<p>also, thank you for all the recommendations, but there is so many; i would like to narrow down all these recommendations to just two to four to add to my list and FINALLY make it final more...</p>
<p>Loyola Marymount
Fordham
Santa Clara does
University of San Francisco
St. Mary's College
San Diego State University
Universit of the Pacific
Univeristy of San Diego
Wesleyan</p>
<p>Out of these, which should I add to my list of:
University of Pennsylvania<br>
University of California Davis
University of California Berkeley<br>
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
New York University<br>
University of California San Diego
University of California Los Angeles<br>
University of Southern California<br>
Stanford University
Columbia University</p>
<p>I dunno, it's hard to believe that St. Mary's and Loyola aren't safteties to some extent. Plus, there's gotta be a UC that matches your profile. Do you really need another afety?</p>
<p>"mini, i would like to go to penn but who wouldn't want to go to wharton?"</p>
<p>I know LOTS of people who wouldn't. My step sister-in-law (who heads the business department at Ursinus) went there, and wouldn't do it again. She said it was extremely (and unnecessarily) cutthroat, with students virtually all money- and status-obsessed, fine for future I-Bankers but less ideal for future entrepreneurs and accountants, and quite a few of the well-known faculty usually nowhere to be found. My d. (future international accountant) definitely does NOT want to go to Penn.</p>
<p>It is a very fine school, but I certainly wouldn't get hung up about it.</p>
<p>Have you considered the implications of going to school on the East Coast: far colder climate, fewer laid back people, a smaller proportion of Mexicans, far from your family, very different culture than any part of California.</p>
<p>Such a move would make it more difficult for you to see your family (which could even mean that your parents may even have a hard time attending your college graduation), would require you to get a new wardrobe and to adapt to lots of new things far above what many students adapt to in college.</p>
<p>Going to college for all students is a big step that typically requires some major adjustments. Most students, however, go to college within a couple of hours drive of their homes. The adjustments are even more stressful and difficult for many people who go far from home and who also are the first in their family to attend college (meaning they may have less idea of what to expect, and their families may lack information about how to best emotionally support them).</p>
<p>Have you ever been to the East Coast particularly in the winter? The cold can be brutal. (I'm from NY State). The skies also are overcast for weeks on end. </p>
<p>Anyway, my advice would be to look for safeties that are within driving distance of your home so you could get back to see your family for holidays like Thanksgiving (which if you're on the East Coast with typical financial aid, you probably couldn't afford to do). </p>
<p>You also are extremely lucky in living in the state which has the best public university system and one of the best private university systems. </p>
<p>I'm not that familiar with California schools, so can't suggest a safety, but I do suggest that you start by looking in your own state.</p>
<p>My soon to be ex-in laws are from California and yes, the adjustment to even fifty degree temperature days (considered warm by Eastern standards) takes a while. But, the same would be true if she won a Rhodes scholarship or took a year to study abroad anywhere in Europe. As a Californian, attending college on the East coast might, in fact, be their last chance to live some place where people just like themselves were not in the majority or at least a significant plurality of the population. This used to be a big reason for going away to college.</p>
<p>Cindy--what's the most important to you? Where do you envision yourself after graduation? Do you see yourself in CA or not? Do you want to go to school in CA or is it your priority to get away?</p>
<p>Here's my take on it: Although Mexican-Americans are URMs in most places, the sheer numbers of M/A's in CA make it a less under-represented group.</p>
<p>If you really want to stay in CA another place I neglected, a place with a great business school, is Pepperdine. </p>
<p>If you want to go for the best darn offer then look at states with relatively small populations of 1st gen Mexican-Americans and good business schools. You might find the winters tough and fewer people who seem like home, but I am not sure what you want from your posts--some kids really want to break away and make a fresh start; some would prefer the vestiges of home culture. You would do well to think about what you want, because with your stats if you had a willingness to break away and go to a place like Minnesota you could write your own ticket.</p>
<p>"My soon to be ex-in laws are from California and yes, the adjustment to even fifty degree temperature days (considered warm by Eastern standards) takes a while. But, the same would be true if she won a Rhodes scholarship or took a year to study abroad anywhere in Europe. As a Californian, attending college on the East coast might, in fact, be their last chance to live some place where people just like themselves were not in the majority or at least a significant plurality of the population. This used to be a big reason for going away to college."</p>
<p>You make some good points. At the same time, I think it's important for the OP to recognize that being the first in one's family to go to college means that wherever she goes, she'll be breaking new ground and her family won't be able to give her the kind of informed support that students get who come from educated families. Even if she lives at home and goes to college down the street, it still would be a major adjustment.</p>
<p>If she hasn't traveled outside of California and perhaps Mexico, if she moves 3,000 miles away to college, she may find the change to be extremely difficult to adjust to, depending on her personality. Things that she's very used to ranging from lots of sunshine to lots of laid back people to being able to easily obtain the kind of food that she loves all could be absent if she goes a long distance from home. She also may have a hard time finding peers from her social economic class and ethnic group.</p>
<p>That being said, some very flexible first gen, low income college students who are URMs make this kind of adjustment fairly easily. My husband was one (though he went to college about a 3 hour drive from his city, that still was a long distance back in the late 1960s, and he didn't have a car to get back home easily).</p>
<p>Still, if she decides to go to college closer to home, that doesn't mean that she will have forever lost her chance to see the world. Most colleges have study abroad programs. Many students go to grad school in a totally different part of the country. Many people also move during their careers. Heck, I've lived in 7 states and D.C. since I graduated from college (which was in an adjacent state).</p>
<p>This is a consortium of small LACs located in inland LA. If smaller schools hold any interest for you, you might be a good candidate for aid, especially at Pitzer and Scripps. Business is not a major, but Claremont McKenna is renowned for pre-business type courses--lots of econ, gov, politics, IR, etc. majors (the latter two also very popular at Scripps, but at CMC the whole school is geared toward them). Students at ANY of the Claremont schools can take the courses, pursue the majors, etc., which is why I don't recommend CMC (McKenna) alone. Check out the website if you're interested...it explains what I mean by consortium and also links to each individual school.</p>
<p>Good luck with your search! Also, I agree with earlier posters...if you like St. Mary's, LMU, SDSU, and UCD, then your list is fine as far as safeties go.</p>
<p>I don't get this thread. Cindyay asks for suggestions for safeties in California.... and people are suggesting Wesleyan??? </p>
<p>It seems to me pretty obvious that Cindyay's application strategy is to apply to some East Coast "dream" schools (Columbia, Penn, NYU), but otherwise to stick closer to home. That makes a lot of sense to me. </p>
<p>To Cindy: University of Redlands is a definite safety for you and does have a business school.. and it is in California. However, I see nothing wrong with your existing list -- you will get into the UC system, and I think that you are reasonably certain to be accepted at Davis with your stats.</p>
<p>Wesleyan appeared on the OP's list in post #21. I'm merely supporting her good sense in applying to a school where her geographic hook will come into play AND has a pretty long history of accepting URMs from California.</p>
<p>If you get into any of your East Coast dream schools or any other schools that are far away, see if the college will fly you in. Top colleges often will do this with top URM recruits.</p>
<p>If you go, however, do keep in mind that the weather will be milder than what you'd experience in the depth of the winter. Also, often colleges will fly in URMs during special weekends that have lots of activities geared to URMs. Consequently, realize that if you go to that college, you won't be surrounded by as many URMs as you will be on those special weekends nor would typical weekends have so many activities that reflect the various ethnicities on the campus.</p>
<p>Do your best to figure out whether you'd be happy there on a cold, snowy or sleety day and being perhaps one of only a couple of people of color in most of your courses. Some URMs would not be bothered at all by cold, snowy weather or not having many people around of their ethnicity. Others would be very unhappy in such a situation.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Some URMs would not be bothered at all by cold, snowy weather....Others would be very unhappy in such a situation.
[/quote]
Another "don't get it" moment for me. Why would a URM have any different reaction to cold, snowy weather than all the white California kids, including my own, who have headed off toward east coast schools? I have yet to see any such cautionary remark directed toward white or Asian kids in the Harvard threads.</p>
<p>FWIW, the thing that my kids end up griping about when living in places with cold winters is rain, not snow.... and we've got plenty of rain to complain about all winter long here in California.</p>