One week to get your CSU, UC apps in!

If you have an unofficial transcript, your high school report cards or a good memory you can do your CSU application with no further fuss or muss, right now, in a few minutes.

Nov. 30 is not strictly the drop-dead deadline for all CSUs, but here's why it's important, from the CSUMentor website:

Priority filing deadline for Fall 2009 is

Nov. 30, 2008

Why is this important?

With California State budget cuts and fewer enrollment spaces available,
applications submitted by Nov. 30 will receive priority consideration.

For UC applications, be working on those personal statements.

By the way, a parent mentioned to me that her senior was working on his CSU app but was stalled for two reasons.

First, the website wouldn't accept the page on which his grades were listed, because one requirement technically was not met (the grade is being raised after he made up work). But he hadn't noticed a checkbox allowing the applicant to override and file the application anyway.

Second, he needed the family's financial information to complete the Educational Opportunity Program part of the application. But actually, the EOP is a specific program with clear-cut income caps that didn't apply to that family (maximum family income for a dependent is $42,900 for a family of four). Applicants know that other types of financial aid allow for more flexibility, and that many middle-class families are eligible, but that wasn't the case with this specific program.

So the family was able to submit the application immediately after all. Applicants are strongly urged to apply to their service-area CSU as a backup, if it's not their first choice. For residents of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, that's San Francisco State.