high school seniors in California will be automatically admitted to a California State University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12th graders at our California school have guaranteed admission to our local Cal State. Contrary to the mythology spread on DCUM, many of the Cal States are day campuses with struggling enrollments and huge budget shortfalls. They’re similar to community colleges. San Diego State and Cal Poly SLO, with their traditional residential experiences, are the exceptions, not the norms.

So this makes sense!

This is false.

There are so many excellent csus. SJSU is the oldest founding CSU, also the best among Csus. SFSU, Sonoma state, SLO, Long Beach, east bay.

and Long Beach and Fullerton have a large student body.

I went to one of those CSUs back in the 80s/90s. It was large then, too. CSU opened up at least 3 new campuses in the past 30 years. Those new ones and the ones in the middle of nowhere are the ones struggling. It's the small ones that are autoadmitting.

https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/about-the-csu/facts-about-the-csu/enrollment

The six campuses not part of the autoenrollment are the ones that are too full:

https://www.kcra.com/article/california-law-guarantee-cal-state-admission-qualified-graduates/69003753

San Jose State, San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach -- these are the strongest CSU schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12th graders at our California school have guaranteed admission to our local Cal State. Contrary to the mythology spread on DCUM, many of the Cal States are day campuses with struggling enrollments and huge budget shortfalls. They’re similar to community colleges. San Diego State and Cal Poly SLO, with their traditional residential experiences, are the exceptions, not the norms.

So this makes sense!

This is false.

There are so many excellent csus. SJSU is the oldest founding CSU, also the best among Csus. SFSU, Sonoma state, SLO, Long Beach, east bay.

and Long Beach and Fullerton have a large student body.

I went to one of those CSUs back in the 80s/90s. It was large then, too. CSU opened up at least 3 new campuses in the past 30 years. Those new ones and the ones in the middle of nowhere are the ones struggling. It's the small ones that are autoadmitting.

https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/about-the-csu/facts-about-the-csu/enrollment

The six campuses not part of the autoenrollment are the ones that are too full:

https://www.kcra.com/article/california-law-guarantee-cal-state-admission-qualified-graduates/69003753

San Jose State, San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach -- these are the strongest CSU schools.

It's not static. The stregth of a school is fluid. Back in the days, SJSU is a super easy admit, now competitive.

SFSU is not remote, as more qualifying students are steered there, the school may become very strong, considering San Francisco is the tech hub now.

Also popularity does not always equate strength. Humboldt is a good school in a remote location. Less popular but a good school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12th graders at our California school have guaranteed admission to our local Cal State. Contrary to the mythology spread on DCUM, many of the Cal States are day campuses with struggling enrollments and huge budget shortfalls. They’re similar to community colleges. San Diego State and Cal Poly SLO, with their traditional residential experiences, are the exceptions, not the norms.

So this makes sense!

This is false.

There are so many excellent csus. SJSU is the oldest founding CSU, also the best among Csus. SFSU, Sonoma state, SLO, Long Beach, east bay.

and Long Beach and Fullerton have a large student body.

I went to one of those CSUs back in the 80s/90s. It was large then, too. CSU opened up at least 3 new campuses in the past 30 years. Those new ones and the ones in the middle of nowhere are the ones struggling. It's the small ones that are autoadmitting.

https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/about-the-csu/facts-about-the-csu/enrollment

The six campuses not part of the autoenrollment are the ones that are too full:

https://www.kcra.com/article/california-law-guarantee-cal-state-admission-qualified-graduates/69003753

San Jose State, San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach -- these are the strongest CSU schools.

It's not static. The stregth of a school is fluid. Back in the days, SJSU is a super easy admit, now competitive.

SFSU is not remote, as more qualifying students are steered there, the school may become very strong, considering San Francisco is the tech hub now.

Also popularity does not always equate strength. Humboldt is a good school in a remote location. Less popular but a good school.

nah, CSU Humboldt has never been considered "good" compared to those six.

One would think SFSU would be stronger given its location, but it's still not as strong as SJSU or SLO. If after the 90s/2000s tech boom, it's still not as strong as those others, then I don't think steering more students there is going to make it stronger. It would need to have some special program there that makes it more desirable.

BTW, I went to two of the six CSUs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a ridiculous idea. Almost all those Cal States accept 80-95% of every student who applies.

The Cal States that are competitive to get into (unless you are from out of state and then it is way easier because CA gets more tuition from out of state students):

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo -
Over 21,000 students applied just for the College of Engineering for 1,491 spots;

3,861 for college of architecture for 434 spots;

3,759 students applied to major in psychology
and there were only 80 spaces for freshman in 2025.

San Diego State
Long Beach State

If you can't be bothered to fill out an application that does NOT require any essays or letters of recommendation like the Cal State Application, then a 4 year college isn't for you.

You really have no clue. Most of the CAl state and UC colleges take a tiny percentage of OOS applicants. They literally have a mandate to education public school kids from California.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a ridiculous idea. Almost all those Cal States accept 80-95% of every student who applies.

The Cal States that are competitive to get into (unless you are from out of state and then it is way easier because CA gets more tuition from out of state students):

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo -
Over 21,000 students applied just for the College of Engineering for 1,491 spots;

3,861 for college of architecture for 434 spots;

3,759 students applied to major in psychology
and there were only 80 spaces for freshman in 2025.

San Diego State
Long Beach State

If you can't be bothered to fill out an application that does NOT require any essays or letters of recommendation like the Cal State Application, then a 4 year college isn't for you.

Most of the regional cal states have enrollment problems, so this should help. It’s a win-win. Good for these schools, good for struggling students who may not attend a 4 year college. Many of them can live home while working toward a 4 year degree. Their biggest competition is the robust community college system; they both compete for the same students. And CC is free. Cal States are not. It makes them a tougher sell.

[Anonymous]

Just another gimmick to keep people from fleeing CA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No application needed. Considering how good CSUs are academically, it can’t get better for MC UMC kids. And they can transfer to UCB UCLA if they want, the two long established T20 schools.

MC and UMC in California could already get into CSUs. And the transfers are not automatic and have been around for a long time.

DCUM needs to stop believing that there are secret hacks to “top colleges” that their own kids are blocked from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just another gimmick to keep people from fleeing CA.

Agree. High performing students don’t need this. Above average kids don’t need this - they going to get admission anyway. Who does this ‘help’? It keeps enrollment propped up with average to below average kids, some of whom probably don’t belong in college. This isn’t the great benefit that the OP thinks it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just another gimmick to keep people from fleeing CA.

More people need to flee CA so that I can afford to go back. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just another gimmick to keep people from fleeing CA.

Agree. High performing students don’t need this. Above average kids don’t need this - they going to get admission anyway. Who does this ‘help’? It keeps enrollment propped up with average to below average kids, some of whom probably don’t belong in college. This isn’t the great benefit that the OP thinks it is.

Not OP. It is a benefit because it encourages the lower income students to go to college. If you remove barriers, like applications, it makes it easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a terrible idea.

Kids who don’t have what it takes to make it college will be pushed to attend by hopeful parents. More student loans will be taken out and later have to be forgiven.

The CSU professors will be told they have to teach kids who lack basic reading, writing, and math skills, compensating for bad high schools across the state.

Very few kids will transfer to the UC system.

The community colleges were perfect for kids who lacked academic skills or were clueless and unmotivated. They were given a chance to figure things out at relatively low cost without needing to take out loans.

Agree. Lots of unintended consequences here and not thought out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I like about the plan is that students are supposed to get letters letting them know how eligible they are. That may motivate some of them to work on classes/grades.
But as of right now, things are well set up for CC to UC transfers not CSU to UC transfers. Many high schoolers will continue to favor community colleges for no/low cost tuition with guaranteed transfer to UCs (not Berkeley/UCLA)
The 6 that are not part of this are the most desirable csus. The poster who noted that many of the others are struggling with enrollment/budget problems is correct.

Yes, but who is going to read these letters to the students?

AI can do that now

When so much of CA has a water shortage? Not a smart idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:California has a demographic problem. There is a very high achieving top end. However, there is a horribly performing bottom. Unfortunately those at the bottom vastly outnumber those at the top. That's why you see states like Florida surpass California in high school testing. California has desperately tried to raise the bottom performance. They made illegal the use of the SAT in admissions, made community college free for 2 years, spend 2x as much for Title I schools than more affluent ones. They pay their teachers the most money of all the states.

But unfortunately it comes down to demographics.

That’s just how populations work.

[Anonymous]

So some Cal states other than the popular top 6 -SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, Fullerton and Long Beach already have automatic admission upon graduation if you meet certain criteria. SDSU has had an agreement in place for years where basically a B average gets you in but I think that’s ending this year. UC Merced just announced an agreement with Fresno Unified for automatic admission.

No one really knows how this will work. Will this be an automatic admit to your service area and to an undeclared major? Right now SJSU engineering or cs requires a 4.0 even with the local boost. It’s extremely difficult outside of service your area. Cal Poly agriculture business is easy but architecture, engineering or psychology is a really hard admit out of service area.

The community college transfer path is also getting harder with fewer majors being offered and really specific requirements from specific community colleges. There’s TAG but it’s limited.