I'm not sure which University to attend, help?

[lakersfan45]

Makes sense.

U read that fast! I just edited with more explanation

 

[smithwick]

University of Illinois

 

[PEB]

I agree with taking the CC route for 2 years if you live in California.

This ^^^ and make sure whatever your line of study make sure it leads to a job. Have an idea what you want to do before you go to college. I have so many people I know who are attending college and have not figured out what they want to do. A few of them are studying software security and IT networking. One field that is going to grow like crazy if Physician Assistant. My niece just became one and got a ton of job offers other is pharmacist both start at over 80K a year and top the low 100K just after 4 or 5 years. Both though require 6 years or 7 years of schooling.

 

[riddleofsteel]

Cal Poly's engineering program is pretty legit so I would recommend going there. Then again I'm also bias since I went there.

Poly definitely is. It is highly regarded and highly ranked.

Sounds like he should look into a computer engineering or software engineering program.


To the TS, Poly's acceptance rate into their engineering programs has been pretty low in recent years, under 10%. And unless they changed this, which I doubt, you have to declare your major upon applying and they don't make it easy to switch majors especially between colleges.

And the post about impacted majors & campuses is spot on, it can be a Herculean feat just to get a full load of courses some semesters/quarters. Sucks when there are a string of courses meant to be taken back to back and you can't get them like that.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

As of now I only have my G.E.D and a Culinary Arts certificate so obviously I won't be able to afford a prestigious school but I was thinking that first I should obtain a Bachelors at a low cost university so I can get a well paying job then try to get Masters degrees later on at top universities.

If not being wealthy prevents you from being able to attend a top university the its a pretty messed up system. Cant you get a loan? Seems much simpler than spending years studyong something you arent interested in just so you can get a job that will enable you to study what you want.

I was going to try to get into Bakersfield University because it was the cheapest one but I recently discovered that prestigious schools often do not except people who went to universities that is not very well known so I am not sure which one I should go to.

Does anyone have any advice?

Use correct English on your application.

 

[gizmo J]

Ok I'm starting to understand how unlikely it is to got to schools such as MIT or Harvard so I think I'll try a school with a higher acceptance rate.

I found this website called U.S.NewsEducation.com that ranks Universities, recently I have been looking at the top ranked schools that have an acceptance rate above 20% and I found that these 4 schools were on top and in the same rank for Engineering:

Georgia Institute of Technology
Purdue University—​West Lafayette
University of Illinois—​Urbana-​Champaign
University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor

And this school is on top for Political Science:

University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor

I'm starting to be skeptical on whether or not I should take Political Science, I am now thinking of taking either Business, Law, or History instead. These were the highest ranking schools in each subject with an acceptance rate of above 20%.

Business-University of Chicago (Booth)
Law-University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor
History-University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor

 

[ThinkGreen]

i had a 3.9 highschool gpa, 2200 sat, three 5's on AP exams and i didnt get into mit. or stanford. or berkeley



i dont think hes trollin. to look up those tuition numbers for a troll job is quite some work

Really? 3.9 GPA isn't that special when comparing to weighted GPA's from AP/IB classes, but 2200 sat is damn high on the SAT! Surprised you didn't get into Berkeley.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

U read that fast! I just edited with more explanation

Still makes sense.

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Can you elaborate on why the CSUs are easy? It seems to be the general consensus that they are, and that the UCs are tougher. Yet everyone I know who went to a UC school is fucking retarded, while those I know who went to CSU are seemingly pretty smart. Is it just that UC has more stringent requirements for admission, or the classes are harder?

Are you fucking kidding? That's some ignorant shit man, what kind of people do you associate with? UC Berkeley and UCLA are up there with the most prestigious schools in the country. UCI, Davis, and San Diego aren't far behind either. There are only 2 really good CSU's, Pomona and SLO. The others are decent, but they aren't the most selective in their admissions. Just about anybody who graduates from high school can get into some sort of CSU.

I just meant admissions. Classes are similar in difficulty...

My god, why do people even talk when they have no clue what they're talking about.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

Are you fucking kidding? That's some ignorant shit man, what kind of people do you associate with? UC Berkeley and UCLA are up there with the most prestigious schools in the country. UCI, Davis, and San Diego aren't far behind either. There are only 2 really good CSU's, Pomona and SLO. The others are decent, but they aren't the most selective in their admissions. Just about anybody who graduates from high school can get into some sort of CSU.



My god, why do people even talk when they have no clue what they're talking about.

You sound just like the dumb asses I know who went to a UC. So I'll explain it so that even you can understand it.

1) The people I know are not representative of the entire UC alumni population. I never said they were. But it seemed to me that if they could get through the UC system that anyone could, which is why I asked why UCs were considered superior.

2) How would you really even know, outside of admission requirements, unless you attended both?

3) I know that a lot of the UCs are considered prestigious. My question is why are they so prestigious compared to CSUs?

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

academic funding, known professors, research publications, yada yada yada

i've attended two pretty prestigious universities, and one that wasnt for about two semesters. i cant say i got a great snapshot of the course difficulty from those two semesters, but while i was at prestigious universities, i met transfer students from other colleges with 4.0's that ended up failing out and was told the coursework was way harder.

im sure it varies quite a bit between schools.

Really? 3.9 GPA isn't that special when comparing to weighted GPA's from AP/IB classes, but 2200 sat is damn high on the SAT! Surprised you didn't get into Berkeley.

3.9 unweighted. no one looks at weighted gpas that are above 4.0.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

academic funding, known professors, research publications, yada yada yada

i've attended two pretty prestigious universities, and one that wasnt for about two semesters. i cant say i got a great snapshot of the course difficulty from those two semesters, but while i was at prestigious universities, i met transfer students from other colleges with 4.0's that ended up failing out and was told the coursework was way harder.

im sure it varies quite a bit between schools.

I know that UCs generally attract more accomplished professors. But my friends said that TAs usually lectured. So it just seems to me that the level of instruction may not be all it's cracked up to be. But I also get the impression that the course work is more difficult. Which begs the question, how in the fuck did my friends ever graduate? I'm telling you, if you met these people, you would think they dropped out of high school.

 

[gizmo J]

I heard that you could start the first 2 years at a University then transfer to a different University and finish the next 2 years for a Bachelors.

My question is if I attend Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo for the first 2 years, do you think I could transfer to a school in the UC system such as Davis?

Or is Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo not prestigious enough to impress the UC system?

 

[riddleofsteel]

I heard that you could start the first 2 years at a University then transfer to a different University and finish the next 2 years for a Bachelors.

My question is if I attend Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo for the first 2 years, do you think I could transfer to a school in the UC system such as Davis?

Or is Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo not prestigious enough to impress the UC system?

Cal Poly is a well regarded university, highest regarded CSU campus.

Why would you want to transfer from a CSU to a UC? Is this just about saving some money?
If you are going to Poly for engineering why would you transfer out?
I'll tell you right now, because of impacted status that 2 academic years at Cal Poly will most likely take longer than 2 years. If for whatever reason you want to first attend a CSU and then transfer to a UC, pick a cheaper place to live then San Luis Obispo.


Transfer student priority goes to California community college transfers (again, the Transfer Admission Guarantee program and Transfer Opportunity Program), then other UC campuses then CSUs and other 4 year institutions.
That is pretty much how it as always been.



You really need to make an appointment with a counselor at a local community college or university.

 

[gizmo J]

Cal Poly is a well regarded university, highest regarded CSU campus.

Why would you want to transfer from a CSU to a UC? Is this just about saving some money?
If you are going to Poly for engineering why would you transfer out?
I'll tell you right now, because of impacted status that 2 academic years at Cal Poly will most likely take longer than 2 years. If for whatever reason you want to first attend a CSU and then transfer to a UC, pick a cheaper place to live then San Luis Obispo.


Transfer student priority goes to California community college transfers (again, the Transfer Admission Guarantee program and Transfer Opportunity Program), then other UC campuses then CSUs and other 4 year institutions.
That is pretty much how it as always been.



You really need to make an appointment with a counselor at a local community college or university.

I was afraid that if I went to a Community College a school in the UC system would not accept me because Community Colleges has no prestige.

But since your telling me that CC transfers has some type of "priority" I will be sure to make some phone calls with the schools to see if that's true.

Thanks!

 

[Bebop]

Are you fucking kidding? That's some ignorant shit man, what kind of people do you associate with? UC Berkeley and UCLA are up there with the most prestigious schools in the country. UCI, Davis, and San Diego aren't far behind either. There are only 2 really good CSU's, Pomona and SLO. The others are decent, but they aren't the most selective in their admissions. Just about anybody who graduates from high school can get into some sort of CSU.



My god, why do people even talk when they have no clue what they're talking about.

Haha, not even with SLO and Pomona. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but Pomona has some of the most underachieving people I've met, and I can confirm that the SLO CS program is underwhelming.

 

[riddleofsteel]

I was afraid that if I went to a Community College a school in the UC system would not accept me because Community Colleges has no prestige.

But since your telling me that CC transfers has some type of "priority" I will be sure to make some phone calls with the schools to see if that's true.

Thanks!

An integral part of the California community college system design is for students to eventually transfer to a CSU or UC.

Some 4 year campuses have transfer agreements with specific community colleges (usually ones in the same area of the state). That is something you have to look into.

Also keep in mind that acceptance to a CSU or UC also varies by major and college (if that is how the school does their admissions); for example a specific major might only have a 10% acceptance rate while the school's overall acceptance rate is in the 35% range.
UCs & CSUs both have impacted majors making admission to those majors more difficult; one recent academic year UC San Diego didn't accept any incoming freshmen in a few majors.

A counselor can go over all these with much more detail.

 

[USBAdguy88]

I went to UGA, so should you.

 

[Grappleboxing]

I was afraid that if I went to a Community College a school in the UC system would not accept me because Community Colleges has no prestige.

But since your telling me that CC transfers has some type of "priority" I will be sure to make some phone calls with the schools to see if that's true.

Thanks!

Mentioned this earlier, find a community college that has an articulation agreement with the university of your choice. The university will probably take you when you transfer and you would have banged out a lot of classes at the cc by this time.