"Likely," "Best Fit," or "Reach"- Aim For Your Fit.
If you attend high school in California, applying to a UC seems like a natural step when putting together your college list. The UCs are public and have manageable tuition costs relative to many other schools. They offer a breadth of courses and activities, all within a short car, train, or plane ride home. While location, size of school, and depth of programs are qualities and priorities that can "jump-start" building your college list, determining if a school is in the "likely," "best fit," or “reach” category is key to achieving a balanced college list. Building a balanced college list helps create a successful pathway to college and avoids schools that might not lead to the result a student wants - admittance. A balanced list also can aid in managing your application workload. While many public universities have higher acceptance rates, factoring in intended majors or academic areas (e.g., Computer Science) can make a huge difference in assessing if a school is "likely," "best fit," or "reach." For instance, if you are looking at other big public schools on the West Coast, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State are excellent options with honors colleges, robust academic offerings, and a collegiate vibe. But suppose you're interested in, for example, Computer Science or STEM. In that case, while the University of Washington has exceptional Computer Science and STEM programs, its popularity in these areas equates to low out-of-state acceptance rates, so while some schools may be a "best fit" or "likely" in some majors, they can become a "reach" or "hail mary" based on major or if you're applying from out of state.
Numerous resources are available to help you determine where the UCs, or any other school, fit as you balance your college list, including College Data, Naviance, SCOIR, and each college's website. Each website offers a range of information, but looking at application requirements and admission stats will help you assess where you fit for admissions and provide a reliable comparison between you and all admitted students. The other tool you will want to utilize, specifically for UC applicants, is the UC eligibility index to determine whether you are UC eligible in the state-wide or local context. With many UCs receiving over 100,000 applications each application cycle, even with the latest shifts to admit more in-state CA residents, there is no indication that the demand to attend, whether from California students, students outside of the state, or international students, will be diminishing anytime soon.
The article “Hey UC grads: Could you get into your alma mater today?” underscores how the UCs have emerged as formidable, highly selective universities and can no longer be considered "likely" schools. While the UC system is comprised of nine large public schools that offer both undergraduate and graduate programs (UCSF offers graduate and professional studies), like all universities, they have capacity limitations. As a result, when determining whether to include them on a college list, the best approach is to think of them individually and assess if they meet your criteria for college. Too often, the question "What does it take to get in?" comes up when starting the college search. Flipping that question to "Which schools will support what I want for my college experience?" will lead to a more successful college search and application process.
What can you do to build a balanced list? First, expand your view of the colleges to explore. Think broadly and beyond the familiar names while focusing on your key priorities for your college experience. Those might be driven by wanting any of a number of factors, including public vs. private university, specific location, curriculum, study abroad programs, internships, honors program, quality of recreational facilities for when you're not in class, cost to attend, athletics, or any other criteria specific to you. Start with ensuring that a school has what you want for your college experience.
Taking advantage of college search tools like the College Data app, whether touring colleges in-person or virtually, can help you learn more about each college, the size of the school, what majors they offer, graduation rate, demographics, and requirements for applicants to assess fit for you.
Next, factor in whether an academic area or major that interests you is "impacted" or "capped" and will be a more competitive program for admission purposes. The CSUs are excellent public universities to explore, especially if you want to stay in California. Paying attention to which campuses, like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, are heavily impacted is important and may shift schools like Cal Poly into the category of "reach" schools similar to the UCs. Once you have those key components nailed down, you can look at acceptance rates to ensure that you have a mix of schools that admit a large portion of applicants rather than only highly selective/rejective schools with low admit rates. How do you do that? If you're looking for a Polytechnic school in CA, take the time to visit other Polytechnic schools, like the newest CSU Polytechnic – Humboldt, or look for schools with multiple majors that are in your areas of interest. Take a step to the right or left of what you were thinking about studying. Do you want to develop software or maintain IT systems? Are you interested in Environmental Science and research, or do you want to work on Environmental Policy? If you're interested in Business with a big B, are you also interested in Economics or Organizational Psychology and how companies work?
If you are working on building your list and cost affordability is essential, look for states that participate in an interstate reciprocal tuition program; for example, California and West Coast schools are part of the Western Interstate Commission for Education (WICHE) that have established cost-saving partnerships via WUE which offer comparable tuition rates among colleges in their member states or may provide merit scholarships to bring the cost to attend closer to your home state tuition. In addition, you want to verify which schools are active, as some majors or schools may not participate.
Finally, ensure that you review a school's mission and what it is looking for in its applicants. High school graduation requirements may differ widely from the academic or additional requirements that each college/university values, and those requirements are not uniform among all universities and colleges. While you may not be able to determine whether a school is, for example, looking for a saxophone player or to fill a specific major, learning what each school values will help you determine how you match up as you build your list of schools. Knowing how schools fit your interests, whether you are looking to stay in California, want a large public university, or are focused on college affordability, should be part of your process to achieve a balanced college list.
Knowing where schools fit for you, whether you're looking to stay in California, wanting a large public university, or factoring in college affordability, should be part of your steps to achieve a balanced college list.
Looking for more tips and inspiration to help you start your college journey? dream.search.apply.A Field Guide for an Inspired College Journey packed with insights and resources to help you navigate your college path, is now available to order online.
Subscribe today for more tips and articles about the college search and application process.
Have more questions or looking for more support? Email me at dane@collegeu.solutions
Comentarios