Which Colleges Should I be applying to?

<p>Hi, I have a 3.43 UW cumulative academic gpa and a 3.57 weighted cumulative academic gpa. I got a 2150 on the SAT and a 31 on the ACT. I want to major in computer science and was wondering if the schools I'm applying to are good fits for me, and would like some recommendations for others.</p>

<p>I have already applied to Arizona State, University of Nevada, Reno, Chico State, Cal Poly SLO and Pomona, Fullerton, Long Beach, SDSU and SJSU. I'm also planning to apply to some UC such as UC Berkeley (long shot I know), UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Your list looks fine. All the UCs on your list are longshots but, no harm, no foul.
good luck</p>

<p>your GPA isn’t great, but your standardized test scores are alright. Depending on you essays, EC, and recs, who knows, you might have a chance at the UC schools.</p>

<p>UCB: High Reach
UCSB/UCD/SLO: Low Reach
SJSU/CSULB/SDSU: High Match
ASU/UNLV/Chico/CPP/CSUF: Match</p>

<p>If you are interested in UC’s, add UCSC and UCR to list and drop UCB.<br>
Younger son applied last year for CS with an ACT of 31/ UC GPA 3.73 and was accepted to all the Cal States except SLO. For UC’s, accepted UCR, UCSC did not apply and denied at UCD and UCSB. Very competitive for CS majors.</p>

<p>EI for SJSU CS program was 4505 last year, so you may get in but as undeclared.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. By the way I’m not limiting myself to California, more like West coast. Are there any schools in Oregon or Washington I should be looking at? I like U of Washington but I don’t think I’ll be able to get in.</p>

<p>U of Washington is very competitive. My son at SDSU has 2 classmates from Washington whom were unable to get into the school are attending SDSU. We never looked at any other schools outside California, so I am unable to give you any guidance. You have a good list as is, unless you are not willing to go to any of the Match schools.</p>

<p>What’s in-state for you?
If you’re from Nevada, will you be able to pay the 55K pricetag at UCs without financial aid?
If you’re not from Nevada, why would you apply to UNR and UNLV which are among the worst public flagships in the US?
Overall, what’s your parents’ budget?</p>

<p>I’m from California, and I just applied to Nevada Reno because they have scholarship opportunities. Sorry but I’m not too sure what my parents’ budget is. I’m just applying to where I want to go and we’ll figure out the financials after I’m accepted and decide where I want to go.</p>

<p>Unless your parents are very affluent, you need to talk to them about that budget. Soon. Like, now.</p>

<p>OOS public universities generally do not have very generous need-based aid. Use the online net price calculators to estimate your costs, then discuss the results with your parents. </p>

<p>Your stats may or may not be high enough for merit aid. If they are, the grants may or may not be enough. At any rate, you need a plan. Depending on your circumstances, the best strategy may be to focus on low sticker prices (usually at in state public schools), merit scholarships (perhaps at less selective schools in CA or elsewhere), or need-based aid at relatively selective private schools. </p>

<p>I know someone whose kids could go for free, but they won’t go to UNR. it’s just not a good school (better than UNLV but that’s about it). If you have no other choice, well, it’s college. But if you have other choices… There’s no upside (financial or academic) to leaving California for UNR.</p>

<p>Financials MUST be part of your strategy to go to college. What’s the point of applying to unaffordable schools? Each website now has a Net Price Calculator that will tell you how much you’re expected to pay. Run that NPC for each school (since each school calculates differently, you have to do it for each, don’t assume what you find at one school will hold at another). If they ask for scores and GPA, they’ll also factor in merit, otherwise they’ll give you need-based net price and you’ll have to hunt for merit on the website and see if you’re eligible for anything.</p>

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<p>You need to talk to them now before the application deadlines. Run the net price calculator on every school to check financial aid estimates. Otherwise, you may be off to community college after you find out in April that all of your acceptances are to schools which are too expensive. Not that community college is necessarily bad, but it may not be what you were expecting at the end of your application efforts.</p>

<p>Note that you may qualify for some of these big automatic merit scholarships:
<a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;