#Please help me escape LA

28 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

sharp coral
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  • Location/Region: I'm currently in Los Angeles, California. This place sucks 😔, I'd rather get away from here if I can. Colleges in a heavily urban setting are preferable, although I'd accept something more rural if the place is particularly nice. LA Suburbs have given me trauma so I'd prefer something different, but I'd accept a suburban setting if it's a nice enough college. I'd prefer to stay in California if possible but I'm open to moving across states, especially to the Northeast, provided they can beat out Californian offerings (financially and/or academically).

  • Major: Honestly, I don't know, but I'm thinking something along the lines of Civil Engineering, Architecture, or Urban Planning.

  • GPA 3.94 UW, 4.22 W (Only APs count for weight), 4.42 Capped UC GPA, 4.58 Uncapped UC GPA.

  • Test Scores: (5) Physics 1, (5) Lang, (5) Calc BC, (5) AB Subscore, (5) World History, (5) US History. Planning to take the SAT in August.

  • Curriculum: Doesn't matter all too much to me but I'd like something that values the humanities alongside strong STEM performance. Maybe German language classes just so I can screw with some relatives. Graphic design courses would be appreciated.

  • Size: I do like colleges with very large sizes like the UCs (30k+), although I'd be fine with smaller medium sizes. Don't particularly like schools with very small sizes (<5k) though.

  • Costs: I'll be needing extensive financial aid; EFC of 0.

  • Schools You're Currently Looking At:

  • UC Campuses: UCSC (Target; really love the area around UCSC and have great memories there), UCSB (Hard Target; I've actually visited the area around UCSB and it's pretty nice, but not exactly my cup of tea), UCSD (Hard Target), UCI (Hard Target; don't like the area at all though), and UCLA and Cal (Reaches); UCM through ELC too.

  • CSU Campuses: Cal Poly SLO (Hard Target), Cal Poly Pomona (Target), CSUN (Safety), CSU Long Beach (Target), SDSU (Hard Target), SJSU (Safety)

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I'm also considering Questbridge NCM but I'm really not sure what colleges would be good to rank, considering that NCM Matches are legally binding except for MIT.

  • Additional Info: One of the main reasons I'm considering an Urban Planning Major is just because Los Angeles' urban planning has infuriated me so much; this place is depressing. On another note, a beautiful campus and/or nice architecture would be neat. Another piece of information is that I immigrated here with my family from the Philippines about 5 years ago. Lastly, whether I'm First-Gen depends on the definition used by the college since my mom has a degree from the Philippines (hasn't really helped me in the process though...)

Y'all, I'd really, really like some suggestions for more safeties and targets or even reaches since I'm really not familiar with my options beyond the UC and CSU systems.

warm crow
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High ranking privates generally offer good aid, basically a full ride for you (meet demonstrated need)

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Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, MIT, Penn, Purdue, CMU, UChicago (not sure they offer ur major though), Syracuse, BU, Northeastern, Stanford, Rice

near echo
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coornell ;)

warm crow
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Cornell goated

sharp coral
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Would be good if they also weren't supremely difficult reaches at the same time 💀

torn pawn
sharp coral
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My relatives found that out the hard way when they realized they needed to drive for hours and hours on end to get anywhere even in just this city

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Pulled up some information about how huge the Greater LA Area is and it ended up being larger than the entire country they were visiting from

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Fairly certain it's a 3 hour drive to get from one side to the other and that's being optimistic

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The entire area is all the same too, all parking lots, random empty strip malls, cookie-cutter houses, ridiculously gaudy gated neighborhoods, it's all just the worst of Suburbia

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You never see anyone on the streets here, it's so empty that it really doesn't feel like a city with over 10 million people

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My apartment's right next to an abandoned building with a parking lot that takes up an entire block, and that's also right next to an abandoned mall, and in between the two there's a homeless encampment (that regularly gets cleared, but it always comes back) because somehow nobody has gotten the memo that more than cookie-cutter single-family homes are needed to house the population of the second largest urban area of the country

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Ofc it depends on the city so these complaints are really only relevant to LA, but man this place almost feels dystopian sometimes

torn pawn
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ohhhhhh

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that makes sense yeah

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I thought this was the case for rural areas not suburbs too

sharp coral
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In my experience there's a far stronger sense of community in rural areas though

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Plus they're usually at least small enough that you don't have cases where you can drive for 2 hours in a straight line and still be in the same city

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Oh and small college towns are their own thing entirely

keen plover
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I get the urban planning thing and I agree public transportation is important in that regard. It's a really great personal motivation for why that field is interesting to you and I think explaining that motivation to colleges will make them really interested in helping you

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if you do QB, i would rank all the ivies, nyu, mit, all the boston schools, all the DC schools. those are good urban areas where I think the urban planning education would be the most fulfilling and those schools are also the least-suburban like. but there's also like Case Western, WUSTL, Tulane(?) which are in cities too i think

merry elk
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Hello, here some suggestions for colleges!

Reaches: Cornell, USC, UC Berkeley, CMU, Columbia, MIT, UCLA, Princeton, Northeastern, Brown, NYU
Targets: CalPoly SLO, UC Davis, Lehigh, UC San Diego
Safeties: RPI, Drexel University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, CSU Fresno, Syracuse University, CalPoly Pomona