Northern California school choices

First, she'd have to live in CA for a year to get in-state tuition. Big price difference. I'm at a UC, not a Cal State, but yes - classes are hard to get into and transfers are in the worst position (at least at my UC.) Classes are big.

Seconding that it's hard to get into classes at the UC schools. I'm teaching a class with a lot of seniors in it and had a lot of students waitlisted for my class at the beginning of the semester. I ended up letting some in, but had to turn some away in order to keep the class to a semi-reasonable size. I'm not sure that the same would happen in the CSU system, not having experience there -- but really, there's not exactly money for education anywhere in California right now.

I went to SF State - although it has been about 10 years. So I can't comment on the particulars of current class size, ease of getting into classes, etc. But I can give you a little info on general student life. Both SF State and Cal State East Bay are very much commuter schools. Average student age is higher than typical colleges as you have a lot of working students. I worked all through college and just went to class and did not participate in a lot of campus frivolity - as there is very little. No Greek system to speak of, which was fine with me, but if she is looking for that go elsewhere. Had some good teachers and some bad - like at any school. But to be honest, I learned more going to Sacramento City College (the U by the Zoo) and had more fun. Good luck.

If you can use your address for her application, and if she has a California Driver's License, then you can probably slide through with in-state tuition. I have a coworker (here in Oregon) who did that for his son, and he easily got in-state tuition in CA. The fact that his transcripts were out of state did not seem to raise any questions.

With the budget situation being what it is, all institutions will be examining in-state tuition requests more closely. State law and university policy determine residency requirements for the CSU system. If your niece is an independent adult, then things are easier. In case you are considering UC, they're making it nearly impossible to establish residency. Here is a quote from the http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/establish.html, about their financial independence requirement:If you will not reach age 24 by December 31 of the year in which classification as a resident is requested, and are not dependent upon a California resident parent (biological or legally adoptive only) for tuition purposes, you will be required to satisfy the University’s self-sufficiency requirement. It should be noted that this requirement makes it extremely difficult for most undergraduates who do not have a parent domiciled in California to qualify for classification as a resident at a University of California campus.

If you can use your address for her application, and if she has a California Driver's License, then you can probably slide through with in-state tuition. Absolutely not so. Each school system has a policy for determining "residency" for tuition purposes and they evaluate anyone wanting to pay in-state tuition. Read up before you try to pull this off. http://www.calstate.edu/budget/student-fees/documents/csu-residency-policy.pdf (.pdf)

We're not considering UC -- she wants to live in the Bay Area and she wouldn't get in to Berkeley. We're not considering residency deception. Not sure if she could be a resident after a year for Cal State. Sounds like it's a huge pain re getting classes in any event.

Mills is pretty competitive too but she could look into it. There's also http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/ - I had a friend teaching there and I get the sense it's fairly solid education-wise but more accessible economics-wise. http://www.hnu.edu/ is similar I think.

Mills is an excellent school (Mills women represent!) and she could do very well there. It's gotten pretty expensive, although as I remember a pretty big proportion of the student body get some kind of financial aid.