Need help refining college list for CS. [TX resident, 92.07(3.79)/1400 superscore, no rank, approx $70K]

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

*Demographics: Asian/Indian

  • US domestic *: US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: * Texas
  • Type of high school *: Highly Competitive (Non-Ranking)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity *: Male

Intended Major(s)
Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 92.07/100 (3.6828/4.0)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 94.817/100 (3.79268/4.0)
    Class Size: 693 (Not in the top 10% for auto admit)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: Will be retaking soon.
    1300 (700 EBRW 600 Math)
    1360 (660 EBRW 700 Math)
    1400 Superscore (700 EBRW 700 Math)

Coursework
AP:
AP World History - 4
AP English Language and Composition - 3
AP US History - 5
APCSA
AP Calculus AB
AP Government
AP English IV
AP Macro
AP Micro
APCS II

Awards
Recognizing Exemplary Students in Digital Graphics and Animation Award: Awarded at my Local High School to ~14 people for expertise in my Digital Graphics Class (Knowledge in Adobe Photoshop, Animate, Maya)

Extracurriculars

*50 Volunteering Hours (46 at my local Library, and 4 at Habitat for Humanity)
*3D Modeling business, 3 - 4 years, providing assets to game developers on the platform Roblox.
*Photoshop business, 1 - 2 years, providing graphic art to game developers on the platform Roblox.
*NFT business, 2 years, used Photoshop to create NFTs. I also learned about Crypto and the Blockchain.
*Started a Computer Science Blog, 2 months, informing high school students about computer science extracurriculars.
*Participated in LeetCode Contests/Challenges, 3 months, programming challenges.
*Hackathon Group, 7 months, created a hackathon group with friends, participated in Global Hacks Hackathon and Google’s Code Jam.
*Have earned 13 online certifications in programming acknowledging my skills in Java.
*Completed 5 Audited Courses for programming topics in Java, C#, and Game Editors such at Unity. Colleges: UW Seattle, Michigan State, UCSD, University of Colorado, uPenn.
*Educational Experience, earned a certificate on Forage that taught me Software Development in HTML.
*Programming Mentor, 8 months, provided assistance in programming to people on Unity Forums and Stack Overflow in languages such as C# and Java.
*Unity Project, will be releasing a game I created in the Unity Engine within the next month.
*Game Development Team, 2 years, I created a team with my friends to create projects on the platform ROBLOX. Although no projects were published, I was able to deeply improve my programming skills in Lua.
*Github Portfolio, 8 months, I have been posting scripts I have created from the last 4 years on my Github, including Swift, C#, Java, HTML, CSS, and Python.
*Programming, I have been programming for roughly 10 years in many programming languages
*Created a YouTube channel, 1 week, that is tutoring people in C# and Unity.

Essays/LORs/Other
Currently in the process of writing Essays and obtaining Letters of Recommendation

Cost Constraints / Budget
~$70,000 (I have 2 siblings applying to college as well)

Schools
ASU (Priority)
UC Berkley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
UCSD
UCSB
UCSC
UCF (Rolling)
Georgia Tech (Early Action II)
UIUC (Early Action)
UMD (Early Action)
UMass Amherst (Early Action)
Michigan State (Early Action)
NYU
Northeastern (Early Action)
Purdue (Early Action)
TA&M (Early Action/Engineering)
UT Austin (Priority)
UT Dallas (Priority)
University of Utah (Early Action)
Virginia Tech (Early Action)
UW Seattle
WPI (Early Action)

Please help me refine this list, and tell me which are safeties, matches, and reaches!

2

The UC’s are about $74,000 a year and are unlikely to meet your price point.

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5

I will only address the UC’s.

  1. You will be full pay at around $70K/year so top of your budget
  2. UC’s are test blind.
  3. UC’s have capped OOS enrollment

You need to calculate your 3 UC GPA’s. GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

As an OOS applicant, the UC’s only give Honors points to AP/IB and DE/CC UC transferable classes. HS Honors classes are not weighted. UC’s only use 10-11th a-g course grades in their calculation.

Here are some CS admit rates I have complied for the UC’s. Note CS is probably the most competitive major for the UC’s.

2022 CS admit rates if available

Campus CS
UC Berkeley 2.9% L&S updated 2023 EECS-4%
UC Davis No data but estimated <20%
UC Irvine 5.8%
UCLA 3.8%
UC Merced 85%
UC Riverside 36%
UC San Diego No data but estimated <10%
UC Santa Barbara No data Historically 5-6%
UC Santa Cruz 60%

All the UC”s listed are Low Reach to Reaches except for UC Santa Cruz which I would put as a Target.

Overall 2022 Admit rates based on the Capped weighted UC GPA. Competitive majors as noted on the chart above have much lower admit rates.

Campus 4.00+ 3.70-3.99 3.30-3.69 3.00-3.29
Berkeley 17% 3% 1% 0%
Davis 58% 20% 5% 2%
Irvine 35% 10% 3% 0%
Los Angeles 13% 2% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 97% 95% 85%
Riverside 95% 83% 42% 17%
San Diego 37% 8% 1% 0%
Santa Barbara 41% 8% 3% 0%
Santa Cruz 69% 45% 16% 4%

Best of luck and once new admit rates for 2023 are available, I will repost.

2 Likes
6

These were posted from Cal Answers a while ago. For Fall 2023 CS admit rate was 2.9% and EECS was around 4%.

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7

Congrats to you. It’s a lot of schools - too many.

I see it like this:

ASU = safety

UCs are a bit tougher due to how they calculate but…all will be a reach/high reach and not affordable. Are you sure your family can cover $70K with 3 applying at once? You don’t want loans.

UCF = likely

Ga Tech = high reach

UIUC = high reach

UMD = reach

UMASS = high target

Michigan State = likely

NYU = reach

Northeastern = reach

Purdue = Reach

Texas A&M - reach based on not in top 10%

UT Austin - a bigger reach

UT Dallas = safety

U of Utah = Safety

Va Tech = match

U Wash - maybe the highest reach on your list

WPI = likely.

So you have balance and you’ll have a home.

But you should maybe shorten the list because it’s long. Eliminating the UCs alone would do this. Also, please ensure you understand the WPI calendar as it’s different.

You’ll have some acceptances with this list -and you can only attend one.

Other than the UCs - all have a chance at coming in at budget. But - you could go to a lot of fine schools for a lot less than some of these!! And for CS, I’m not sure how much it will matter. Schools like Alabama, Mississippi State, Arkansas, etc. You might look at Texas Tech too.

Good luck.

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Updated my chart for UC Berkeley. Thank you.

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9

HARD reach for UT Austin, Texas A&M.
Non ranking school and 1360 SAT

A&M might offer an Engineering pathway, but wouldn’t expect that until at least January.
Be familiar with TEAB, Blinn-Bryan, A&M Engineering Academies, Engineering at Galveston.
Also be familiar with ETAM (entry to a major process)

Might get CAP at UT

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10

The UC schools are so expensive for out-of-state students, the odds of admission are low, and it requires a separate detailed application with multiple short answers/essays.

Because of that, I would consider removing all of them from your list and focusing on your other options in order to put your best foot forward and not get pulled in too many directions to submit the strongest possible applications. You have many other strong reach schools on your list already.

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11

I also would add more schools to your list with higher than 50 percent admission rates for computer science to make sure you have multiple choices you like at the end of the process.

Only 3% of non-residents are admitted to U Washington in computer science, for example.

Some well-respected schools to consider: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

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12

Thanks everyone!

I will be removing some colleges that are reaches, as it seems I have way too many.

13

Smart move - and too expensive.

As the UC was an entirely different application than common app, removing that saves you a lot of time - they have lots of essays. Then re look at your list and see if it’s to the size you’d like.

btw - the most important school on your list is the affordable safety.

You have that in ASU. It’d be good to have another and I’m guessing that Michigan State.

Once you have that school that you 100% can afford, will get into and will be excited about, the rest of the list doesn’t matter…because you can only go to one.

Balance is good but for some, it’s their local school and all reaches. So how you craft the list is up to you. You just need that ASU and one more that’s a definite - a MS State, LSU, Arkansas, etc. Michigan State can likely qualify as that school.

The rest - go for the dream if that’s what you want. You needn’t be balanced if you’re not interested in that.

Just confirming - three kids applying at once and your individual budget is still $70K? WIth no loans?

Best of luck to you.

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My parents said they would be willing to pay for it, but they doubt all 3 of us would get into the UCs.

And yes, I’m applying to Michigan state as well.

15

But you have other expensive schools on your list. The VA Techs, UMDs.

I would think long and hard as you have three kids. If you have 70K because another won’t get into a UC - well what if all get into UMD or Va Tech, etc.

There are many less expensive schools. I think you need an all three game plan…a total or budget by kid.

If another kid is definitely going to a school that is $30K, then maybe that works…but what if they don’t, etc.

You didn’t pursue a “low cost” list is what I’m saying. And that’s ok if that’s your choice.

The three kids thing just made me want to ask - and when I hear - all three won’t get into a UC that tells me there is likely a limit and lower than $70K.

Good luck to the triplets.

16

Great that you have spoken to your parents. They are uniquely positioned to analyze and quantify your families needs and budget. Far more appropriate and useful discussing a personal and private matter such as family finances with your parents then total strangers.

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I see your point. They did say we most likely won’t all be attending UCs, but if we all really want to go to the school (UCs) they would pay for it.

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