San Jose State vs Santa Clara vs UC Riverside vs UC Santa Cruz

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by LexusNexus

I feel your pain. A few years back, my daughter had similar SAT and 4.0 average. She had straight-As from 5th grade on. She played the violin and performed in orchestras. She had tons of AP and honors classes, but not a lot of extra-curricular activities (primary because she had so much homework to do). Just an exceptional student and person in every way (I know, I'm biased). She got turned down at Stanford, Berkeley, and UCLA, and chose to go to a top school in NY. All of her Asian classmates, some of whom hadn't scored as high on the SAT and didn't have as high a GPA, got into Berkeley and UCLA. So, it's a damn shame in this pathetic state that there is an Asian bias in the admission preferences. Exceptional kids in this state can't even get into UCLA and Berkeley because these schools prefer as many Asians as they legally can squeeze in. I frankly don't know what the hell the Stanford admission committee is smoking.

My son got into USC as a transfer from DeAnza. He didn't do well academically in high school, didn't apply himself, and didn't take the SAT. At DeAnza, he turned it around, got his grades up, and USC was impressed by that. You might want to consider this option. Your daughter can go to a community college, which initially saves money. They have transfer agreements with Berkeley and USC. My son's friend went to Foothill College, then transferred to Berkeley after a couple of years. If your daughter really has her heart set on USC or Berkeley, the community college-then-transfer is way to go. Credits transfer, and she'd go in as a sophomore. I have one daughter in HS now who is a junior. She has top grades, but we may go the community college route to get her into Berkeley, since if you're not Asian, you damn near have to save somebody's life to get admitted as a freshman.

Really? I happen to advise a lot of Asian families about college admissions, and it's a perception that if you're Asian, you have to score HIGHER (than students of other ethnicities) in terms of grades, test scores, and need standout extracurriculars. Piano, badminton, orchestra don't really stand out.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

Has he applied for Cal Poly? I would rank Cal Poly above all other UCs except for the top 3, in terms of engineering.

Cal Poly is also one of the most impacted and selective CSU's, too - so the people who get in there have pretty high credentials. Great program, and you'll find a number of Poly grads going onto top graduate programs like Stanford, Michigan, etc.

[devang026]

Originally Posted by darkeconomist

When people who "have their act together" are taking five years and your field is CS/CoEn, there's a huge opportunity cost for that fifth and sixth year in school given what graduates can earn. That's why I keep playing it off SCU despite me advising against the value proposition of it; that same person who has their "act together" might finish in fewer than four years (amazing what summer classes and 21 units/quarter can accomplish). Between the two schedules--ie, four years and six--there can be a $100k+ opportunity cost. That reality needs to be taken in to account when choosing a school.

HELLO, i have a thread open too asking for help for choosing colleges between scu, u wash, ucsd,ucsb for undergrad programme. got some very valuable answer too . i went and saw all the university except uwash which i am going this weekend. i was really impressed with scu out of all. @drakeeconomist pls explain in details what you are trying to say.
we have not yet decided yet but if you ask me i would choose 2 routes :
1) community college and take a transfer (my daughter and my family is against that as she wants to go to a college and enjoy those 2 years of college which are not coming back, of course on daddy's expense.
2) pvt college (scu )route. pros: a)can finish graduation in 3.5 to 4 years for sure, relatively easy to change majors in pvt school than public and easier to get the classes as kids this age have no idea what they want to do and when they realize than they would not get classes in right time so will have to wait and waste time. b) so save time and get in the field of jobs and internships faster than others(i am talking about the little above average kids and not the geniuses ).
c) alumni of scu is strong to get you internship and jobs , if i am not wrong 80%+ kids have jobs at the end of there undergrads programme and those kids had internship in every summers .
d) special attention and recommendation letters from teachers for your kid which would make there base strong if they are inclined towards learning and excelling.
e)amazing and safe campus and wonderful kids polite and confident.

cons: very expensive (but if they can graduate little faster and would have less worry for getting a job and internship i think its well worth it) .

pls comment if i am wrong or should think otherwise as i am also a first time parent sending the kid away to a college.

[SportyandMisty]

zombie thread from 2015