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Applying to a Cal-State School? Here’s What You Need to Know About the CSU System/Process

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Even among large state university systems in the U.S., the California State University system (referred to as Cal State or CSU, although there are other CSUs in the U.S.) is a behemoth. With a population of over half a million students, staff, and faculty members across its roughly two dozen branches, it plays a huge role in educating the state of California, and also attracts students from outside the state.

If you’re used to thinking of colleges as distinct, singular entities, you may find the mechanics of applying to a large state college system like Cal State to be somewhat confusing. If you’re from outside of California, you may also have questions about how your residency affects your application requirements and chance of being accepted.

Never fear, CollegeVine is here! In this post, you’ll find an outline of the Cal State system of colleges, their application processes and requirements, and the factors you’ll need to consider if you’re thinking about applying. Read on for our advice on making wise choices about the Cal State system.

A Brief Introduction to the Cal State System

The Cal State system as it operates today was created by the California Master Plan for Education of 1960 , but the colleges it consists of have existed for much longer under various names and groupings. Originally intended primarily to educate teachers, these colleges now offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in a full range of fields.

Today, the Cal State system consists of 23 distinct campuses, some of which maintain additional “off-campus” branches that extend their reach to a larger number of students. You can find a full list of these campuses and detailed information on each campus on the Cal State website. Cal State also owns a number of other research and laboratory facilities throughout the state, including an observatory and a ship for training future mariners.

Like most state colleges, the Cal State schools were originally created to serve residents of that state. California residents still enjoy preferential treatment in admissions and a lower in-state tuition rate at the Cal State schools. However, students from other states and even other countries are also eligible to apply.

Currently, nearly 479,000 students attend Cal State each year, and the system lays claim to the title of largest (by population) 4-year state college system in the nation. It’s responsible for half the bachelor’s degrees awarded in California every year, and it awards more bachelor’s degrees each year than any other university system in the U.S.

It’s important to keep in mind that the California State University system is not the same as the University of California (UC) system. Both are systems of public universities in California, but each has its own policies, campus choices, and admissions procedures, and the UC schools are generally more selective and more expensive. To learn more about the UC system and its application requirements, visit the CollegeVine blog post How to Write the University of California Essay Prompts 2017-2018.

Applying to the Cal State System

To be eligible for admission to any of the Cal State schools, you must have successfully completed certain college preparatory courses while you were in high school. If you’ve completed these requirements, your high school GPA and your SAT or ACT scores are plugged into an established equation to produce the single number known as your Eligibility Index (EI).

Your EI is the main factor that determines admission to most of the Cal State schools and majors. Each school and major has its own EI cutoff for admission. This threshold may also depend upon where you live; students who come from the immediate area of the college and, more generally, the state of California receive preference in the form of lower EI cutoffs.

Applying to one or more schools in the Cal State system is different from applying to most other colleges in some significant ways. If you’re hoping to get admitted to a Cal State school, particularly one of the more popular campuses, you’ll need to follow the instructions carefully.

First of all, instead of the Common Application, Coalition Application, or another shared application system, the Cal State schools use their own application system, Cal State Apply. You must use this system to apply to any of the Cal State schools, and you can specify multiple Cal State schools on it if you’d like.

If you take a look at the Cal State admissions website , you’ll see that it lists a “priority application filing period” that lasts from October 1 to November 31 for admission in the next fall semester. The term “priority” is a bit of a misnomer here; at some of the more popular campuses, all the available first-year spaces may be taken during this time period.

In order to have the best possible chance at getting admitted to the Cal State college you’re interested in, you should always plan to submit your initial Cal State application during the priority application filing period. Some colleges in the system may continue to accept applications after November 31, space permitting, but this is not guaranteed.

In certain circumstances, you may have to provide additional information as part of your Cal State application. What this might require of you depends on the school and the situation. (We’ll discuss these circumstances in greater detail below.)

If you’re a first-year applicant (not a transfer applicant), you should not submit any additional documents with your initial application. After you submit your initial application, you’ll be contacted directly with instructions if and when more information becomes necessary. Don’t submit anything extra during the basic application process unless you’re specifically told to do so.

Impacted Campuses and Majors

One special piece of terminology that you’ll find used in the Cal State system is “impacted.” If a Cal State college, or a specific major at a Cal State college, is described as impacted, this means that demand for admission to this college or major exceeds the available space, making admission to this college or major much more competitive.

Whether a particular school or major is impacted can vary from year to year, but some campuses, like Cal State Fullerton , are already known to be impacted for the 2017-2018 application season. Impacted Cal State colleges generally require a higher EI for admission than the others, and impacted majors may require a higher EI than other majors at that college.

Impacted schools and majors may also base their admissions decision on additional information, requiring you to submit supplemental documents. Again, if these documents become necessary, the college will inform you and provide instructions for submission. Don’t submit any additional documents during the initial application process.

Admission for Non-California Residents

As we’ve mentioned, the Cal State system was established specifically to provide educational opportunities to students from California. For this reason, preference in admission is given to California residents, especially those living in the local area of a particular college, and to transfer students from the California community college system.

If you’re not from California, you’re still welcome to apply to the Cal State system. However, you should be aware that you’ll be subject to higher admissions standards. The EI threshold for out-of-state applicants is typically higher, meaning you’ll need higher grades and test scores to get in, and you may also need to submit supplemental documents if the college requests them.

As with most state universities and colleges, it’s also more expensive to attend schools in the Cal State system if you’re from out of state. California residents enjoy lower in-state tuition.

Choosing a Cal State Campus

With so many campus options scattered across the entire state of California, you might find it hard to decide which Cal State schools to apply to. While the schools in this system have a lot in common, and are run by the same chancellor and group of administrators, each campus also has a distinct character of its own.

Some of the Cal State schools are located in major cities like Los Angeles, while others are set in suburbs or small towns. Each school offers its own set of majors, and some of the schools are extra-specialized — Cal Maritime, for instance, is a small Cal State school that only offers a few majors related to maritime science.

Fortunately, the Cal State system’s website provides tools that you can use to help make this decision. Along with information on each college and the academic and other programs they offer, this website offers a Campus Match Tool that allows you to search among the 23 different Cal State schools by factors like size, location, and athletic offerings.

For more details about each campus, it’s a good idea to explore the individual websites of the Cal State colleges you’re interested in, and even to visit and speak to current students to get a more personal perspective. You can find links to each of the Cal State colleges on the Cal State website.  

When you submit your initial Cal State application through the Cal State Apply system, you’ll be instructed to specify your campus(es) of choice. If any of the Cal State colleges you choose requires additional information from you in order to make a decision, the individual school(s) will contact you directly and provide more instructions for what to submit and how.

Considering the Cal State system may be a little overwhelming due to its breadth, but within that wide variety of programs, you may very well find one that’s perfect for you. Especially given the early deadlines of the priority application period, if you think any of the Cal State colleges might be a good fit for your less, it’s worth getting to know their process, checking whether you meet their requirements, and putting in your research in advance.

Curious about your chances of acceptance to your dream school? Our free chancing engine takes into account your GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, and other data to predict your odds of acceptance at over 500 colleges across the U.S. We’ll also let you know how you stack up against other applicants and how you can improve your profile. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get started!

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24 Application Essays (Statements of Purpose)

Application essays, what this handout is about.

This handout will help you write and revise the personal statement required by many graduate programs, internships, and special academic programs.

Before you start writing

Because the application essay can have a critical effect upon your progress toward a career, you should spend significantly more time, thought, and effort on it than its typically brief length would suggest. It should reflect how you arrived at your professional goals, why the program is ideal for you, and what you bring to the program. Don’t make this a deadline task—now’s the time to write, read, rewrite, give to a reader, revise again, and on until the essay is clear, concise, and compelling. At the same time, don’t be afraid. You know most of the things you need to say already.

Read the instructions carefully. One of the basic tasks of the application essay is to follow the directions. If you don’t do what they ask, the reader may wonder if you will be able to follow directions in their program. Make sure you follow page and word limits exactly—err on the side of shortness, not length.  The essay may take two forms:

• A one-page essay answering a general question
• Several short answers to more specific questions

Do some research before you start writing.  Think about…

• The field.  Why do you want to be a _____? No, really. Think about why you and you particularly want to enter that field. What are the benefits and what are the shortcomings? When did you become interested in the field and why? What path in that career interests you right now? Brainstorm and write these ideas out.
• The program.  Why is this the program you want to be admitted to? What is special about the faculty, the courses offered, the placement record, the facilities you might be using? If you can’t think of anything particular, read the brochures they offer, go to events, or meet with a faculty member or student in the program. A word about honesty here—you may have a reason for choosing a program that wouldn’t necessarily sway your reader; for example, you want to live near the beach, or the program is the most prestigious and would look better on your resume. You don’t want to be completely straightforward in these cases and appear superficial, but skirting around them or lying can look even worse. Turn these aspects into positives. For example, you may want to go to a program in a particular location because it is a place that you know very well and have ties to, or because there is a need in your field there. Again, doing research on the program may reveal ways to legitimate even your most superficial and selfish reasons for applying.
• Yourself.  What details or anecdotes would help your reader understand you? What makes you special? Is there something about your family, your education, your work/life experience, or your values that has shaped you and brought you to this career field? What motivates or interests you? Do you have special skills, like leadership, management, research, or communication? Why would the members of the program want to choose you over other applicants? Be honest with yourself and write down your ideas. If you are having trouble, ask a friend or relative to make a list of your strengths or unique qualities that you plan to read on your own (and not argue about immediately). Ask them to give you examples to back up their impressions (For example, if they say you are “caring,” ask them to describe an incident they remember in which they perceived you as caring).

Now, write a draft

This is a hard essay to write. It’s probably much more personal than any of the papers you have written for class because it’s about you, not World War II or planaria. You may want to start by just getting something—anything—on paper. Try freewriting. Think about the questions we asked above and the prompt for the essay, and then write for 15 or 30 minutes without stopping. What do you want your audience to know after reading your essay? What do you want them to feel? Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, organization, or anything else. Just get out the ideas you have. For help getting started, see our  handout on brainstorming .

Now, look at what you’ve written. Find the most relevant, memorable, concrete statements and focus in on them. Eliminate any generalizations or platitudes (“I’m a people person”, “Doctors save lives”, or “Mr. Calleson’s classes changed my life”), or anything that could be cut and pasted into anyone else’s application. Find what is specific to you about the ideas that generated those platitudes and express them more directly. Eliminate irrelevant issues (“I was a track star in high school, so I think I’ll make a good veterinarian.”) or issues that might be controversial for your reader (“My faith is the one true faith, and only nurses with that faith are worthwhile,” or “Lawyers who only care about money are evil.”).

Often, writers start out with generalizations as a way to get to the really meaningful statements, and that’s OK. Just make sure that you replace the generalizations with examples as you revise. A hint: you may find yourself writing a good, specific sentence right after a general, meaningless one. If you spot that, try to use the second sentence and delete the first.

Applications that have several short-answer essays require even more detail. Get straight to the point in every case, and address what they’ve asked you to address.

Now that you’ve generated some ideas, get a little bit pickier. It’s time to remember one of the most significant aspects of the application essay: your audience. Your readers may have thousands of essays to read, many or most of which will come from qualified applicants. This essay may be your best opportunity to communicate with the decision makers in the application process, and you don’t want to bore them, offend them, or make them feel you are wasting their time.

With this in mind:

• Do assure your audience that you understand and look forward to the challenges of the program and the field, not just the benefits.
• Do assure your audience that you understand exactly the nature of the work in the field and that you are prepared for it, psychologically and morally as well as educationally.
• Do assure your audience that you care about them and their time by writing a clear, organized, and concise essay.
• Do address any information about yourself and your application that needs to be explained (for example, weak grades or unusual coursework for your program). Include that information in your essay, and be straightforward about it. Your audience will be more impressed with your having learned from setbacks or having a unique approach than your failure to address those issues.
• Don’t waste space with information you have provided in the rest of the application. Every sentence should be effective and directly related to the rest of the essay. Don’t ramble or use fifteen words to express something you could say in eight.
• Don’t overstate your case for what you want to do, being so specific about your future goals that you come off as presumptuous or naïve (“I want to become a dentist so that I can train in wisdom tooth extraction, because I intend to focus my life’s work on taking 13 rather than 15 minutes per tooth.”). Your goals may change–show that such a change won’t devastate you.
• And, one more time, don’t write in cliches and platitudes. Every doctor wants to help save lives, every lawyer wants to work for justice—your reader has read these general cliches a million times.

Imagine the worst-case scenario (which may never come true—we’re talking hypothetically): the person who reads your essay has been in the field for decades. She is on the application committee because she has to be, and she’s read 48 essays so far that morning. You are number 49, and your reader is tired, bored, and thinking about lunch. How are you going to catch and keep her attention?

Assure your audience that you are capable academically, willing to stick to the program’s demands, and interesting to have around. For more tips, see our  handout on audience .

Voice and style

The voice you use and the style in which you write can intrigue your audience. The voice you use in your essay should be yours. Remember when your high school English teacher said “never say ‘I’”? Here’s your chance to use all those “I”s you’ve been saving up. The narrative should reflect your perspective, experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Focusing on events or ideas may give your audience an indirect idea of how these things became important in forming your outlook, but many others have had equally compelling experiences. By simply talking about those events in your own voice, you put the emphasis on you rather than the event or idea. Look at this anecdote:

During the night shift at Wirth Memorial Hospital, a man walked into the Emergency Room wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. He seemed confused and was moaning in pain. One of the nurses ascertained that he had been swinging from tree branches in a local park and had hit his head when he fell out of a tree. This tragic tale signified the moment at which I realized psychiatry was the only career path I could take.

An interesting tale, yes, but what does it tell you about the narrator? The following example takes the same anecdote and recasts it to make the narrator more of a presence in the story:

I was working in the Emergency Room at Wirth Memorial Hospital one night when a man walked in wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. I could tell he was confused and in pain. After a nurse asked him a few questions, I listened in surprise as he explained that he had been a monkey all of his life and knew that it was time to live with his brothers in the trees. Like many other patients I would see that year, this man suffered from an illness that only a combination of psychological and medical care would effectively treat. I realized then that I wanted to be able to help people by using that particular combination of skills only a psychiatrist develops.

The voice you use should be approachable as well as intelligent. This essay is not the place to stun your reader with ten prepositional phrases (“the goal of my study of the field of law in the winter of my discontent can best be understood by the gathering of more information about my youth”) and thirty nouns (“the research and study of the motivation behind my insights into the field of dentistry contains many pitfalls and disappointments but even more joy and enlightenment”) per sentence. (Note: If you are having trouble forming clear sentences without all the prepositions and nouns, take a look at our  handout on style .)

You may want to create an impression of expertise in the field by using specialized or technical language. But beware of this unless you really know what you are doing—a mistake will look twice as ignorant as not knowing the terms in the first place. Your audience may be smart, but you don’t want to make them turn to a dictionary or fall asleep between the first word and the period of your first sentence. Keep in mind that this is a personal statement. Would you think you were learning a lot about a person whose personal statement sounded like a journal article? Would you want to spend hours in a lab or on a committee with someone who shuns plain language?

Of course, you don’t want to be chatty to the point of making them think you only speak slang, either. Your audience may not know what “I kicked that lame-o to the curb for dissing my research project” means. Keep it casual enough to be easy to follow, but formal enough to be respectful of the audience’s intelligence.

Just use an honest voice and represent yourself as naturally as possible. It may help to think of the essay as a sort of face-to-face interview, only the interviewer isn’t actually present.

Too much style

A well-written, dramatic essay is much more memorable than one that fails to make an emotional impact on the reader. Good anecdotes and personal insights can really attract an audience’s attention. BUT be careful not to let your drama turn into melodrama. You want your reader to see your choices motivated by passion and drive, not hyperbole and a lack of reality. Don’t invent drama where there isn’t any, and don’t let the drama take over. Getting someone else to read your drafts can help you figure out when you’ve gone too far.

Taking risks

Many guides to writing application essays encourage you to take a risk, either by saying something off-beat or daring or by using a unique writing style. When done well, this strategy can work—your goal is to stand out from the rest of the applicants and taking a risk with your essay will help you do that. An essay that impresses your reader with your ability to think and express yourself in original ways and shows you really care about what you are saying is better than one that shows hesitancy, lack of imagination, or lack of interest.

But be warned: this strategy is a risk. If you don’t carefully consider what you are saying and how you are saying it, you may offend your readers or leave them with a bad impression of you as flaky, immature, or careless. Do not alienate your readers.

Some writers take risks by using irony (your suffering at the hands of a barbaric dentist led you to want to become a gentle one), beginning with a personal failure (that eventually leads to the writer’s overcoming it), or showing great imagination (one famous successful example involved a student who answered a prompt about past formative experiences by beginning with a basic answer—”I have volunteered at homeless shelters”—that evolved into a ridiculous one—”I have sealed the hole in the ozone layer with plastic wrap”). One student applying to an art program described the person he did not want to be, contrasting it with the person he thought he was and would develop into if accepted. Another person wrote an essay about her grandmother without directly linking her narrative to the fact that she was applying for medical school. Her essay was risky because it called on the reader to infer things about the student’s character and abilities from the story.

Assess your credentials and your likelihood of getting into the program before you choose to take a risk. If you have little chance of getting in, try something daring. If you are almost certainly guaranteed a spot, you have more flexibility. In any case, make sure that you answer the essay question in some identifiable way.

After you’ve written a draft

Get several people to read it and write their comments down. It is worthwhile to seek out someone in the field, perhaps a professor who has read such essays before. Give it to a friend, your mom, or a neighbor. The key is to get more than one point of view, and then compare these with your own. Remember, you are the one best equipped to judge how accurately you are representing yourself. For tips on putting this advice to good use, see our  handout on getting feedback .

After you’ve received feedback, revise the essay. Put it away. Get it out and revise it again (you can see why we said to start right away—this process may take time). Get someone to read it again. Revise it again.

When you think it is totally finished, you are ready to proofread and format the essay. Check every sentence and punctuation mark. You cannot afford a careless error in this essay. (If you are not comfortable with your proofreading skills, check out our  handout on editing and proofreading ).

If you find that your essay is too long, do not reformat it extensively to make it fit. Making readers deal with a nine-point font and quarter-inch margins will only irritate them. Figure out what material you can cut and cut it. For strategies for meeting word limits, see our  handout on writing concisely .

Finally, proofread it again. We’re not kidding.

Other resources

Don’t be afraid to talk to professors or professionals in the field. Many of them would be flattered that you asked their advice, and they will have useful suggestions that others might not have. Also keep in mind that many colleges and professional programs offer websites addressing the personal statement. You can find them either through the website of the school to which you are applying or by searching under “personal statement” or “application essays” using a search engine.

If your schedule and ours permit, we invite you to come to the Writing Center. Be aware that during busy times in the semester, we limit students to a total of two visits to discuss application essays and personal statements (two visits per student, not per essay); we do this so that students working on papers for courses will have a better chance of being seen. Make an appointment or submit your essay to our online writing center (note that we cannot guarantee that an online tutor will help you in time).

For information on other aspects of the application process, you can consult the resources at  University Career Services .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the  UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Asher, Donald. 2012.  Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the Graduate School of Your Choice , 4th ed. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Curry, Boykin, Emily Angel Baer, and Brian Kasbar. 2003.  Essays That Worked for College Applications: 50 Essays That Helped Students Get Into the Nation’s Top Colleges . New York: Ballantine Books.

Stelzer, Richard. 2002.  How to Write a Winning Personal Statement for Graduate and Professional School , 3rd ed. Lawrenceville, NJ: Thomson Peterson.

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

• Application Essays. By: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Located at:   https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/application-essays/ . License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License

Writing in Genres Copyright © 2023 by Stephanie Frame is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Drone Downed in Russia’s Moscow Region, Governor Says

(Reuters) - Russian air defence units downed a drone outside Moscow on Monday, Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said.

Vorobyov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said fragments from the downed drone landed on a private house at about 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) in Balashikha, just east of the capital. Those inside the house escaped unhurt.

The Russian Defence Ministry reported that air defence units had destroyed a "small-scale airborne object".

Tass news agency, quoting aviation services, said aircraft had been temporarily directed away from flight paths northeast of Moscow but airports in the Moscow region were later reported to be operating normally.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Middle School Initiative expects to boost college access

Getting the right classes in middle school means getting into college

Typical 13-year-olds may not realize it, but the classes they take in middle school can determine whether they will go to college. 

For instance, students who don’t take algebra by the 9th grade most likely will never later take high school physics or calculus—classes that are important for college admissions.

“The data shows us that getting into college is based on the courses that you were given, or not given, in middle school,” said Joi Spencer, the dean of UC Riverside’s School of Education.

“It is not only about what kids decide. It's also about what gets decided for them,” she added. “The challenging part is that a lot of times the children and their families simply do not know what classes they should take.”

To boost college access, UCR’s School of Education is reaching out to Inland Empire middle school students and their families through a Middle School Initiative aimed at helping them get on the right academic track for college.

The initiative includes:

•    Sponsoring an essay contest in which middle school students are asked to write about the role of education in their lives. •    Sending representatives to eighth-grade promotion ceremonies to reach out to students and parents. •    Establishing a   STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) Academy summer day camp for middle school students on the UCR campus to expose them to the wonders of college.

The School of Education is approaching the initiative with a sense of urgency because of a disparity in the number of Inland students who don’t take the classes they need to go to a state university, Spencer said.

Less than half—48%—of Inland Empire high school graduates in 2023 completed the coursework they would need to apply for college in the University of California and California State University systems, according to Growing Inland Achievement , an Inland Empire educational collaborative group, which includes UCR. Inland graduates lagged their peers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where 60% and 57%, respectively, completed such coursework.

What’s more, Inland Empire minoritized students fared worse than their white and Asian peers, with only 41% and 44% of African American and Hispanic students, respectively, completing college prep classes with a “C” grade or better to be considered for UC or CSU admissions.

The Middle School Initiative works to increase those numbers. It is a broad umbrella events and activities to help young people develop stronger academic identities and defeat systems and structures that inhibit their access to education, Spencer said.

“We know that young people begin to define themselves at this age, but they also begin to be defined by society,” Spencer said. “Maybe some people see you as a football kid. And that's okay. But could you also be a football kid and a science kid?”

The STEAM Academy will run this summer as a pilot program for two weeks between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the UCR campus with slots for 60 students. The students will be broken into smaller groups or “pods,” each led by UCR undergraduate and graduate student mentors.

“They will be exposed to a really rich and super interactive series of experiences in visual mathematics, engineering, and of all kinds of science and arts,” Spencer said.

Participating families will not be charged. The students are being recruited through Inland Empire school districts. Spencer expects the academy to grow in the coming years and to be offered to as many as 120 middle school students.

“Students and families need to know we are here, and we're thinking about what's coming next for them,” Spencer said.  

Header image: Stock photograph by Getty Images

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Freshman: Testing Requirements

The California State University (CSU) no longer uses ACT or SAT examinations in determining admission eligibility for all CSU campuses. If accepted to a CSU campus, ACT or SAT test scores can be used as one of the measures to place students in the proper mathematics and written communication courses.  Visit the  CSU Student Success  site for further information on course placement. For more information on admission criteria, please visit the  First-Time Freshman Guidance  and the  First-Time Freshman Frequently Asked Questions  pages. ​

Testing Requirements​

​freshman prior to admission.

Reporting ACT and SAT Scores

If you choose to take the ACT or SAT tests, you may still report your scores for consideration in course placement.

• Write in your ACT ID correctly onto your Cal State Apply application in the Standardized Tests section. Unsure of your ACT ID? Visit ACT.org.
• On the ACT score report, you should have listed at least one CSU campus, as the score recipient. This will allow the CSU to send the scores to all campuses in which you applied, based on the matching ACT ID number – so make sure you type this in correctly.
• You can check to see if your ACT score has been matched to your Cal State Apply application by logging in and reviewing the Check Status page.

If you notice that your ACT scores have not been attached to your Cal State Apply application, contact the  Applicant Help Center .

• Write in your College Board ID correctly onto your Cal State Apply application in the Standardized Tests section.
• On the College Board score report, you should have listed a CSU campus, or the CSU systemwide institution code (3594), as the score recipient. This will allow the CSU to send the scores to all campuses in which you applied. To check where your scores were sent, or for more information on locating your College Board ID, visit  this page .
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Martyrs inc. in rafah as hamas gets just what it wants: civilian deaths.

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Hamas is getting just what it wanted.

On Tuesday, IDF tanks entered the heart of Rafah , inevitably causing more Palestinian civilian casualties and deaths. 

Savagely, Martyrs Inc. is open for business in Rafah — exactly as intended by Hamas and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sponsors in Tehran and overlords in Moscow.

Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar have never sought to govern Gaza.

Rather, they have plotted to turn it into a land of futile martyrdom in their jihad to destroy Israel.

The  IDF’s Sunday attack , which killed 45 civilians, underscored just how drenched in innocent blood the road to Rafah has become at the hands of Deif and Sinwar.

The images were horrifying.

Flames from hell, burned bodies, dead children — all proudly served up on social media by Hamas.

Hamas would not have it any other way.

In its demented world, Palestinian men, women and children are simply a means to an end.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, told us as much last October. 

Safely tucked away in a luxury hotel 1,100 miles away from Rafah in Qatar , Haniyeh perversely reveled in the loss of Palestinian civilians as Israel began to strike back against Hamas targets in Northern Gaza, arguing that “we need this blood [of the children, women and elderly] so that it will ignite within us the spirit of revolution.”

Palestinian civilians in the eyes of Hamas are their first line of defense, Geneva Conventions be damned.

Martyrs Inc. under Deif and Sinwar’s evil management is a mass-production enterprise — and grotesquely, the younger the fallen, the better.

None of this is new.

Weaponizing civilians — Palestinians and Israelis alike — is a Hamas specialty, one shared by Tehran and Moscow.

Hamas has used Gazans as human shields since 2007.

It does so to enable the firing of rockets into Israel, often siting their weapons near schools, hospitals and mosques.

Ditto “locating military or security-related infrastructures such as HQs, bases, armories, access routes, lathes or defensive positions within or in proximity to civilian areas,” according to NATO StratCom COE, a military think tank.

Far from protecting civilians, as evidenced on Oct. 7, Deif and Sinwar have made non-combatants their targets of choice.

Terrorize, kidnap and kill Israeli civilians — and then flee back to Gaza and hide behind Palestinian men, women and children to ensure mass casualties and garner international condemnation of Israel. 

We are living in a perverse dystopian reality.

Hamas is being rewarded for weaponizing civilians — and Israel condemned for taking steps to ensure that Deif and Sinwar are never again able to target Israeli civilians.

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Since Oct. 7, Spain, Ireland and Norway have declared that they would recognize a Palestinian state.   

Days ago, the UN General Assembly voted to bestow upon Palestine additional “rights and privileges,” while university campuses across the US have been besieged by organized anti-Israel protests. 

Equally disturbing, President Biden appears poised to reward Hamas for using Palestinian and Israeli civilians as human shields.

National security has taken a back seat to November politics and Biden’s electoral pressures in Michigan. 

According to reports, here’s the Biden administration’s hoped-for plan: Israeli hostages would be released. Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel. And Hamas essentially would be allowed to survive, but perhaps not technically in charge of a post-war Gaza. 

It is fantasyland thinking. 

Iran and Hamas are simply playing the Biden administration.

Biden, led badly astray by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, still naively believes he can cut a comprehensive deal with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. 

This is a dangerous and deadly game for Biden to be playing just to win a presidential election on Nov. 5.

On Monday, the IAEA reported that Tehran now has  313.2 pounds of HEU  enriched to 60% — enough to build at least three nukes if enriched to a weapons-grade 90%.

Despite this, the White House is reportedly pressuring Britain, France and Germany to halt their efforts to get the IAEA to condemn Iran yet again.

Plus, Biden is said to be offering Iran and Hamas Benjamin Netanyahu’s head through backchannel negotiations led by Brett McGurk — if the mullahs agree to an overall peace deal. 

Translation: Hamas’ policy of weaponizing Palestinian civilians works for Biden’s White House.

Deif and Sinwar, as a result, have every incentive to continue using Palestinian human shields in Rafah as a means of weakening Israel. 

Moscow is no doubt pleased.

Biden is cutting the legs off a US ally and rewarding Russia’s allies in the Mideast. 

It’s madness — and could condemn future generations of Palestinians and Israelis alike to more of the same under the thumb of Hamas’ Martyrs Inc.

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