[quote=CA renter]Yep, I figured you would like those since we tend to have the same taste in housing. 🙂
How about having your kid go to one of the local community colleges and then transferring to CSUN?
There are lots of jobs up there, especially when compared to SD County, so they could work their way through college and get that incredibly valuable work experience while they go through college (that work experience ended up being more valuable to me than my college education).[/quote]
Transferring into CSU/UC as a junior is nowhere near as easy as it used to be, CAR, as the CSU/UC are “picky” about the associate degree earned at CC. It now should be one of just two:
AA-T – Associate of Arts
AS-T – Associate of Science
These degrees have strictly prescribed list of classes needed for CSU/UC admission as a junior, depending on university major applying for.
If your student wants to major in say, accounting clerk or medical transcribing in CC (so they can get work skills) and expects their CC credits to someday transfer to CSU/UC, as they did in the past, they will find that the vast majority of them will not.
Did you happen to graduate from CSUN, CAR? I’m really impressed by the faculty there.
My kid will be attending another CSU campus this fall which offers almost the same major as CSUN and has the same Gen Ed requirements as CSUN’s program. They will also be able to obtain a ~13 hr week campus gig (likely fast food) at $10 hr. That’s just enough gas money with their leftover annual scholarship proceeds and fee waiver (for classes only). My kid also wanted to rush and join some of their HS predecessors at CSUN in a Greek organization there but I think they’re going to have to have a minimum 3.6 – 3.7 GPA their first two years in college in order to get accepted as a junior into CSUN’s program so we’ll see what happens. The CSU is getting much, much pickier than they used to be and CSUN is no exception.
FYI folks: SDSU rec’d ~78K freshman and transfer apps for fall 2014 and only admitted ~7700 (<10%).
And every single major at SDSU (along with CSUF, CSULB, SJSU and CPSLO) is currently “impacted,” making it next to impossible for an incoming freshman to declare a major.
In 2014, SDSU ended up reneging on 75% of the promises they made to Sweetwater students (SUHSD) who have been working towards their “Guaranteed Admission” goal since the 7th grade.
SDSU is (shamefully) still making these promises to a population where many of the students in the pipeline won’t be able to attend university out-of-county due to housing cost and so are relying on SDSU’s CFS promise of guaranteed admission. Believe it or not, they’re still speaking to SUHSD 7th grade students and parents and parading them thru the CFS program and guided campus tour!
Out of over 300 CFS Guaranteed Admission certificates issued May of 2013 to my kid’s class of about 530, I believe only about 125 were admitted and 100 or so will attend (some were admitted too late … in April and thus already made other arrangements).
CC has never been an option for us as my kids are/were eligible for a (classes only) CSU/UC fee waiver plus have a small annual scholarship and they stay much more focused out-of-county where they can be “on their own” (since they won’t be attending CC right across the street from their HS, lol). Trust me when I say that “out of county” is the better option for us 😀
If any Piggs out there have HS-age kids, please keep them focused as much as possible. Applying to public universities in CA has turned into a crapshoot, at best, especially if your student has under a 3.65 GPA the end of their junior year. By April 2014, the only campuses that still had slots available were CSU Bakersfield and UC Merced (very few slots). These two campuses in armpit-land were filling up fast with last minute apps from the thousands of scrambling seniors who were rejected from every single campus they applied to. Many of my kid’s classmates applied to 8-12 campuses and were rejected by all! (Yes, they successfully completed all their A-G reqs and all the other prereqs to applying). I would surmise that a very large portion of the Class of 2014 HS seniors in CA who never expected to will now be attending CC this fall. And a handful of my kid’s class (dozen?) are fleeing to AZ State, where they accept SoCal HS graduates as in-state students in select degree programs.
Folks, always remember that out-of-state and out-of-country applicants are very attractive to the CSU/UC because they “pay the full freight.”
And if you have a HS senior in the class of 2015, make sure they are declaring a major in their app this fall and not attempting to get admitted as “undeclared!” And don’t let them be “picky” (only want campus x miles from the beach, etc). Those days are gone and they can’t afford to (unless they have a GPA over 4.0). Encourage them to apply to a variety of campuses in diverse locations in which they have a reasonably good chance of being accepted to.
My kid applied in early November and got accepted into their 2nd choice campus for their 2nd choice major and their 3rd choice campus for their 1st choice major (out of 4 apps). With a 3.14 GPA (now a 3.41), they were very, very fortunate, so much so that they know they would be a fool to mess this oppt’y up.
Sorry for the hijack, NYMom … just offering some more bureaucratic CA info you might want to file away for future reference :=0
