What is freshman impaction?
In order to manage enrollment within current budget constraints while preserving the highest quality academic experience and services to students, the California State University (CSU) system has declared “system wide impaction” (see CSU Declares Systemwide Impaction). Impaction requires each of the 23 CSU campuses to give priority admission consideration to first-time freshman applicants who graduate from high schools located within a closely-defined geographic area. In response to this requirement, CSU, Northridge has recently defined its Local Guarantee Admissions Area, or Tier 1 school districts, as described in question 3.
