The Cal State Long Beach President’s Scholars Program is the reason why some qualified students choose CSULB over top schools like University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles.
CSULB received more than 700 hundred applicants, but only 25 students were selected, according to the Cal State Long Beach website.
Nineteen-year-old biology major Naomie Ranatunge said the President’s Scholars program caters to well-rounded, qualified students who have dedicated countless hours of community service.
“This is the minimum requirement for students to be considered for a scholarship,” Ranatunge said.
Ranatunge said she didn’t hesitate to commit to CSULB after she was offered the scholarship during her senior year of high school. Although some top universities in the state like USC, UCLA and University of California, Berkley accepted Ranatunge, she said those schools didn’t matter because CSULB had more to offer.
“I got accepted to all six schools I applied to, but [the] Cal State Long Beach offer was too much to deny,” Ranatunge said. “I like to think that I chose the right school. Cal State Long Beach has everything I’m looking for [in a]social and academic aspect.”
Civil engineering major, Austin Carrell, also 19 years old, from Anderson, California, said he feels there are an unlimited amount of resources that he has access too.
“[CSULB has a] huge support system,” Carrell said. “The people involved with this president’s scholars program are amazing.”
Carrell said some of the perks President Scholar’s get are full payment of in-state tuition and general student fees, paid campus housing, priority registration and personalized academic advising.
Twenty-two-year-old civil engineering major Mike Tocco said CSULB is an example of one of the best things that college has to offer.
“This is the best descion I have made,” Tocco said. “Getting a free education, doing community service and getting the whole college experience is why I wanted to come here.”
Carrell said community service is something that students must continue to do in order to maintain their president scholarship, which is something that they are willing to go above and beyond for.
“The minimum is just to do community service,” Ranatunge said. “We try to exceed that because we are getting so much out of it.”
Valerie Bordeaux, director of CSULB’s University Outreach and School Relations, said she thinks this program is the gold standard for universities in the state.
“[The] California legislature identified us as the model, not only for the CSU’s but the UC’s as well,” Bordeaux said. “So [many] of their president scholars programs are modeled after ours.”
As part of the scholarship, freshmen and sophomores are required to go back to their high school and talk to students about the college process.
According to the CSULB website, President’s Scholars come from 353 high schools throughout California and from 42 counties as far as Siskiyou County in the north to San Diego in the south.
In two months, the President’s Scholars Program is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary on Nov. 23 at the CSULB Homecoming game.
As part of the tradition, at halftime the new President’s Scholars will be brought onto the court to be recognized.
“It’s indescribable“ Bordeaux said. “We really are the premier President’s Scholars program in the state.”
Correction: A previous version of this article reported a total of 26 new students in the President’s Scholars Program, which had been corrected to say 25. It also inaccurately reported an estimate of 700 applicants to the program in the 2014 applicant pool, and identified scholar Austin Carrell as “Austin Carroll.”