Background:
Asian Male
Computer Science Major
Low Income
Small Fairly Competitive Magnet Public School in California
STATS
SAT: 1380 (will retake)
UW/W GPA 4.0/ 4.3-4.4 (Haven’t started senior year yet)
SAT Subjects (will retake, these are w/o studying)
Math 2 710, Physics 670, US History 650
AP Classes: Calc AB (5), Physics 1(3), Physics 2(3), APUSH(4), AP LIT(3)
Senior Year Classes: AP GOV, AP LANG, AP COM SCI, AP STATS, AP CALC BC
Activities
*President of Engineering Club (4 Years)
*CyberPatriot Program ( 4 Years)
*Mock Trial (3 Years) *Science Bowl (3 Years)
*Church Basketball Team (4 Years)
*JSA Head of Debate (2 Years)
*Church Media Team (4 Years)
*Science Bowl (3 Years)
*NSTI SUMMER PROGRAM
*200+ hrs of community service
Schools Applying to:
UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, UCI, UC Davis, USC, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, RICE, Stanford, Cal Poly Pomona, CSULA, CSUN, CSU Long Beach, San Jose State
Do you guys also have other schools I should apply to?
Thanks
For CS, to be above average test score wise, you’ll probably want to aim for somewhere north of 1530+ at the top schools, Berkeley, Rice, USC, H Mudd. Probably higher for UCB EECS or UCLA EECS, and CMU and Stanford. Regardless, you’ll want to pull up the SAT at least 50-100 points to be a solid match for the mid-tier UCs as well.
You have a good mix of reaches, matches and safeties. UCSB and Santa Clara and CPSLO also have solid CS programs since it looks like the majority of your choices are in California.
@Dan123098:
You will need to calculate your UC/CSU capped weighted GPA and Fully weighted GPA for better comparison of these UC/CSU schools. Here is the GPA calculator:
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
CS will be tough for UCLA/UCB/Stanford/CMU/Harvey Mudd, you have the grades but will definitely need to bump up your test scores. I see more Reaches than Match schools and I think you can drop CSULA and CSUN as Safety schools. For Match schools, UC Santa Cruz would be a good option and Santa Clara if you are able to increase your test scores. USC is definitely possible again if you get your SAT scores up.
Cal Poly SLO will be a Reach with a 6% acceptance rate. UCSB would be a good addition for the Match/High Match category.
Best of luck.
My capped uc gpa is 4.27. My school has 7 classes a semester. Never got a B and used all 8 extra points. Took one summer school class.
My capped uc gpa is 4.27. My school has 7 classes a semester. Never got a B and used all 8 extra points. Took one summer school class.
Your UC GPA is competitive, but your SAT and SAT subject scores especially Physics are on the low side.
The top UC’s, Harvey Mudd, CMU, Stanford will be tough unless you can get around a 1500+ SAT score.
UCSD probably 50/50 unless you bump up your scores. The rest of the UC’s look within Reach along with the Cal States.
Make sure you spend time on your personal insight essays and best of luck.
yes, you are a competitive applicant but, with UCs, you really never know. Be sure to apply broadly.
For UCB, you have a choice between applying for CoE EECS and L&S CS. CoE EECS is generally considered reach for everyone, but would give direct admission to the major. L&S CS cannot be applied to directly – you would apply to L&S undeclared, which could be a high match to low reach for someone in your GPA range. But you would then need to earn a 3.3 college GPA in the three prerequisite CS courses (about half of students in these courses earn B+ or higher grades) in order to declare the L&S CS major.
Be aware that while UCSD looks fairly likely for admission to the campus at your GPA, admission to the CS major is much more difficult, and trying to get into the CS major after enrolling is difficult. In general, apply more widely (e.g. UCSC, UCR, UCM) than you think you need to, because CS is a more competitive major at many campuses.
Note that UC use of SAT subject tests varies by campus, division, and major: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination-requirement/SAT-subject-tests/index.html
Among the CSUs, CPSLO and SJSU are quite competitive for CS. SJSU past admission thresholds are given at http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/ (based on an eligibility index of GPA * 800 + SATRW + SATM, where GPA is calculated the same way that UCs do).