My current CS major (soph at Chico State) also has been working as a coder since high school. In fact he more or less dropped out of “remote school” during the 2020-21 pandemic closures his senior year to basically just work full time as a programmer instead. He made good $$ and in fact is still working a few hours a day coding during the school year. He absolutely loves it and is great at it and really doesn’t need a CS Bachelors degree at all (is getting one because he wants one and for future opportunities).
So I can see why everyone wants a CS degree. What UC needs to do is shrink or get rid of whole departments that are not in demand, and hire as many CS teachers as they can. Supply is not meeting demand. Like nursing. CS and nursing professors need to be paid more so the supply will increase. (The CS and nursing students can be charged more tuition in turn–some colleges do that.)
And conversely–I wish UC offered more “practical” degrees like Finance and Business. . .how many people really end up in specific careers as Marine Biologists or Psychologists!? And yet everyone majors in that stuff. Meanwhile, almost everyone could benefit from general “business” knowledge (marketing, accounting, stats, management, etc), regardless of the ultimate career after graduation.
Unfortunately, academic excellence does not stand out but is merely a qualifier given the corrosive effects of grade and standardized test inflation over the past few decades. It’s too difficult for AOs to tell one student from another, unfortunately. Probably more energy should go into making a difference outside of the classroom, working to improve things in some way that has demonstrable, quantifiable impact. I do alumni interviews for a tippy top school, and whenever a candidate mentions starting something (eg a non-profit), I always ask for tangible evidence of success in accomplishing its mission… “In God we trust, all others bring data”! Few people seem to have the latter, and so if you do, you’ll probably stand out…
APs help with many state flagships. They show additional academic mastery. They are also required for many United Kingdom schools. NYU even now takes AP tests in lieu of SAT ACT for kids who want to submit
Sounds like the CSUs have a marketing problem! My perception has always been that research opportunities will be greater at a UC, but I’d love to be proven wrong.
I think the CSUs are also less desirable due to many of them falling in the “commuter school” category.
We have many amazing CSU options but they don’t all provide the same on-campus experience and I would love to see them put more effort into advertising what they are doing in this regard so that parents and students know.
I believe it might be because the Cal States used to be considered colleges and not universities.
The individual California State Colleges were brought together as a system by the Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960. In 1972, the system became The California State University and Colleges and in 1982, the system became The California State University. Today, the campuses of the CSU include comprehensive and polytechnic universities and, since July 1995, the California State University Maritime Academy, a specialized campus.
@mmkkmmkk I totally agree that the CSUs have a marketing problem! It doesn’t help that the 23 campuses have 3 different types of names… Cal Poly-X, X State University and CSU-X!
The rewarding of PhDs is limited for CSUs as defined in the California Master Plan for Higher Education (synposis here) and excerpts below:
The awarding of PhDs appears to mirror the distinction that US News & World Report uses to classify all 9 UCs and only 7 out of 23 CSUs as “National Universities” with the rest of CSUs including Cal Poly SLO as “Regional Universities”.
Lastly, while the CSU system is defined to accept more of a high school graduating class than the UC system, some CSU campus/major impaction may be more competitive than UCs in growth mode like Merced.
With all of the above said, I don’t think the California Master Plan for Higher Education is working as intended as a lot of our bright students are going OOS.
I’ve been distressed reading these boards for the past 3 admission cycles. My S24’s safety is California Community College, because it has a 100% acceptance rate.
I believe they can get credit pending meeting certain requirements but this has to be prearranged at the school district level. There are two such schools in my area, one for Hebrew, the other one for a South Indian language.
Some departments may not be in as much demand as the very popular ones but are still important for a university as well as for society. We need nurses and computer scientists but also all other kinds of professionals.
All the information about Masters, PhDs, Research opportunities etc etc available at the various CSU campuses are on their main webpage.
People just need to do their own research (if you’ll pardon the pun) and find out what each campus can offer.
I still maintain they are an excellent option and are far too often overlooked by outdated opinions and assumptions.
Those kids on here who didn’t have the success they were hoping for through the UC system should be encouraged to look towards the CSU’s and find the many wonderful things those universities have to offer.
I have a child in the CSU system and UC system. The educational experience between the two systems is very different. Qualified students that are not accepted into the UC system as freshman should not automatically go to CSU system rather than going to CC and transferring to UC system. The type of educational experience (environment, research opportunities, networking, etc.) that the student seeks should really be considered in deciding. For example, if your focus is on research, then go to a CC and transfer to the UC that has the research area you favor. Generally, the research opportunities between CSU and UC are quite different. The CC system is much more overlooked than the CSU system. With the TAG program and similar partnerships, many friends of my kids have transferred from CC to UCLA and Berkeley, and CC is often FREE with the California Promise College Grant!
Nobody is saying they should just automatically go to the CSU’s.
We are just saying they could be a wonderful option for some of the students who did not have the success they were hoping for in the UC system. There is very detailed information about the research opportunities available in the main CSU website. Just like the UC’s, the opportunities vary by campus.
Two years at CC with TAG (guarantee admission) to UCSB or UCD the student will have research opportunities that are on a different level than can be offered by CSUs. UCs are generally research institutes; both good and bad.
I don’t mean to minimize the role of the CSU system, but the two are very different in the educational opportunities. Each system caters to a different type of student.
The meaning of research opportunities varies depending on what subject the student is studying.
All I’m saying is that there could be a degree/research combo opportunity available at a CSU that would the suit the student looking to study and perhaps they want the ‘four year experience’ instead of the CC and transfer experience.
There is absolutely no harm in them looking into the possibilities available at the CSU’s.
