College Admissions

The Fall semester is typically an exciting time for students as they return from summer break. It's also the period of time where our Senior students in particular are focused on finalizing their list of colleges to apply to, working on their college applications, possibly taking the SAT/ACT, .... on top of all of the other activities that they've focused on throughout their time in high school. If you're a 12th grader who is starting to feel overwhelmed, you are not alone. Below are some resources to help you get started.

If the information provided here isn't answering your questions, please reach out to Ms. Haines and Ms. Cotter at smhs_ccc@sbunified.org.

Students of all grade levels should make themselves familiar with college admissions requirements, specifically which classes colleges require prior to graduating from high school. These are different from college to college and our SB Unified Graduation Requirements prepare students to be college eligible, however many colleges have requirements beyond our graduation requirements. You can see the requirements for both the Cal State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems here. 

Click here to see a list of California State University (CSU) Colleges including their locations, distance from Santa Barbara, and admissions website. 

Click here to see a list of University of California (UC) Colleges including their locations, distance from Santa Barbara, and admissions website. 

There are many ways to research colleges that might be a good fit for your interests and skills. We utilize Scoir which allows students to take virtual tours of college campuses. There is also a portion of the Scoir website called CampusReel which has interviews with current University students to provide a student-view of the college. 

California Colleges is  a great resource for looking at college and career planning within California. In addition to searching through CA colleges, students can explore financial aid options. 

When you're ready to apply to college, look to each school's application page for directions. UC and CSU schools each have one application for all of the schools within their  system, while other universities utilize one application for many schools outside of the same system. These applications include the Common App and the Coalition Application.