Applying to Cal State Schools

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The California State University system is comprised of four-year colleges located on 23 campuses throughout California, including

  • CSU Fullerton
  • CSU Long Beach
  • CSU Los Angeles
  • CSU Northridge
  • CSU San Bernardino
  • Cal Poly Pomona
  • Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
  • San Diego State
  • San Jose State
  • San Francisco State

The CSU campuses offer a wide variety of majors (e.g., English, biology, mathematics, and history) as well as strong programs in Engineering on par with those offered at University of California schools. In addition, many CSU campuses offer academic programs that are not typically found on the UC campuses, including the following:

  • Architecture (Pomona, San Luis Obispo)
  • Business Administration (most CSU campuses)
  • Hospitality/Hotel Management (Pomona, San Diego, San Jose)
  • Interior Design (Long Beach, Pomona, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose)
  • Journalism (several CSU campuses)
  • Nursing (most CSU campuses)
  • Teacher Education (most CSU campuses)

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

The CSU draws students from the top third of California's high school graduates as determined by the following criteria:

  1. Completing the "a-g" college preparation courses (same as the UC eligibility requirement);
  2. Obtaining a minimum GPA of 2.0; and
  3. Taking the SAT and/or ACT (generally by the December test date, but we recommend that you take the test no later than the November test date).

APPLICATION FILING PERIOD: 10/01/2013 - 11/30/2013

You are strongly urged to apply as soon as you can because the CSU campuses admit students as they apply and some of the campuses may be full before the November 30 application deadline. If you have completed your SAT or ACT already and do not need to rely on the October ACT or November SAT test scores for your CSU application, you should consider submitting your application right away.

Go to csumentor.org to create your CSU application account.

After you complete an application for one of the CSU campuses, you may add other campuses to the application system and all of the information from the initial application will be transferred over the new application (with the exception of the school information section where you will need to select your intended major for each campus separately).

SENDING TEST SCORES

For the testing requirement, you may submit either the SAT Reasoning Test or ACT. You do not need to take both tests, nor do you need to take the SAT Subject Tests.

  • SAT: Send your SAT score to CSUMentor (Institution code for the SAT: 3594). All of the CSU campuses will receive your SAT score through CSUMentor, and you do not need to send your test score to each CSU campus individually.
  • ACT: You will need to send your ACT score to each campuses individually through the ACT Scores Manager in your CSUMentor application account.
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