We moved to CA in 2013 so I'm not too familiar with the UC or CSU campuses. Our daughter is graduating high school this summer and has applied to few of the UC and CSU campuses. She is passionate about music and has been in school choir/chorus since her elementary school. She wants to major in music (voice).
So far, she has received acceptance from UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, SJSU and Sonoma State. UCSB has wait listed her. Santa Clara University also wait listed her. But I don't think we can afford to send her to SCU if she gets accepted due to costs. She had her last audition at Sonoma couple of weeks ago. The campus was beautiful and music center facilities are brand new and very impressive. The dorms are much better and newer than any of the other campuses we've seen so far. I should call them as apartment suites, to be honest.
We are yet to visit SJSU or UCD, UCSC (no auditions required to get in). We will be attending open house at UCD on 4/11 and UCSC on 4/12. I'm reading the online information about their music majors in their websites; but the information is very limited.
My daughter is fixed on SSU as she has been there and seen it herself and could see her there. But I asked her to keep her mind open as she is yet to see the other campuses.
Of the 4, SJSU would be least expensive, as she can stay at home and go there (just 10-12 miles commute one way) - thus saving significant money on boarding (which would be approx $50k in 4 years (it makes a lot of sense to me to save that kind of money). But I'm not sure how good is their music program. UCs are going to cost twice as much as CSUs - I see a general opinion that UCs are better than CSUs and have lower acceptance rate. The problem is - information available online is too generic and high level, it's not possible to figure out which one is better when it comes to specific major - such as Music.
A side note - due to higher income bracket (despite of higher cost of living in bay area), she didn't get any financial aid; but just loan offers. If UCSB accepts her (which we will know only after May 1st), I am guessing it would be best to join there compared to UCSC or UC Davis. If she wants to go to CSU, I prefer SJSU from the financial point of view, but Sonoma seems to have a better music department.
So we're at cross-roads. If anyone knows which one is the best for a music major, please let me know, I would really appreciate all your inputs and suggestions. We would like to make a decision by April 15 and choose one of the fours and wait to see if UCSB accepts her after May 1st.
Thank you.
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