West coast schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cal Poly SLO has an undergrad population of over 20,000. OP asked for small-to-mid size schools. The reading comprehension of the posters here is really lacking...

People from California, including me, would probably consider Cal Poly to be mid-sized. I apologize if it does not fit some arbitrary range you have determined to be correct.

21k undergrads would be considered large by most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cal Poly SLO has an undergrad population of over 20,000. OP asked for small-to-mid size schools. The reading comprehension of the posters here is really lacking...

People from California, including me, would probably consider Cal Poly to be mid-sized. I apologize if it does not fit some arbitrary range you have determined to be correct.

Thoughts on prayers for your ability to navigate the college process. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks 20,000+ students qualifies as anything other than a big school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely loved University of San Diego. Beautiful campus!! I also recommend a look at LMU and Occidental. Plus Santa Clara up north, but it may be a smidge harder. I can’t say I recommend any others. Good luck!

Seconded. Visited both of those schools with my then-junior last year, as well as the reach schools in LA that other posters have referenced. We are not Catholic but my kid liked the vibe enough at LMU to apply, and just got in EA (public school, mostly As and some Bs in Honors/AP courses). Gorgeous campus, and the students seemed refreshingly laid back compared to the suburban DC grind-zone.

And a LOT better looking

Controlling for ses, dc vs lmu is like trolls under a bridge vs supermodels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Caltech, Pomona.

Jesus Christ. The kid is an A/B student. Might as well apply to be an astronaut at 18 if he's going to apply to these schools.

Here are some realistic options:

Reaches: Santa Clara, Occidental, Pepperdine

High targets: Whitman, Loyola Marymount

Targets: Willamette, Puget Sound, Chapman, U of the Pacific

Safety: Whittier

Offbeat choice: Soka University of America

Thank you for this list!

I'd suggest take U of the Pacific off the list. Would add California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (aka "Cal Poly") to the list. Great college town, though unfortunately difficult to get to.

I’m in California and no A/B students I know were admitted to Cal Poly.

[Anonymous]

Be cautious about Soka:

https://www.reddit.com/r/orangecounty/comments/s1ow0a/a_former_faculty_members_take_on_soka_university/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Caltech, Pomona.

Jesus Christ. The kid is an A/B student. Might as well apply to be an astronaut at 18 if he's going to apply to these schools.

Here are some realistic options:

Reaches: Santa Clara, Occidental, Pepperdine

High targets: Whitman, Loyola Marymount

Targets: Willamette, Puget Sound, Chapman, U of the Pacific

Safety: Whittier

Offbeat choice: Soka University of America

This is a good list, but yes, be cautious about Soka. You could maybe add Pitzer as another reach (if you're full-pay and your kid is on the activist side), and Lewis & Clark as another target. If you want another Catholic option, there's the University of Portland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Californian here. Here are my thoughts, assuming the As and Bs are from a regular school and not one known to have hard grading, I probably forgot a few too.

Reach: Santa Clara, Whitman, Reed (though I would be cautious about sending a kid there personally), Occidental, LMU, Pitzer, Pepperdine.

Target: Puget Sound, Lewis & Clark, USD, USF, Chapman.

Safety: Willamette, St. Mary’s Moraga, Point Loma Nazarene

Gonzaga, Cal Poly Whitman are hard to reach from the east coast.

Random: The newest CSU, Cal State Channel Islands is in a great location and literally everything I hear is positive. The student body isn’t big and the professors are ambitious and dedicated. They provide lots of personal attention. I don’t think it’s for everyone and I definitely would not make it the top of the list, but I think it’s an interesting safety. Would definitely be a safety. I haven’t included other CSUs because they are much bigger.

Also random: If you have a hippie kid, Evergreen State. But as with Reed, I would not send a kid there.

I would not send a kid to Soka.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Californian here. Here are my thoughts, assuming the As and Bs are from a regular school and not one known to have hard grading, I probably forgot a few too.

Reach: Santa Clara, Whitman, Reed (though I would be cautious about sending a kid there personally), Occidental, LMU, Pitzer, Pepperdine.

Target: Puget Sound, Lewis & Clark, USD, USF, Chapman.

Safety: Willamette, St. Mary’s Moraga, Point Loma Nazarene

Gonzaga, Cal Poly Whitman are hard to reach from the east coast.

Random: The newest CSU, Cal State Channel Islands is in a great location and literally everything I hear is positive. The student body isn’t big and the professors are ambitious and dedicated. They provide lots of personal attention. I don’t think it’s for everyone and I definitely would not make it the top of the list, but I think it’s an interesting safety. Would definitely be a safety. I haven’t included other CSUs because they are much bigger.

Also random: If you have a hippie kid, Evergreen State. But as with Reed, I would not send a kid there.

I would not send a kid to Soka.

Oxy is no longer a reach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Caltech, Pomona.

Jesus Christ. The kid is an A/B student. Might as well apply to be an astronaut at 18 if he's going to apply to these schools.

Here are some realistic options:

Reaches: Santa Clara, Occidental, Pepperdine

High targets: Whitman, Loyola Marymount

Targets: Willamette, Puget Sound, Chapman, U of the Pacific

Safety: Whittier

Offbeat choice: Soka University of America

Thank you for this list!

I'd suggest take U of the Pacific off the list. Would add California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (aka "Cal Poly") to the list. Great college town, though unfortunately difficult to get to.

I’m in California and no A/B students I know were admitted to Cal Poly.

Cal Poly has almost 30K undergrads. Also, it is primarily hispanic service (this is in the wiki on the school - read it before you complain). It is not considered a good school in California

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Caltech, Pomona.

Jesus Christ. The kid is an A/B student. Might as well apply to be an astronaut at 18 if he's going to apply to these schools.

Here are some realistic options:

Reaches: Santa Clara, Occidental, Pepperdine

High targets: Whitman, Loyola Marymount

Targets: Willamette, Puget Sound, Chapman, U of the Pacific

Safety: Whittier

Offbeat choice: Soka University of America

Thank you for this list!

I'd suggest take U of the Pacific off the list. Would add California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (aka "Cal Poly") to the list. Great college town, though unfortunately difficult to get to.

I’m in California and no A/B students I know were admitted to Cal Poly.

Cal Poly has almost 30K undergrads. Also, it is primarily hispanic service (this is in the wiki on the school - read it before you complain). It is not considered a good school in California

They’re talking about Cal Poly SLO, not Cal Poly Pomona

[Anonymous]

Cal Poly SLO will be a harder admit than any of the reach schools on these lists (except Pomona, cal tech and Stanford, which are not serious for OPs kid). It is a cal state but acceptance is more like applying to one of the tier two UCs from what I have observed, meaning like applying to UCSD, UCB, UCI, or UCD.

That said, the CA schools only look at a subset of classes and grades so I would look at what the student’s GPA is using their rubric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Caltech, Pomona.

Jesus Christ. The kid is an A/B student. Might as well apply to be an astronaut at 18 if he's going to apply to these schools.

Here are some realistic options:

Reaches: Santa Clara, Occidental, Pepperdine

High targets: Whitman, Loyola Marymount

Targets: Willamette, Puget Sound, Chapman, U of the Pacific

Safety: Whittier

Offbeat choice: Soka University of America

Thank you for this list!

I'd suggest take U of the Pacific off the list. Would add California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (aka "Cal Poly") to the list. Great college town, though unfortunately difficult to get to.

I’m in California and no A/B students I know were admitted to Cal Poly.

Cal Poly has almost 30K undergrads. Also, it is primarily hispanic service (this is in the wiki on the school - read it before you complain). It is not considered a good school in California

They’re talking about Cal Poly SLO, not Cal Poly Pomona

Which has to be one of the whitest publics in CA and closer to 20K undergrad as already stated.

[Anonymous]

what's the vibe at USD ?

[Anonymous]

Puget Sound
Seattle U
Seattle Pacific
Pacific Lutheran
Lewis & Clark
Reed (similar to Oberlin in student type)
U of Portland




Also Oregon State is a great school. Not huge but good student experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (Jr) is interested in West coast and I’m not as familiar with smaller/mid sized schools. Just starting the search. His grades are currently As and Bs. He’s not yet sure what his major would be possibly communications. Any experiences out there you can share? Thanks!

Caltech, Pomona.

Jesus Christ. The kid is an A/B student. Might as well apply to be an astronaut at 18 if he's going to apply to these schools.

Here are some realistic options:

Reaches: Santa Clara, Occidental, Pepperdine

High targets: Whitman, Loyola Marymount

Targets: Willamette, Puget Sound, Chapman, U of the Pacific

Safety: Whittier

Offbeat choice: Soka University of America

Thank you for this list!

I'd suggest take U of the Pacific off the list. Would add California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (aka "Cal Poly") to the list. Great college town, though unfortunately difficult to get to.

I’m in California and no A/B students I know were admitted to Cal Poly.

Cal Poly has almost 30K undergrads. Also, it is primarily hispanic service (this is in the wiki on the school - read it before you complain). It is not considered a good school in California

What on earth are you talking about? Do you mean Cal Poly Humboldt instead of SLO? Cal Poly SLO is extremely well regarded in California.