Application List Suggestions

College Search & Selection
1

Hi. I would appreciate if someone could give me some feedback on my current college list, and whether it is a good fit for me. It was drawn up by my college counsellor and I’m not entirely satisfied with it. There a few good schools on this list, but I’d really like to go to either an Ivy League or Stanford. My counsellor says that I can’t get into those schools and that I shouldn’t apply, and I would like a second opinion. I would appreciate if you were honest rather than trying to not hurt my feelings.

Here is my current list (I categorized the schools into reach, target, and safety so I’m not sure if I did it correctly):

Reach: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Caltech, Washington University St. Louis

Target: UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech, U of Illinois Urbana Champaign, U of Michigan Ann Arbor, U of Washington Seattle

Safety: UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, Cal Poly San Louis Obispo.

I live in California and I go to a relatively good public high school. I have an unweighted GPA of 3.94 and a weighted GPA of 4.35. Our school also calculates a separate GPA the same way the University of California does it and that GPA is 4.72. Also I took the SAT and scored a 2310. I took the PSAT and scored a 229, so I’ll probably get National Merit. The cost of college is important to me, but we can afford to pay up to 50k a year if we had to. That being said I do not want to spend that much on college and will weigh cost as a big factor in my decision. My chosen major is Computer Science, and if possible I’d like to double major in Business. My ECs aren’t the best, but they are decent. I volunteer at a hospital about once a week for 3 hours, and I’ve already gotten about a 110 hours. I am also treasurer of a computer science club, part of the track and field team (not at the varsity or jv level, but at the recreational one), a member of Interact Club (a volunteer club in which I’ve earned 45 hours), a member of California Scholarship Federation, a member of Model United Nations, and have played soccer for 11 years for my city club. Over the summer before my 9th grade year I also volunteered at a summer school and accumulated about 24 hours.

Thanks in advance for any responses. Do you think that I should put any Ivy Leagues or Stanford on my list, or am I not qualified enough to get in?

2

I think you definitely have a shot at ivies are Stanford. Your shot is just as good as most high-stat kids who apply to those schools, but you definitely could get in. However, I would encourage you to think about why you want to go to one of those schools, and prestige isn’t a good enough reason. All nine of those schools are pretty different (size, location, urban vs rural, importance of sports/greek life, etc.) Obviously it would be too much work to apply to all of them, so I think it would help you a lot to learn more about each of them, as well as think about what you want from your college experience. Besides, knowing about the school you’re applying to and why you want to go there makes you a much more qualified applicant.

3

I say go for it, you have great stats and I’d think you hit the range in that area. If you think your ECs aren’t the best (you didn’t specify what grade you’re in, but i assume soph/jr?) then maybe over the summer try to get internships/jobs, or maybe something take a class or get some more experience in computer science. You seem to have strong volunteer ECs and played sports, so maybe branch it out if you think that will help. Also, i’m not too sure if the schools are big on demonstrated interest, but if they are then a college visit might help, and may also narrow down your list if you decide the school isn’t actually a great fit for you.
Your GPA and SAT score look great! I don’t think you’re “not qualified enough to get in,” it’s just that college admissions are so hard to determine and no one can say you’re guaranteed. I say, it’s better to apply and try, than to not and wonder what if. Find a topic you love to write about and put together the best essay possible, and keep up the hard work. But i wouldn’t encourage getting your hopes up super high and only imagining yourself at the reach schools. Make sure you love your target and even safety schools, the most important thing is to have a school you will be happy at and can see yourself spending years there.
Best of luck!!

4

Have you and/or your parents run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for all your schools? Make sure these schools are affordable, especially those OOS flagships. You may be rudely surprised next spring by unaffordable schools.

Are you sure you like your safeties? If you don’t like them, won’t be happy attending (assume you’re rejected by everyone else), then you haven’t found a safety yet.

You have the grades and test scores to qualify for your reaches but nothing is a slam dunk, even at your “target” schools. Keep in mind, target means that there is still a possibility of rejection.

Add Alabama to your safety list. Check out Tulane.

5

I would take off UC Santa Cruz as a safety and put San Jose State University instead because it’s a lot better for computer science/engineering and business. Take off UC Davis because the 4-year graduation rate is abysmal (52%) and your other matches are better for computer science. I would add USC as a match because the Marshall School of Business has an amazing alumni network and job placement rate, and although the COA is very high, I think you might be able to get a full or half-tuition scholarship with your stats. They also have a half-tuition scholarship for national merit finalists.

My school has sent a few students to Harvard, UPenn and Yale and on top of being perfect academically, they also had AMAZING hooks (ranked in state and national tournaments for speech and debate, and one of them was homeless for one year to boot). I don’t think you have a chance of getting into any of those (or Princeton).

6

@Irreplacable’s UCD graduation rate is dated from 2007. Almost all the UC’s are greater than 60% 4 year graduation rate and >80% for a 6 year graduation rate. Do not base your college list on graduation rates since these numbers can be misleading.

First, your need to re-calculate your UC GPA correctly using only 8 semesters of honors points and not fully weighted as posted above. http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc I am guessing your UC GPA is probably the 4.35. Fully weighted would be the 4.72.
Second, you have outstanding stats however, very few UC’s are true safeties these days, even for the most qualified of applicants. UCR/UCSC/UCM and SJSU would be safeties, not UCSB or SLO. CS is extremely competitive so you have a excellent chance at many of the schools on your list and some schools like Stanford are a crapshoot, but do not over estimate your chances. Best to err on the side of caution especially with nothing truly unique listed for your EC’s. There is no harm in having your reaches and applying as long as all your schools on your list are schools you are willing to attend in the end. Good Luck.

7

Since you are OOS, Michigan is a reach, especially if you are applying to the CoE. I don’t think UCLA would be a reach for a CA resident with your academic credentials.

Definitely add Cornell and Princeton to your list.

I would also add Penn (check out the Jerome Fisher program).

8

Thanks for all the amazing responses above! I really appreciate all your help :slight_smile:

At this point I’m strongly considering adding UPenn, Cornell, and Princeton as reaches. Since all the UCs are just one application, I’m probably gonna add UCR and UCM as two more safeties along with UCSC. I’ve decided to drop cal poly after doing some thinking. I’m also adding UT Austin as a target.

Does this updated college list seem balanced?

Reach: UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Caltech, Washington University St. Louis, Princeton, Cornell, Stanford, UPenn

Target: UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech, U of Illinois Urbana Champaign, U of Michigan Ann Arbor, U of Washington Seattle, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UT Austin

Safety: UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, UC Merced

The above list means that I have to fill out 13 different applications (1 for the UCs and 1 each for the other schools). Is that too many, or is it manageable?

9

UT Austin is a reach for anyone out of state. The top 7% of students in Texas high schools are guaranteed admission, leaving few spaces for OOS students (especially business and engineering). You don’t need UCSC, UCR, AND UCM as a safety because the chances of you being rejected from all 5 of the “better” UC’s and a safety UC with those stats are super low. Even if it’s the same application, you still have to pay $70 per school you send it to. And I doubt your parents will want to pay the application fee for 22 schools.

@Gumbymom http://ucdavis.edu/about/facts/uc_davis_profile.pdf
This is the data for students who began college in 2008, so it was collected in 2014. The 4 year graduation rate is definitely less than 60% (which isn’t even a high percentage; for example, UNCCH has an 81% 4 year graduation rate). Even UC Irvine’s 4 year graduation rate is almost 10% higher.

10

@Irreplaceable: Based on the link, the table states 55% in 2011, that is 4 years ago. Rates do change. I am just saying that yes it is less than some of the UC’s but graduation rates do not tell the whole story and you shouldn’t pick schools based on just graduation rates. Also the poster’s list needs to be trimmed down with too many reaches and only 1 good safety.

11

@Gumbymom I don’t know what table you’re looking at, but the graph shows the graduation rates for students who would have graduated between spring 2012 and spring 2014 since they began college in fall 2008. I’d say that’s pretty recent data. And I haven’t seen anything about UC Davis trying to improve the rate, so I wouldn’t be so optimistic on that front either. There are other reasons not to apply to UC Davis aside from the mediocre graduation rate; I was just offering one factor. UC Davis not having an undergraduate business school would be another reason (since OP is also interested in business).

12

Even if you get in to UT OOS, it’s 50K/year, which is why the students in my school that were admitted chose not to go.

13

Those out-of-state public schools will stretch your budget compared to UCs and CSUs. Have you run the net price calculators on the web sites of each school?

If you have college credit taken while in high school, be aware that Michigan is very stingy with transfer credit from other colleges.

CS at UCB can either be EECS in engineering or CS in Letters and Science (L&S CS). UCB L&S is probably a low match for you, but then you need to complete the L&S CS prerequisites with a 3.3 college GPA or higher to declare the L&S CS major. UCB EECS is probably a high match to reach, but you would be in the major if admitted.

CS at UCLA is in the engineering division, which is probably a high match to reach.

Graduation rates are mostly correlated with admission selectivity*, so if you are picking a school based on graduation rates, you are basically saying that you want to attend the most selective school you can get into.

*Of course, a confounding factor is whether students tend to take time off doing co-ops or other non-school activities.

14

I think the low 4 year graduation rate at UC Davis is a problem with the school, like poor advising or difficulty for students to get classes they need. UC Irvine has a slightly worse freshman profile, and its 4 year graduation rate is over 10% higher. UCSB has an almost identical freshman profile as UC Davis, yet its 4 year graduation is over 15% higher. UC Davis’s 4 year graduation rate is on par with UCSC’s, which is one of the least competive UCs.

15

I would apply to Cal Poly over the lower three UCS because it is better and also based solely on stats, so you’d presumably get in. A lot of Silicon Valley businesses recruit at SLO.

16

Cal Poly has an excellent CS program. However, the acceptance rate to Cal Poly for CS was extremely low this year. My daughter was accepted to all of your target schools in CS, but was not accepted to CS at Cal Poly.