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

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

No offense, but that may in large capacity be because you're on par with 95% of the other vanilla "stellar" applicants to those schools.

TS may have a very "interesting" story as a high school drop out (as far as admissions boards are concerned), believe it or not. A good approach would be to go to a state school for undergrad and do extremely well, academically and otherwise. TS may need to start at a community college for the first 15 or 30 credits. Then apply to a graduate program at a top choice school, or attempt to transfer after 2 years at undergrad. However, if I were TS, I would consider dropping the dorm job plan and focus relying on grants, scholarships and loans for pay for undergrad.

I was in a similar position to TS and that's what I did.
 
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do no go to CSBakersfield

I went to SDSU myslef, but you can go to say CSMB, Fullerton, or San Marcos St, or a litany of others before bakersfield

that is literally, the armpit of california. and i live in 29 palms saying this....
 
and if you had those grades and scoring figures (assuming those were an unweighted 3.9) and didn't get into Stanford or Berkeley, you either had a horrible essay or didn't play sports....i got into literally every good school in Cali outside of CalTech, didn't apply, and i didn't have that much better stats...
 
Go to a community college. Do your 2 years there with a solid GPA and you'll find yourself with a much easier route to a prestigious university and you'll save a ton of cash.
 
Hm, don't know about California specifically, but may I offer a suggestion?

Find a community college that has an agreement with a college on your list. Saves money if you take CC classes, transfer to one of the universities on your list, and end up with a degree from the university.

This is a smart option and I don't want to take away from it... But I would recommend going straight to a University. The first two years you have there, while more expensive, will be defining moments for him as a person and in terms of life experiences. Not to mention, he won't be playing catch up in terms of getting to know people, getting involved in activities, Greek life or anything else socially related. If you're looking at College as strictly a learning endeavor, then this would be the smart play. But I learned equally as much as I did from the social aspects as I did from the academic side and gained so much from even the first two years that I cannot imagine doing it any other way.

Just my two cents. Either way, good luck TS!
 
I can tell you right now that SLO does not have a good program for CS, and most people I know (in general) who went to Pomona aren't the brightest. Keep in mind, these are the "Tech" state schools.
 
Hm, don't know about California specifically, but may I offer a suggestion?

Find a community college that has an agreement with a college on your list. Saves money if you take CC classes, transfer to one of the universities on your list, and end up with a degree from the university.


Solid advice.
 
I would put all your efforts into getting accepted to one of those universities first and foremost and not worry too much about the masters for now. If you're succesful and you graduate, apply for a job at a political research center/think tank and try and have them fund your study with a p/t masters in political science.
 
Go to the best university you can get into for what you want to do. Being around other smart people is priceless.
 
People are giving you plenty of unnecessary shit here. None of these grad programs will care much about your high school transcripts or GED. Go to any school that supports the majors you're interested in, not all schools have engineering departments, let alone decent ones, so factor that. Work your butt off, graduate with a 4.0 and apply for internships, scholarships, etc.. Beyond that, do research that might interest faculty at these schools. Get your feet under you at university, then start looking at what comes next. You might not get in anyway, but there are many great programs that you wouldmt identify this early in the game. Keep your mind open.

Don't smoke pot.
 
You can go the community college route then transfer to a CSU or UC. Look for a community college that has a Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) with the 4 year univeristy(s) you'd like to attend.

Cuesta College doesn't have a TAG with Cal Poly but Poly does take a high precentage of Cuesta College student transfers compared to other community colleges.
Major in engineering at Poly.

CSUs all have the same semester tuition rate: $5472 per semester. The cost difference will be for health services/facilities, studeny body association/center fees, instructional related fees which themselves can vary within the same U by major. And like you stated differences in room & board.
Also not at most of the CSU campuses there is very limited on-campus living, usually just for freshmen (and not enough room for all of them) and some upper class transfers. So, cost of living off campus sounds like something you also need to consider.


Getting into grad school is different than getting in for undergrad. It isn't about high school, it is about your undergrad GPA, course work, GRE score is key & that can make up for a low GPA. Work & live experience factors in especially for people that aren't going straight from high school to undergrad to postgrad.
 
lemme get you some cliffnotes
- only has GED
- wants graduate degree from MIT or harvard





bro. youre dreaming. even people with perfect academic records dont get into MIT.

also, when you write your admissions essays, perhaps know the difference between except and accept.\



the real question you need to ask yourself is why you want and why you think youre capable of earning a "engineering degree and a Political Science degree from prestigious schools such as MIT or Harvard" because im fairly certain your answer to that will be garbage.

It might also be useful to note that "Colombia" is a country in South America. Columbia is a university in New York, and we all know he ain't getting in there with a GED.
 
Use your culinary arts certificate and be a chef. Or have a show on food network, seems like that's what the world is doing these days.
 
You want to attend one of those schools ts, yet you think the best place to go for advice is Sherdog as opposed to their admissions staff, some trusted professors and professionals in the field you wish to pursue?

You have much to learn.
 
You want to attend one of those schools ts, yet you think the best place to go for advice is Sherdog as opposed to their admissions staff, some trusted professors and professionals in the field you wish to pursue?

You have much to learn.

What do you mean? So you are saying that people who claim to be 6,5 275lb benchers, doctors, lawyers, and admissions staff are lying?
 
The CSU system is great, and even with recent tuition increases is still an unbelievable bargain for CA residents. All of the CSUs are similar in price and prestige, so I'd say you should base your decision in large part on where you want to live for the time you are there. I went to SDSU, earned my BA and enjoyed it a lot. Nice city, lots of cool people, girls, parties, etc. as well as some really cool professors. Most important was that I enjoyed it.

A couple other things to consider are, since you want to get a computer science degree, I'd check into which schools have the best computer science programs as some campuses are more known for certain programs than others. For example, San Diego State (where I went) is known for its business program and psych department. Also, some of the CSUs are becoming increasingly impacted, especially in certain majors, which can make it difficult to get classes. For example, like I said SDSU is known for its business and psych programs, so all of those classes fill up very quickly and if you don't sign up ASAP you may end up having to wait a semester or take it at some weird time (like a night class). Also, in impacted majors, if you don't keep your GPA up you can get dropped from the program.

Anyways, bottom line is there are a lot of great options. Choose one that has a good computer science department and is somewhere you want to live.

Also, don't let all of these internet haters get you down about having a GED. If you graduate from a CSU with a high GPA and do well on the GMATs there will be plenty of schools that will take you, and they won't be asking about where you went to high school, especially if you have a lot of good real world experience. When I applied to law school there wasn't even a place on the application asking about high school... they'll look at GPA, GMAT scores, internships/work experience, personal stuff, not your high school diploma.
 
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How are you 20 and don't know you're not getting into an Ivy league school with a GED?

Do you even legacy?
 
Hm, don't know about California specifically, but may I offer a suggestion?

Find a community college that has an agreement with a college on your list. Saves money if you take CC classes, transfer to one of the universities on your list, and end up with a degree from the university.

good advice. get the general education classes out of the way at a community college, then take classes that are specific to your degree at a more prestigious school.
 
Just go to a community college. You can save some cash for two years and get into a school you wouldn't be able to get in currently. If you want to be an engineer you should consider the Cal Poly schools.
 
Just so you know what you're up against TS...my good buddy graduated from UPenn with a 4.0 and couldn't get into any ivy league grad school he applied for.
 
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