Just to be clear, this is coming from someone who has a guarantee program with UCSB but am considering SDSU, LBSU or Fullerton instead.
Seriously people.
SDSU, LBSU, SJSU, CSUFullerton, CPSLO, CPP. All these should be nationally ranked/recognized.
Just to be clear, these schools specialize in serious degrees. Sciences, engineering, business, etc. And a lot of them do offer masters and graduate degrees.
Not to mention there are TWENTY THREE campuses. There’s a campus for all types of people.
Can somebody please explain this? Why do californians look doen on them and out of staters not know about them?
Because Californians are spoiled by the wealth of choices they have? Because the state has arguably the greatest system of public higher education on the planet - and they can be mighty choosy?
But i don’t see how that negates the fact that CSUs are great and underrated. why are Dakota’s schools ranked higher with 92% acceptance rates? You see what I’m saying?
A lot of ranking systems are based on graduate programs and research. The CSUs don’t focus on those as much as other schools do, so they get dinged in the ranking process.
I have mixed feelings about the CSUs. I’ve taken a handful of classes at Chico State, SF State and San Jose State for credit. At first the classes were very good, but around 2000, state budget cuts started kicking in. The classes became so crowded, and the instructors seemed so unmotivated and overwhelmed, that I stopped signing up for classes. I was hearing the same kinds of stories about other CSUs around the state.
On the other hand, I know lots of people who have graduated from the CSUs, and they’re just as competent as anyone who went to a UC, out of state public school, or private university.
Out of staters don’t know about CSUs because except for places like San Diego State, San Jose State and Fresno State, they don’t have big-time athletic programs.
Which rankings are you talking about? US News? The CSU’s are what US News calls “Regional” Colleges, of which they are fairly highly ranked for the West region. The “Dakotas” are “National” universities, and are ranked around 180-190. US News doesn’t compare them against each other.
If we go ahead and compare CSU-Fullerton, to lets say the University of South Dakota(UoSD), You’ll see that UoSD has about the same graduation rate as CSU-Fullerton. UoSD students have a bit higher SAT, it’s median ACT composite is around 23.5, compare to 21.5 for Fullerton. UoSD also has a much better undergrad student to faculty ratio (11 to 1) as compared to Fullerton (29 to 1). UsSD has a much higher % of Full-Time Faculty (74% vs 46.6%). Finally, UoSD spends more $ per student ($21k/FTE vs $12,7K/FTE).
CSU’s are great, but they do have some short comings, while the “Dakota” schools do have some positives.
Acceptance rates alone don’t determine how good a school is - Dakota might provide a really excellent quality education to the 92% they admit.
That said, I agree that the CSUs are underrated. It’s probably because they are overshadowed by the UC system. To be honest, that’s a lot like non-flagship schools in a lot of states - like Western Washington is overshadowed by UW, or Michigan State is overshadowed by Michigan, CUNY schools don’t get a lot of the recognition they deserve, Christopher Newport and University of Mary Washington are all but ignored in a state that has many good public choices, the UNC regional campuses are ignored next to NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill…I could go on.
Having not spent a day as a CSU or UC student your claims are, shall we say, a bit hypothetical. So let me give you a real example. Attending a well-regarded CSU campus a friend was taking an engineering-level Physics class. These are tough classes. One day, he says, a kid in his class raised his hand and said “too much homework! I’m spending more than 3 hours every week on this stuff”. Teacher said “oh, anyone else?” Most hands went up, and the teacher cut down the homework. This is just unthinkable at a UC. They expect you to work hard, and to spend a significant time doing it.
I’m not saying there aren’t stringent classes or smart kids, but its possible to get thru most majors at most CSUs without the same academic challenges faced at “nationally ranked/recognized” schools. Don’t think employers and grad schools don’t know the difference.
All of these schools are outstanding but there are only so many superlatives you can use when you mention schools. California has such great higher education options it is amazing.
Lesser in rankings mostly. People don’t really care about the quality of the professors if the schools aren’t coming out with research on par with HYSPM. All accredited universities will have sufficient academics at the very least, but it’s everything else that goes into creating the knowledge these schools do that matters. Acceptance rates are also higher meaning that while students will be academically qualified and can make the grades, they may not be the best at research or other academic qualifiers and activities.
I’m not from CA but typically the UCs and a couple of strong privates will be ranked above CSUs. But why worry about it? Go to the school that works for you and that will best help you meet your goals.
Those 6 CSUs you listed are among the best of the CSU campuses. But as you said, there are 23 of them, most of which are almost open admission (accepting students with GPAs as low as 2.5 high school or 2.0 transfer). That’s what drags down the CSU reputation.
Do you think it’s just a coincidence that SDSU, SJSU, and SFSU are not named CSU-SD, etc?
No one is saying that CSUs are on par with UCs. My point is that CSUs are still great.
People have this unfounded, and frankly, weird belief that “since UCs are the great ones, CSUs are trash.”
UCs are a step above CSUs. There is a direct qualification link between lower-mid tier UCs and CSUs. Like if you just got a 100 pts more on the SAT. If you just had turned 2 Bs in high school into As, you’d be at UCSB instead of LBSU.
And I’m not saying ALL CSUs are great. CPs are at the top of list and it slowly devolves down to Dominguez Hills or whatever. Just like UCs have tiers
I will say that SDSU is great, highly respectable. I sorta wished that I had applied there. I don’t know much about Fresno State except that NBA All-Star Paul George went there, but I’m sure that they’re good as well. SJSU, Fullerton, Northridge, and LBSU also seem very good.
If you believe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_University , a state law passed in 1972 renamed all of the CSUs to “CSU, [location]”, but gave campuses the option to revert back to their old names (e.g. “San Jose State University”).
The eight CSUs with names other than “CSU, [location]” include seven of the nine oldest campuses. The nine oldest:
1857 San Jose State University
1887 California State University, Chico
1897 San Diego State University
1899 San Francisco State University
1901 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
1911 California State University, Fresno
1913 Humboldt State University
1929 California Maritime Academy
1938 California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
The newer campus with the name other than “CSU, [location]” is:
1960 Sonoma State University
Regarding admission selectivity, the most selective CSUs and their approximate selectivity equivalents among the UCs:
CPSLO ~ UCI
SDSU ~ UCR
CPP, SJSU, CSULB ~ UCM
However, the admission criteria are different in that UCs do holistic readings, while most CSUs admit by a formula of GPA * 800 + SATCR + SATM or GPA * 200 + ACT * 10 (CPSLO adds additional points for other criteria). Also, both CSU and UC campuses can have majors and divisions that are more popular than their capacity, so that such majors and divisions can have higher admission selectivity than the campuses overall.
But it is likely that the lower admission selectivity of the CSUs is most of what leads many to have lower opinions of them, since many have opinions of colleges that are roughly correlated to admission selectivity.