Wanna help me narrow my list? (mainly CA schools)

Parents Forum
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<p>So far I have 12, and I hope to narrow it down 1-4 more maybe. Maybe 12 is fine? But probably a little bit too much. Also, any other colleges that you might suggest to me that arn't listed?</p>

<p>Basic stats:</p>

<p>3.3 UW GPA 9-11 - 3.45 UC GPA - 3.7 Weighted 9-11
2010 SAT (1400 M + CR) (plan to take again)
Pretty Good ECs
3.5 Fresh / 2.9 Soph ( ) / 3.3 Jr.
Total 6 Honors / 3 APs througout high school
Only 3 Yrs of Math (up to pre-calc and stats)
Only 2 years of foreign language
4 science
lots of electives
everything else fine
pretty good public school
SAT IIs: chem 560, USH 540 (i know bad)</p>

<p>Looking for:</p>

<p>Good Business Program
Sunny
Great location
Fun social school
Any Size
Possibly Christian / Catholic (as long as relaxed)</p>

<p>not really in any order particulary..</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Southern California (Too big of reach? however would be #1 )</li>
<li>UC Irvine (UC! great business program - cheap - slight reach)</li>
<li>UC Davis (No business program, however they have an economics / management which could work, however itd be more math / economics and less business, whicih doesnt appeal to me.. UC! cheap - academic environment - good school - slight reach)</li>
<li>UC Santa Barbara (No business but again bus econ sort of thing which might work, but would prefer regular business by a lot - great socially - great location - great school! UC! cheap - slight reach)</li>
<li>Santa Clara University (great business! jesuit! nice location. good jobs afterwards - silicon vally. - slight teach - expensive)</li>
<li>Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (cheap - great business program - awesome campus / location - slight reach)</li>
<li>University of Miami (great business program - great location - id be excited / but a little scared about going all the way to florida - great campus - awesome place - expensive?)</li>
<li>University of San Diego (match - san diego! expensive! great location! everyone who goes there has loved it! beautiful campus - great business programs - catholic - which has its plusses and minuses)</li>
<li>UC Santa Cruz (No business however once again a biz econ program which is jsut ehh.. but UC, cheap, great location, probably the best UC that I'd be for sure in.)</li>
<li>Chapman University (good bus program / good location - expensive? match?)</li>
<li>Loyola Marymount University (visisted and really liked it.. decent business program gorgeous campus - nice kids - 40 min from home - i can see myself here - match / safety expensive?)</li>
<li>San Diego State University (nice financial safety - great business program - great socially - san diego! weather! - cheap!)</li>
</ol>

<p>my parrents can afford a private education - and i heard its a good year for that with the economy and stuff.. but always cheaper is better. and since my gpa is jsut mehh.. and SATs and EC are good. not all the reccomended classes and a couple Cs, i decided to apply to a variety of places to see where my unique combo could get me in..)</p>

<p>so shouldi apply to all 12?? narrow some?? know any other colleges that meet my criteria?
any advice?? thanks!!</p>

<p>also how do the biz/econ majors compare to just plain business majors??</p>

2

<p>U of A or ASU?</p>

3

<p>I’d consider them. i would thin sdsu, my safety, would be better though for business… how are ASU / UA?? i dont know much about them??</p>

<p>also im thinkn about taking out UCSC / D / SB cus they dont have business.</p>

<p>thanks! any more feedback??</p>

4

<p>bump. bump.</p>

5

<p>Can only give my opinions here and only on CA schools. I have 2 daughters currently in College. Oldest at LAC in Oregon but she was accepted at Santa Clara and St Mary’s My youngest just finished her first year at UCLA. Having just gone through all of this with her I feel I can give you some feedback. A few of the schools are big reaches, you may want to take them off the list. My daughter had a weighted 4.3 GPA, president of class, editor of yearbook 2 years, 4 years French, Ap Calc, etc. and tons of EC’s. She was rejected by USC. At the time it was her first choice. Accepted at Loyola Marymount and received Presidential Scholarship (half tuition). One of her best friends is there and very happy. Another friend is at Chapman and loves it. The UC’s were very tough last year. She was accepted at UCSB but many of her friends with really good stats were rejected. here’s what I think:
USC: Big reach
UCD, UCSB, UCI = reach
Santa Clara, and Cal Poly = slight reach,
UCSC, U of SD, Chapman, Loyola Marymount, SD State= probable matches</p>

<p>I would go with the 5 probable matches and pick maybe 4 of the reaches for a total of around 9 or so. Try to get your Sat and Sat II scores up if you can. I think you might want to consentrate on Loyola Marymount, University of San Diego and Santa Clara. They all fit your criteria and I have visited them all and thought they were very nice schools. Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Cal Poly would also be a reach, as it has almost identical admission statistics and rates as the mid tier UCs. You need more matches and safeties.</p>

7

<p>It would be a reach, but… Pepperdine?</p>

8

<p>Honestly, I think you can attend a much better business program if you make your list less CA centric. I’d throw in applications to Indiana, Michigan, CMU, Bentley which all have stronger business programs than all but USC which is a pretty big reach for you.</p>

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<p>You probably know that you file one app for all of the UCs, though you do pay an additional fee for each campus you apply to. Aside from the $ for applying, it’s no additional effort to add campuses. UC will only use your sophomore and junior year grades, so you’ll want to recalculate your GPA. Based on what you posted, your GPA may be a bit lower for UC purposes. Have you visited the UC campuses? Santa Cruz is your best bet for getting in, but it may not be a good match for you in other ways. Davis and Irvine in particular were very very tough to get into last year.</p>

<p>If you’re 40 minutes from Loyola Marymount, that sounds like you’re not in the immediate area of SDSU…and getting into SDSU from outside the San Diego area was extremely difficult. You might want to check your stats on SDSU’s website to see where you fall on their point scale to see if you’ll be admitted or not. The school would be a great financial safety, but it might not be an admissions safety. Same for Cal Poly SLO. Maybe take a look around the CSU system, see what other schools offer a business major, and see if there are other campuses that could serve as admissions and financial safeties.</p>

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<p>SlitheyTove brings up a good suggestion. Look at a few of the CA State Universities. Some would be matches, some safties. Many have good business programs. Many prepare you very well for the working world. My niece just graduated from Chico State (in journalism)and is now doing a paid summer internship at the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper. She has published front page newspaper articles one month out of school. She has a paid internship at a magazine in Portland, OR. for Aug through Dec. Check out a few a the CSU’s that have good business programs and then you can round out your list.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone a bunch! Thanks. Thanks!</p>

<p>Inquiringmind2:
Yeah, thanks for taking the time to write a thorough response. I think your ratings are about right. Yeah, right now I think I’m aiming on those 3 colleges. I think they fit me well. I am a very relaxed, leaning liberal Christian. Those catholic schools seem to fit me perfectly. However, I’m still not sure how I would fit in not being a catholic. Thanks for all the feedback!</p>

<p>rc251:
Thanks, great advice! I agree.</p>

<p>psych_:
Thanks. I was originally going to apply there, it sounded perfect: location, good business school, gorgeous campus, etc… But after much research I learned it was very conservative and not diverse at all. I couldn’t see myself fitting in there.</p>

<p>hmom5:
Thanks hmom5 again! I would really really like to attend a college in warm weather. I love the sun! I haven’t researched those schools that much, but I’ll take a look and research them more. Thanks!</p>

<p>SlitheyTove:
Yeah, the UCs are great! Except only Irvine, Berkely, and Riverside have business programs. I would have no chance at Berk. A slight at Irvine. And I don’t really want to go to Riverside, I’ve heard many bad things about it, especially location and social wise, which are both important to me. Santa Cruz seems nice, and I’d probably make it, but I’m afraid I won’t like the Biz/Econ major that SC and all the other UCs have compared to a normal Biz Major. I’d like to learn more about how those two different majors compare. I think Biz/Econ, which SB, D, & SC have is basically economics with a few accounting classes… and that doesn’t appeal to me that much. </p>

<p>Well my SAT M+CR= 1400. And my SDSU GPA = 3.45. That puts my just below the average GPA accepted out of area, so it should be pretty safe that I get in due to my calculations.</p>

<p>CSUs seem to have good business programs. But I want to have a good social, dorm, and residential college experience. While the CSUs seem to be commuters…</p>

<p>Inquiringmind2
Thanks for the input!</p>

<p>Thanks everyone!! More input is always appreciated. ;)</p>

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<p>also my class rank is quite bad. its like 35% i think… ouch!</p>

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<p>You might want to consider Chico State then as a safety. It has a number of Business related majors, it’s a residential, active campus with students from all over the state, and average admission GPA of 3.23 and SAT of 1037 according to Fall 2008 statistics.</p>

14

<p>I’d also suggest you look at University of Oregon. They have an excellent business program, including a top ranked Sports Marketing program. For Fall 2010 their required GPA for guaranteed admit is 3.4, so you would get in. It’s a beautiful campus with a fun social environment and Pac 10 sports.</p>

15

<p>I second the Chico State suggestion as a safety. I know a lot of kids who got turned away from SDSU last year with higher GPA’s than yours. Your SAT scores should help with admissions. Santa Clara is fabulous and I think your would get in there. Being a non-Catholic is no big deal there. Same with Loyola. Chapman has a great Business department that is very well funded and provides connections in the Southern CA area. You would get in there as well. Chapman is good because the little town it is in a very friendly and the areas surrounding the campus has a great collegiate feel to it. The Arizona schools would be a good safety for you and are reasonably priced. Check out Northern Arizona University. It does snow a bit in the winter, but it is a well-priced school and could be a safety for you. If your parents have the money, choose the school you like the best and can be most successful at.</p>

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<p>How about Dominican in San Rafael? It is not on the prestige radar but seems to have a great campus community, Bay Area access and seems like they would be interested in you.</p>

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<p>I know several students at Chico and they don’t see it as a commuter school.
I would agree with the rework above…some of the schools you list as matches I think would really be reaches.</p>

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<p>kk thanks everyone!! i will look into and research the suggested schools!! thankss!! </p>

<p>more feedback is always welcome.</p>

<p>can someone explain the diff between a business economics major, say at ucsc, compared to a regular business major at say, sdsu or scu???</p>

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<p>UCSC is not that good a match if you are <em>really</em> sure that you want to do straight business. You will get much more econ than business there, with little hands-on work. </p>

<p>Within California, the UC schools in general have long be disinclined to offer undergrad business degrees, so that your idea of a Catholic school is a good one. Both Loyola Marymount in SoCal and Santa Clara (esp.) are very good schools.</p>

<p>Cal Poly offers a very good business major but it’s a reach. </p>

<p>I’d second the poster that urged you to look at ASU, which has an excellent business school, W. P. Carey and many, many options within the business major (supply chain management, health care management, marketing, etc.). The large size of ASU means that there will be a wide array of students interested in doing many different things, and there are a lot of Californians. Yes, it is something of a commuter school, but there has been quite a spate of new building, and there are newly constructed dorms at ASU’s Barrett Honors College just opening up this fall, and you might be accepted there: the G.P.A. cut off is about 3.5 but Barrett doesn’t hold people to this as a hard-and-fast rule. Also ASU would be affordable, even at OOS rates.</p>

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<p>KK thanks! Well, I think I will apply to ASU then! It seems like a very nice safety, and the honors college would be nice! That supply chain and health care management also sound pretty interesting. Honors college sounds cool too.</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions!</p>