high school in order to apply as a transfer student
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I have to concur that students that want to attend a UC need to apply widely but if they do not see themselves attending schools like UCR and UCSC, then it is a waste of an application. What about the Cal states? Did she apply to any CSU’s? So many CA residents focus on the UC’s while there are 23 CSU’s where students can get a wonderful education too. Having both a CSU graduate and UC graduate, there have been no major differences in their education and both are thriving.
Best wishes to your daughter and I hope UCSB or UCB come through for her.
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Just sending virtual hugs to all of you. The California system seems so unpredictable and arbitrary now; it must be very stressful for students and their families.
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No, we absolutely do not know ANY of that. For that matter, we are willing to believe that the kid lied on her application, but we are not willing to entertain the notion that she might have lied to her friends about what she wrote in her application (to pull their legs for whatever reason, to get attention, etc)? Did you read her application? I didn’t. I don’t know what boxes she checked or what she wrote about in her PIQs, and I think all this gossip and speculation about other people’s kids is wholly inappropriate.
Vent about your own results. I get it. As has been said multiple times here, and it’s sadly very true, the UCs break a lot of heart. It is normal to be disappointed, it is normal to want to vent, to point out how you deserved better treatment, how you should have gotten acceptances and worked really, really hard and it feels so unfair that that hard work didn’t pay off. I totally get those feelings, Those feelings are normal and deserve to be heard.
But it is not OK in my opinion to speculate about others, including those who got in, because you don’t know jack about them, even if you think you do. Does it make you feel better to tear someone else down? Does that make it all OK? It’s really juvenile.
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I think the point they were trying to get across was just to check and double check your application.
They still told the kids to be themselves in their PIQ’s so it was obvious it had been written by them (a teenager) and not an adult or advisor, but it needed to be a near perfect as possible.
It’s very easy to tell when not much effort has been put into the application I guess.
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