I am a senior in high school. My GPA is between a 2.5-2.7and my SAT is a 990. I want to go to Chico state and major in business. I would like to go to Chico, but I am open to any other CSU options. Out of this list which is most likely to accept me? Please help and thank you so much for your time thank you (:
The CSU list:
Chico, San Francisco, Sacramento state, Stanislaus, San Jose state, and humbodlt state!
Disclaimer: I am not a graduated student and have not yet been accepted anywhere except a public university in my hometown. However I did a little research on the schools you listed, and here are my thoughts (to be taken once daily with a grain of salt, as with all responses to chancing posts)
All you’ve really given us to work with is two (really one and a half) numbers. There are several more factors (EC’s essays, application date, teacher recs, awards, etc) in the admissions process so these don’t have great predictive validity on their own, but I’ll do the best I can with what you’ve said.
Your SAT makes you
dead average for Chico, San Francisco, and Sacramento
a little below average for Stanislaus and San Jose
a bit above for Humboldt
Based on this, I don’t think your SAT will be a barrier to admission at any of these schools, but you can’t rely on it to carry you over a bad application.
Your GPA is going to be your biggest detractor. First semester senior year usually still gets sent to colleges, so make sure you raise it as much as you can between now and December.
Note: What do you mean between 2.5 and 2.7? I would think it would be fairly easy to check, and that .2 makes a pretty big difference.
All of these colleges except San Jose have acceptance rates hovering around 70%.
However, San Jose has a significantly lower acceptance rate, and a GPA average between 0.9 and 0.7 higher than yours. If I were to pick one school on the list most likely to not accept you, it’d be San Jose.
As for the others, your SAT will not be a problem. Your GPA might.
However, as I said before, there are other factors. Don’t BS your essays, and make sure to have someone else read them. Don’t use a thesaurus, and don’t let anyone else write your essays for you. I’ve seen several people do this, and not only does it p*ss me off, it doesn’t work. You’re much better off being genuine and writing about something personal. Make sure all of your achievements and extracurriculars are on your app, and make sure a random person reading it will be able to understand what they are. Don’t just say, “Oh I was my school’s literary ambassador” without explaining what that is and why it’s impressive.
Like I said, most of your schools have acceptance rates in the 68-72% range. Follow this advice and meet all the deadlines and you shouldn’t have to worry too much.
Source: I’m a senior and have basically devoted the past 4 months to college research and “chancing” myself at various locations.
Note: this is all based on the overall stats of the college. I have done no research whatsoever on the relative selectivity of the business schools at these colleges - that is something you should look into yourself.
How Cal States admit:
The Cal states admit by major and eligibility index. They really only consider GPA/Test scores/Geographic location and HS course rigor. Other than Cal Poly SLO, your EC’s are not considered.
You need to calculate your CSU/UC GPA using grades from a-g courses taken 10-11th.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Not sure which courses are a-g and will give you extra honors points, then use this link by typing in your HS name.
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution
Cal states and the majority of the UC’s use the capped weighted GPA.
Then calculate your Eligibility index:
If you took the Redesigned SAT:
(CSU capped weighted GPA X 800) + (SAT Evidence Based Reading & Writing (EBRW) + Math Score) = Eligibility Index
Eligibility index for ACT:
(CSU capped weighted GPA X 200) + (ACT Composite x10)= Eligibility Index
You will then be ranked based on EI and major and they accept from the top down until all spots are filled.
You will get priority at your local CSU. Local applicants usually require a lower EI to get an acceptance unless the program is highly impacted.
Impacted campuses/majors: https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/ImpactedProgramsMatrix.pdf
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So after this long explanation, based on your stats lets calculate your EI. So lets use 2.7 as your CSU (2.7 x800) + (990)= 3150
For Chico State, you want around a 3700 to be competitive so it will be a Reach.
SJSU publishes their EI thresholds for all majors so based on their data from last year, you are below all EI’s for Business. Worth an application but unless you are local, it will be a slight Reach.
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/index.html
Business is impacted at Sac State and SFSU so again a Reach schools unless local.
Your best options would be the non-impacted campuses of Stanislaus, East Bay, Humboldt for Business for Northern California schools, Bakersfield for Central California and Dominguez Hills/Channel Islands/San Bernadino for Southern California schools.
Best of luck and there are schools that will accept you so apply widely.