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Colleges and Universities

California College Application Countdown

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The Countdown for Applying to Public Universities in California has begun.

While students in Germany won’t lose sleep over college applications just yet and keep preparing for the Abitur, students in California, and in fact all over the USA, have been working on their college applications since summer. If a college is high on a student’s list they might have even applied already, either Early Action or Early Decision, with both having had deadlines around Nov 1st.

California’s public state universities impose yet another deadline, November 30th! Since the UC as well as the CSU university system are highly regarded, many students in California are in a frenzy to meet the universities’ deadlines.

California State University Systems – UC & Cal State

California has two fabulous State University systems: the UC (University of California) and the CSU (California State University). While many UCs enjoy international recognition, UC Berkeley and UCLA come to mind; the Cal States have a few schools in their own system that are highly regarded in California but also within the USA. Admission there can almost be as competitive and selective than it is at the UCs. I am particularly thinking of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, and San Diego State

What’s the difference between UC & Cal State?

Aside from the size, the UCs serve about  280,000 students spread over 10 campuses while the Cal States have about 485,000 students on their 23 campuses, both university systems are highly respected. So, what sets them apart? We’ll address three defining differences.

1- Approach to Education 

While the UCs prepare students for careers in academia and graduate school, and are highly focused on research, Cal States’ focus is on hands-on education and helping students prepare for practical, non-research oriented professions. Having said that though, there are still many options available for students to engage in research and even go on to graduate school at the Cal States. Over 50,000 students are currently pursuing graduate degrees at Cal States’ 23 campuses. 

2- Cost of an Undergraduate Degree

An important difference to consider, however, is the affordability of a degree at the Cal State or UC system. Being the largest public four-year university system in the USA, the Cal States outscore the UCs for making a Bachelor’s degree a much more reasonable option for many students. The in-state tuition for a Cal State Bachelor’s degree lies around $7,000 while out-of-state tuition is about $18,500.

In comparison a Bachelor’s degree at a UC school has a price tag of about $14,000 for in-state tuition and about $43,500 for out-of state tuition. 

Since these tuition prices are for one year only and don’t include room & board, this is certainly a component that international students should consider when applying to a California university.

3- Application Process

As part of the application to a UC school, students need to answer four Personal Insight Questions (PIQ) and describe their extracurricular activities, not just list them. Students can choose from eight prompts, each potentially giving insight into a student’s character, make up, and life experience. While each “PIQ” can only be 350 words long, it takes time to be thoughtful with your words and make the best use of the given space. 

The Cal State application, on the other hand, seems easy and very straight forward with the part of self-reporting your grades being the most time consuming activity. No essays or answering of any personal questions is needed. 

Final Thoughts

In summary, we think, that everyone in California, who is applying to college, should have one or two Cal States in their mix of colleges they apply to. As mentioned before, they offer a quality education at an affordable tuition price and, should admission to one of the competitive UC universities not turn out for you, you can’t go wrong with an education at the Cal Sates. 

Article Contribution by Global College Advisers

For more information on College Applications in the United States or abroad, please check out Global College Advisers’ website at http://www.globalcollegeadvisers.com

University – USA versus Germany

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Memorial Glade and Sather Tower on the campus ...
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If conversations ended up in debate about colleges  & the financial commitment that is involved with it, we used to brush off comments with: We’ll send our kids to Germany.

Last week my older son got accepted to UC Berkeley (Yeah!) and my husband and I have turned into the proud parents of a prospective Cal Golden Bear !

Whatever happened to studying in Germany, you may think?

Well, as I found out during the college application process for our son,  it’s not as easy as we thought to send your children over to study in Germany. Especially right after high school. Despite the fact of being a German citizen and therefore having the right to study at a German university, it turns out that the  school systems in both countries are still quite different from each other. Therefore a transition to a university in Germany right after an American high school graduation would not be such a smooth ride after all.

Are we still considering sending our children to Germany for university studies? Generally speaking, yes, but perhaps not at this point, even though it still seems a smart idea –especially financially speaking.   But to avoid a lot of bureaucratic nightmares, we figured it will be easier to just start out with college here in the US, and then transfer over to Germany – on a university to university level so to speak.

Financially speaking Germany presents itself obviously as a very attractive alternative: Education is either free or in some states tuition is Euros 500 per semester versus $30-50,000 per year in the USA. Studying in Germany – It’s a no brainer!

Academically speaking, Germany has some excellent universities to offer and this compared on a worldwide level. I learned through my son, who compared every college he took into closer consideration,  that the LMU in Munich is ranked number 66 worldwide (according to US News World’s Best Universities) , right behind UC San Diego (65) and Boston University (64) . The Technische Universitaet Muenchen is even ranked at number 58, with Heidelberg being 51. Compared with all the universities worldwide , not bad…!

To consider Germany as a university destination for your youngster, one needs to consider also a few other things. For starters, does your child actually want to go to Germany and study there? It might sound great to you, but to your child, who has been raised in the United States,it might not sound as tempting.

Financials are a hot topic and should be looked at in-depth when looking into studying, particularly in the US . Financial aid might be available to your student in the US. You will find out by filling out the Federal Student Aid Application forms (FAFSA) or for certain schools the more detailed CSS Financial Aid Profile. Scholarships and financial aid rewards can help make an American university education a somewhat more affordable option.  The end result after all  financial aid and scholarship awards have been received, is still not comparable to tuition fees in Germany though. You just can’t beat free (or almost free) education!

If Germany turns out to be THE choice for starting out university life after all, then start preparing your student for it already in the early years of high school. What we learned over the last few months is, that no matter if your child has taken the most rigorous curriculum and taken 5 or more AP classes and finished them with test scores of 4 and 5, it won’t help much (in the eyes of German university admissions)  unless at least one class out of each core subject area has been tested in (math/sciences; arts/languages & social sciences), almost similar to the German  Leistungs- und Grundkurse for the Abitur.  SAT scores should be around 1300 points for both ‘maths’ and ‘critical reading’. Helpful is also to sign up for IB classes, should your high school offer them.

Bottom line of it all: Starting university education at an American university first and at least finishing  one year before transferring to a German university seems to be a much easier way to get into a German university, then right after an American high school graduation.

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