What CSU school should I go to?

I can* go anywhere I want, fucking no edit feature lol

I'm in the same situation but, I refuse to go to CSU east bay because it sucks hairy ballsack. Shitty location in Hayward.. nothing going on.. basically a glorified JC.

You do have one out of state option. If you have a 2.6 + gpa, and are a california transfer student, apply at Southern Oregon University. They give you residency there so its basically the same cost as a CSU anyway. 30 mins from skiing at Mt Ashland which is pretty chill. Another hour from Shasta Ski Park, which has a sick park and night skiing. I

Sac St. is my other option. Sac's got a lot of good programs though.. and its relatively close to tahoe. Its a bigger school in a bigger city, so theres more going on and jobs available and shit.

I'm basically choosing between Sac and Southern Oregon right now... I just need to visit both programs i'm looking at and get a really good feel for what i'd be getting myself into at each place... and see what jobs are available at both.

PM me for more info.

east bay is in the ghetto.

sacramento is pretty cool, i guess tahoe is nearby.

i have some friends who go to san jose state and really like it, but it's at least a 2-3 hour drive to ski at dodge ridge (which would be the closest probably.)

if you like to party a lot, and enjoy slutty girls, chico is the place for you!

Its about a 3.5-4 hr drive to tahoe from SJSU.. for what your gas is worth, you might as well just get a mammoth pass and fly there every weekend... To dodge ridge its still gonna take up to 3.5 hours..

Chico is just a shitshow haha. You wont want to wake up and go skiing :P

I can't go out of state because I have a General Ed transfer agreement with any school in California where my JC can certify I finished my firs two years of college, but if I go out of state then they just have to match up the credits the best they can and its really likely not that many would match up and I would have to retake some Gen Ed classes. I'll look in to Sac though. This chick today was telling me to go to Cal Poly San Louis Obispo.

if i were you i would definitely try and head down to cal poly. it's a super sick school and the people there are super chill. it's pretty close to the ocean, and everyone i know there likes it a lot. not to mention it is definitely the best CSU in the system, and cheap for the education you get. what more could you ask for

Southern Oregon U, Western Oregon U, and Eastern Oregon U also carry the same transfer agreement - especially southern Oregon.

SOU actually is coined by some as the 24th CSU, because it shares such a directly identical transfer agreement. They have traditionally extended their agreement to JC's the far northern reaches of the state.. but since the CSU system is so impacted with students these days, they decided to extend that to all 109 California Junior/Community Colleges. (The other upside to them, is getting classes is less competitive, and they are more likely to not raise tuition rates, as the Oregon. It's very much an artsy liberal arts school though, so depending on your major it might not be right for you, but check it out.

Cal Poly is a great school, especially if you're into sciences and engineering and such.. but its far from anything else (especially skiing) and it's Very competitive to get into (probably within the hardest schools in the country to get into, because its inexpensive for a very high end education), so don't bank on getting in there unless you have a pretty good GPA.



CSU East Bay is the king of all commuter schools. I'd say at least 80% of the 12000 students or so that go there are commuter students, and many of them don't even attend the main campus in Hayward. There are also sub-campuses in Concord and Oakland. The school's pretty small to begin with, but with all the students divided up amongst 3 locations, it becomes incredibly small at each. Seeing as most students will be commuting, there isn't much of a traditional college presence, as most students don't live on campus at all. hence.. the 'glorified JC' feel... They do have pretty good programs and such, so you will be recieving a quality education, and it is very affordable.. but pretty damn boring campus-wise.

The upside is that you could potentially get off campus housing shares with Cal, and SFSU students who commute as well, so you shouldn't have much of a hard time finding roomies, but nevertheless... its boring as hell outside of going to classes.

Not to shit on anyone's parade, but Cal Poly def is not one of the hardest schools in the nation to get into, by transfer or by admission. If you want hard schools to get into, take a look at Stanford- 20-80 students get accepted each year only. Cal Poly is a good school for engineering. What do you want to do? But considering Cal Poly SLO does not use a holistic approach in admissions selection, your GPA would be at an disadvantage(since you say it's not eligible to be UC applicable).

Well I'm just doing English creative writing option, which it seems like I could do at a lot of places. I didn't think Cal Poly would have a program for that, but one of my girls that goes there assures me that you can do non technical majors there and I could do English.

Like 2jz said, you should really check on the programs yourself. Sure your girl at Cal Poly assures you that you can do a non technical major, but do you really want to leave it at that? It's best if you put in some research into what you actually want to do. I'm also a transfer student; this'll be my 4th and last smstr at CC before I transfer in the fall as a junior. You can do english at ANY university, but look into how much money Cal Poly puts into the english department. Would you rather go to a school that puts a lot of funding into the english department or a school that has english at the bottom of its priority in terms of funding? They might seem the same since they both have english majors, but it's not.

Just because you are white does not mean you cannot get financial aid dude. Do you mean you are not dis-advantaged in terms of money? If so then you obviously can't be poor right? Most financial aid is not merit based(you don't need to have a particularly high gpa). Have you submitted your FAFSA?

You should really get rid of that prejudice against the private schools, sure the cost to attend may look intimidating, but majority of the students NEVER pay that amount. If you do, then the cost to attend wasn't a factor in the beginning anyways.

Whatever you do, make sure that you won't regret your decision. Spend the time and do some research. Did you know most people spend more time choosing out what kinda car they want over researching a particular school when applying? That's what a private university counselor told me and I was not surprised at all. I hate to say it but, a lot of CC students don't really look in depth enough into where they want to transfer.

Are you a junior transfer or what? You might want to look into schools that are near a major city. For example if you go to sf state, I would assume you may be able to get some work experience in the city for journalism or something related to your major compared to going to like cal poly SLO. Location does matter.

You can do non-technical majors at CalPoly, but the programs aren't exactly that huge.. Not to mention, most people that go there are in for a tech major, so making connections inside of your major will be limited, i'd imagine.

as for the Oregon Schools...

SOU is about half an hour north of the California/Oregon state line on I5. In Ashland, OR. It's not near Portland, but its close to Medford,  which is decently sized. so its not like its completely on its own out there. It is on the opposite side of the state from Portland, yes.. but it has some sick skiing pretty close to it, and its a rad little town. Kinda nutty town too, because its where they have the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.. so all year long it seems people are just in this Shakespeare kinda mood about everything and there's always people in the parks fake swordfighting, and wearing Tudor era clothing haha.

If you're going for a creative writing degree check it out. Shit, Shakespeare basically invented creative writing, so with all that around you, i would imagine they have a decent program.

Eastern Oregon Univ. (EOU) is out in La Grande, OR. Which is... kiiiinda the middle of nowhere haha. It's basically a small town, 4 hours from Spokane, 4 hours from Portland, and 3 hours from Boise. But, if you're into small school/college town kinda stuff? eh.. it might be worth looking into. Not sure about their programs and such.. I applied there myself because they have a Film/Media Arts program that's kinda cool.. (i'm a film student) and they don't charge anyone out of state fees at all - even international students, so they could possibly be one of the most affordable schools ever. I just recently started even looking at them though, so i dont know a whole lot other than what i've gathered through small research. It has a small ski area near it called Anthony lakes, that is pretty small, but gets maadd dry idaho type powder - and a lot of it... other than that, its 4 hours from hood, and 3 hours or so from a lot of the idaho resorts in and around Boise.

I dont think Western Oregon Univ. has the same agreement, but if it does, its right next to Salem, OR. and pretty near portland. Portland State, is another option I suppose.


Also, you might want to look into the WUE option. Most of the schools in the west all have the western undergraduate exchange option, where you pay only 50% extra on the tuition that in-state students would pay... in some states, this option makes it only maybe a little bit more expensive than a CSU, as they save up to like $10,000 a year and definitely become morel affordable. You might want to check that out too... I found most of these schools i'm talking about by going on their website - http://wue.wiche.edu/



As for getting financial aid/scholarships and going to private school? You'd be surprised dude... Some schools these days are kinda freaking out about people not being able to afford them, and are offering sometimes ridiculous scholarships. I applied to Sierra Nevada College last year and got in.. they gave me a 10,000$ scholarship right off the bat for being a transfer student.. and if I had a 3.2 GPA (I only had a 2.9 at the time fawk), i'd get 6 grand more, just right off the bat. Thats 16 grand off the shelf, and it made tuition somewhere around 12k a year (CSU's would be around 9 or 10k)... and the sooner you apply (its absolutely free to apply there, so why the crap not?) and get your financial aid stuff to them, the sooner they'd be able to work out some dank deals for you it seems...


I'd imagine it would be the same at a lot of other private schools, as well... so maybe go talk to a counselor at your local college, tell them what you intend to major in, and see what other options you might have for both out of state, and private schools.

Wassup sean haha

I def agree with DingoSean about privates, they're more affordable than what the general public thinks. Maybe your school has those transfer fair days, where colleges come onto campus and let you know what they are all about. You should check out those transfer fairs.

But the main thing is to do researchhhhhhhh!

Lots of talk about Cal Poly so I'd figure I'd chime in since I go here :)

I have lived in chico and gone to chico state for 6 years this spring (I'm a grad student now).  It is a pretty cool little town.  There are a lot of crazy parties, and lots of bars and cheap drinks.  It is also a really community-driven community (?).  There is a lot of mountain biking, fishing, hiking stuff around here.  Tahoe is like 2.5 hours (to boreal) and shasta is a little less.  I would rather live in Chico than sac, cause sac is just kind of a shithole. 

When I was an undergraduate I used to go skiing like 3x a week, but now its like 1-2.  I also blew my knee this year so that has cut down on it severely.  There are lots of people that go to tahoe on weekends and weekdays that you could catch rides with.  Hook up with the Chico Snow Club for people that ride.  Because it is a valley town it is largely gayper snowboarders that think they are the shit. 

There are some cool people here though. 

good luck with Chico too.. since it's super impacted as well.

Haha. You could go to Fresno State. After all, Fresno is California's closest major city to a ski area. About 1:10 from the campus to Sierra Summit, or what is becoming China Peak.

yeah, too bad fresno state, and fresno as a whole, is the worst.

as a CSU, Sacramento sounds better because you have 18 places in tahoe to ski, except just 1. I'd trade the 30-40 extra minutes it takes for more options, and more gnar. not to mention it isnt quite as bad as Fresno IMO

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is technically CSU system, but it's hard to get into. Not close to skiing, but by the beard of Zeus it's fun.

And by great odin's raven its far from anything else...

When in Rome...

I believe you mean a whales vagina...

Agree to disagree.

Oh hell yeah. Sacramento is a far better place to be than Fresno. You're going to get more choice, better parks, and better terrain at some resorts in Tahoe. Don't come to Fresno State, go Sac State, definitely the best option.

unless fresno just happens to have a much better option or program in what he's studying that is, go somewhere else so you dont become a grape out there in the depths of the valley lol.

I went to Cal Poly Pomona.  It is under an hour from LA and orange county beaches and an hour from Mt High. It is a highly respected school.  When I started it was a commuter school but now they are working to change that.  We also just won the division 2 national basketball championship. Go Broncos.

I saw that shit.

I didnt even know there was a different division in basketball ha.

I'm at a cal poly slo and it is very difficult to ski unless you are apart of the ski club who are surprisingly consistent about going on really fun trips. On the contrary I surf almost everyday (although lately the wind gets on it pretty early, typical spring conditions), so there's definitely a trade off.

The school is awesome, great campus and community, well respected university. My only complaint is the difficulty getting classes and graduating on time, although this is a common theme throughout UC's and CSU's given the states budget complications. But if you like to be outdoors and have access to insane mountain bike riding, relatively uncrowded surf, no traffic, a lot of girls, and a good education you can't beat cal poly.

woah there's someone else from cal poly on NS??? that skis? wtf

I know at least 3 others... theyre kinda inactive though...

Why does everyone keep acting like cal poly is some elite school? It's a CSU, you need 1200 on the SATs to get in, this isn't tough. And why would you go there for an english major? And what are you going to do with an english major? Wait tables? SLO is probably the further place in CA from a ski resort, it's 4 hours to the shittiest closest mountain and 6.5 to tahoe/mammoth. You really won't be able to ski much and everyone there is a gaper. The school has a very high concentration of bros and has a pretty big frat scene, but these two go hand in hand, so it isn't unexpected.

Its not really a CSU like the other CSU's... CPP and CPSLO both kinda think theyre UC's... and they can do that because of the massive influx of students that want to go there... They are massivley impacted.

Ok, go get a 1200 on your SAT and try to get in there for engineering. They have an acceptance rate in the 30% range, for ALL majors. I would consider it more 'elite' than a few UC's.

i'd say there's at least a couple majors at Davis and Merced... maybe even Riverside that are nowhere near as hard to get into as some programs at Poly..

Ok, show me a Cal Poly kid who isn't a fucking douche.

three of my good friends go there. and they're super nice, chill, non dairy-bro people. fuck you.

Lol. Snowbladesforlife... always coming in and fucking up threads...

Ok. Well since you use the term "kid" fairly loosely, I'm gonna say that pretty much every hot chick there is not a douche.

Maybe not a douche...

but I'll chime in that at least 3 or 4 of them are total bitches...


NOT THE POINT THOUGH...

OK I'm putting my two cents in on this thread.. because it is relevant for me!

You're probably right about the outskirts thing, but I live in the suburbs of Sac. (Greenhaven/Pocket Area and South Land Park. I'm not from Granite Bay, Folsom, Roseville, Elk Grove, etc., I actually live IN Sacramento.)

Growing up here is pretty damn sweet, but moving here later in life, I would try to be as close to downtown as possible, so you make a very good point.

I live in downtown Sacramento and i can't wait to leave. Yeah it has its good skate spots and second Saturday but other than that it sucks, your an hour an 15 from the closest mountain(boreal) and your close to two hours from the ocean. I don't understand why you would move back here, just go live in tahoe where you got the lake, snow, casino's and mountain biking. 

She's trying to go back to school... Sacramento and Reno are the only cities near tahoe with legit full sized public universities... That's why.

thank you

I drove by your house again today...

big ass watertower all day haha.

You mean...alien spaceship?

The Balloon Boy has nothing on our spaceship yo.

Cal Poly Pomona is also technically CSU system, and only 1hr from local mountain skiing, 5hr from Mammoth.

Going out of state isnt going to make much of a difference laura... programs are being cut and fees are going up elsewhere too - We're just bitching about it more haha.

Dunno man, I got accepted to UENM for grad school hands down with them offering to help pay and I'm only 5hrs from epic skiing in CO & 4hrs from Taos and it's much cheaper living there as well. Living in CA is so goddamn expensive.