'22 CA STEM kid interested in chances and more safety schools to look into

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • CA - SF Bay Area
  • Very competitive private
  • White male
  • 4 Gen Legacy to Stanford

Intended Major(s)
Varies by school but engineering/business focus

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8 (3.9 excluding freshman year when I had a big concussion)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.16/5.0
  • Class Rank: N/A but mid 50% weighted for school is 3.4-4.0
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1510 SAT, retook and expect 1530-1550 based on prac tests

Coursework
All the following are either required or AP level or above at my school

Math: Algebra II, Precalc H, Calc AB, Calc BC, AP Stats
CS/Engineering: APCS A, Data Structures H, Algorithms H, Engineering II H, Entrepreneurship 1-4
Language: Spanish 2 through AP
Science: Physics, Chem, Bio, Adv Physics H
Lit: US Lit, World Lit, 2 years Adv Seminars H
History: US Hist, World Hist, Economics (macro/micro)

AP scores: Comp Sci A 5 - Calc AB 5 - Macroecon 4 (taking Physics C, Spanish, Stats, Calc BC this year)

Awards
National Merit Commended
AP Scholar

Extracurriculars
FRC Robotics (50 person team)- 4yr, cap senior year, 1000+ hours
Niche sport - 4yr varsity, 2yr cap.
Niche sport - certified and paid coach
Intern at startup
Started non-profit open source tech company designing a device that helps companies reopen during the pandemic
Virtual exchange experience (in-person one was cancelled)
Assorted clubs i.e. math and chess.
Extreme sports as a hobby, skiing, MTB, rock climbing, etc.

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Everyone says this but I think my essays and LORs are good.

Cost Constraints / Budget
*none but merit aid is always a bonus

Schools

Reach
*Stanford
*Rice
*WashU
*Carnegie Mellon
*Tufts
*USC
*UC Berkeley, UCLA

Match
*UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCSB, UCSD, UCSC
*GA Tech
*Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona

Safety
*LMU
*UC Riverside, UC Merced

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G Tech is a reach.

USC gives 50% merit to NMF - not sure where commended comes in.

Do you have any leadership in your ECs? Your rank - it’s hard to see - are you top 20% or 10%.

If “merit” is a plus, why not add schools where you’ll get merit. U of Arizona, Florida State, W&L for a liberal art (Johnson Scholar). Purdue - likely not merit - but a much better shot there than Ga Tech which is unlikely.

Others have posted info on UC Acceptance rates by UC GPA.

I’d say your safeties are fine but you can go to U of A, ASU, UNM, Utah, etc. for less.

My question would be - if you only get into your safeties, will you be ok - or disappointed - because if you’re disappointed, add other schools you might be ok with such as U Denver or U Colorado or School of Mines (not business).

Hard to tell based on what you wrote - but I see you getting blanked at the non-CA schools including Ga Tech - not sure about them (the CA Schools) - hence a U of A or ASU would be a strong merit back up.

Good luck.

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Utah seems like an obvious safety, it’s the best place in the country for those outdoor activities.

Skiing is well known to be the “best snow on earth”, but D loves climbing (What "Daredevil" Thing Have You Done? - #23 by Twoin18) and her roommate is in the NCAA MTB championships this week.

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Thanks, unfortunately I did not make NMF because I entered through PSAT instead of AE and only had a 1460/217. I am fortunate enough that merit aid isn’t important enough to decide where I apply but still is a more general consideration, mostly for safeties. As for class rank, my school does not publish but I go to a very competitive private school with about 80 kids per grade, usually 15-20 ish go to T30 schools. My school mandates a lot of unweighted classes so WGPA is low as compared to other schools but the only published info from the school is 3.4-4.0 weighted is the middle 50% so I think even though 4.16W isn’t great for most schools, I still probably am around at least 85%ile but no way to know for sure. From looking at similar stats from my school at what are now my three favorite schools, it looks like I might have a decent chance at WashU ED or Rice ED but Stanford, even with some legacy, is unlikely. As for EC leadership, I am a 2-year sport captain and was in leadership for my robotics team last year which I am now a captain of. No leadership in chess or math club but I was a founding member and helped get people to join. I haven’t been able to find any safety schools yet that I am super excited about but will look into Utah, U of A, ASU, and U Denver as well as CSU or Community Colleges with good transfer opportunities. Thanks for the guidance!

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No way on community colleges. Since you can afford 4 years that’s where you need to be.

It’s great of you are getting guidance that WUSTL works. But you still need back up.

Have you visited ? Y that school ?

What you’ll find at any flagship is that you have some Ivy caliber kids attending. Obviously not to the level of a Rice or WUSTL in quantity but there are some. Hence a U of A or ASU etc

Hoping a tip UC or CPSLO works. There’s other threads where the UC GPA and acceptance rates are posted.

Good luck.

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For UCs, see below, but note that engineering and computer science majors are typically more selective than these admission rates suggest.

Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2020 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 37% 14% 2% 1%
Davis 86% 55% 16% 7%
Irvine 60% 38% 9% 1%
Los Angeles 38% 8% 1% 1%
Merced 98% 97% 95% 88%
Riverside 97% 90% 65% 30%
San Diego 78% 39% 8% 1%
Santa Barbara 81% 40% 9% 2%
Santa Cruz 92% 82% 59% 26%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).

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UC GPA’s? Unweighted, Capped Weighted and Fully Weighted

For Cal poly SLO, they use 9-11th grades with the 8 semester Honors point cap in the GPA calculation.

Which Engineering/Business majors at the UC’s and the Cal Poly’s?

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Yes, this is very important. With an unweighted 3.8 CP could fall anywhere between possible safety, to beyond reach. It’s totally major dependent.

If you want an intersection between engineering and business, I’d recommend you look at Industrial Technology and Packaging at Cal Poly. It’s an interesting major (to me at least), and it would be a match at least.

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Just calculated for CSU/UC - 3.92 UW, 4.23 W+Capped, 4.56 W+Uncapped

I didn’t realize that freshman year didn’t count for CSUs as well but it helps me a lot because I had a pretty major skiing concussion freshman year that hurt my grades a lot.

For Cal Poly SLO and Pomona I was looking at either General or Computer Engineering which I am sure is insanely competitive. For UC Berkeley, I was looking at MET and EE/CS programs and similar programs for other UCs to give you an idea. Again, I assume these are all nuts competitively.

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Cal Poly SLO is the only CSU that uses 9-11th grades as stated in original post, so using the Rogerhub calculator, you need to calculate your SLO GPA also.

I think you gauged your chances well with the exception of Cal Poly SLO which I would put more on the Reach side vs. Target. General Engineering at SLO will probably be a slightly easier admit than Computer Engineering based on the SLO target projections.

Cal Poly Pomona looks like a solid Target school.

EECS and MET are Very Competitive at UCB. GTech I believe is a Reach school as an OOS applicant.

Best of luck and I am sure you will have several acceptances from which to choose.

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Wow, 4th generation legacy. That will certainly catch some eyeballs. Are you applying early anywhere? I would say roll the dice and apply to Stanford EA. The legacy boost will probably help.

Also make sure your guidance counselor mentions the freshman year concussion in his/her letter. Also find a way to weave it into your essays without making it look like an excuse.

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Weak test scores + awards won’t go in your favor for your reach schools. Legacy at Stanford might help if you choose to SCEA, but I wouldn’t count on it to singlehandedly put you thru

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USC does not have a commended scholarship but if you apply before Dec 1, your application will be evaluated for any of their other scholarships (quarter, half and full tuition).

I am by no means an expert at Stanford but I thought the expectation is for legacies to apply SCEA.

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Utah also has this engineering/business crossover program: https://entrepreneurship.coe.utah.edu/

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Yes the Lassonde maker space/dorm is an interesting concept: https://lassonde.utah.edu/

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I anticipate better test scores cause I didn’t feel great the day I had my one chance to take the SAT and got a 1510. Thankfully, I got another chance to take it recently and it felt a lot better. Anticipating at least a 1530 but hopefully more 1550 ish. Still may not help me much but anything helps considering I am planning on sending everywhere scores. Awards are mostly weak because my school doesn’t grant awards for philosophical reasons (explained in school profile) but I have the basic NM Commended and SAT scholar and also won a regional award for my niche sport.

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I have zero concern about awards. I think if you win something spectacular it’s good but even that means little.

What matters is what you accomplished.

So if you’re in the band, walk dogs, or help resettle a refugee family, that says a lot - but they don’t come with awards.

Being an AP Scholar is not an award - it’s made up. What you did to get it is what matters and is seen via rigor and if they study your scores.

You’re a robotics and sports captain - that’s leadership. You started a non profit - that’s leadership and creativity, etc. So make sure you define the impact…and don’t worry about stuff. Sure, some awards sound nice but I suspect most people list awards that gain them no better review than if they didn’t list them.

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Look not only at the schools in general but also at their Honors Colleges.

E.g. Discover why the Barrett experience is right for you. | Barrett, The Honors College (asu.edu) and Honors College | The University of Arizona

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