Hi, looking for colleges that might look at my son? He messed up his sophmore year, so his gpa dropped , but had a 4.2 GPA his junior year. He passed AP Calculus AB 5 and AP Chemistry 4. He is not fussy about location, but they must offer a good biochemistry degree. Thanks.
What can you afford? Would he prefer public or private? What are his SAT/ACT test scores? HS course rigor? EC’s?
I would start with the Cal States and UC’s if you are a CA resident. Biochemistry is a common major at all these schools and he will get a good to great education at any number of these CA public schools.
Cal states admit by Eligibility index and major so we need his test scores for the calculation. Exception is Cal Poly SLO and just based on GPA, probably a Reach school.
(CSU GPA x800) + (SAT Math + EBRW) or ( CSU GPA x200) + (ACT composite x10)
CSU GPA = UC capped weighted. https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
I forgot to ask about his career goals with a Biochem degree?
Thank you for your reply.
He has taken
honors English 1&2, general English 3, enrolled in Advance composition.
honors Algebra2trig, honors precalculus, AP Calculus Ab, and is enrolled in AP Stats,
Honors chemistry, AP Chemistry,
Idea Biology, enrolled in AP Biology and AP Physics.
AP Euro, AP US History, enrolled in AP economics.
Spanish 1,2&3,
Orchestra all high school years.
Only taken SAT once planning on taking again in October. Math 670 English 620. The Math curve was severe for the June SAT. He has scored 740 in previous sat practices for math.
His transcript shows academic GPA weighted 4.0 unweighted 3.44 Cal GPA 3.67
Extra curricular is limited as he suffers from ADD. ADD Large part of why his sophomore year was poor medication stopped working.
AYSO soccer (didn’t make the high school team)
Tutoring after school
Currently working after school in a music lesson/instrument rental shop.
His main reason for choosing biochemistry is that he is unsure what job he wishes to do when he finally graduates. He is interested in forensic science, pharmacology, research, genetics, and he enjoys both Chemistry and Biology. He felt he would have more options if he choose biochemistry than Biology.
Any advise you could provide would be appreciated.
CP Pomona, SDSU and CSULB would be great targets. UCR could happen. UCM, probably. The rest will be tough with the GPA. If budget allows, LMU and USD are worth exploring.
So based on current stats, his EI is 4226. I agree that SDSU, CPP and CSULB are good targets. UC Riverside, UC Merced and possibly UC Santa Cruz although UCM/UCR are more likely. A UC GPA below 4.0 for the rest of the UC’s will be a tough admit even with a solid SAT score since they tend to be more GPA focused.
You might want to add CSU Fullerton and San Jose State to the list. All the Cal states listed are impacted for Biochemistry/Chemistry so if you take a look at the following link, he might want to apply to a few non-impacted programs for solid safety schools.
https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf
He might want to also look at University of the Pacific and Occidental.
Thank you!
Where might I be able to find out what the average index of a student accepted to San Diego State for example is? I know he wants to stay in California, but can you suggest any other good schools, within his reach, up the West Coast? Trying to get him to look out of state too. Perhaps on the WUE program.
SDSU does not publish their EI’s unlike SJSU. Last year, around a 4200+ was competitive for SDSU. Much depends upon the stats of each year’s Biochem majors and EI’s can fluctuate from year to year. Since SDSU is an impacted campus like CPP, CSUF and CSULB, there are more qualified applicants than spots available so it is best to apply widely.
The 2018 admission numbers are not yet available for SDSU, but for 2017 the Biochem acceptance rate was 44%.
Admitted Student Profile Fall 2017
Freshmen:
Average high school GPA: 3.87 (CSU capped weighted)
Average SAT score: 1241
Average ACT score: 26.8
I cannot make any recommendations in regards to OOS schools except maybe check out Arizona State. Very popular OOS school with HS grads in our area but of course not on the West Coast.
Thank you.
Where were you able to find the acceptance rate by course? Is this available for all Cal States?
Do you know if this is available for Ucs too?
Although his mind is leaning towards BioChemistry, if the acceptance rate is higher in another science, perhaps he would look at that too.
As he has not started any of his applications yet, hopefully soon, can you advise if they ask for 1st choice major, 2nd choice, etc…, undeclared?
Apologies for all the questions,
Only a few CSU’s post their application/admission results. The SDSU information is from last year and they usually post their data around October for the previous year 2018. Here is the 2017 SDSU data but Biochem has a pretty high acceptance rate in comparison to Biology and several of the other majors. Going in as Undeclared is not better odds than selecting Biochem as a major since all majors including Undeclared are impacted at SDSU.
https://asir.sdsu.edu/applications-by-major/
SDSU does not consider alternate majors, so he needs to select one of the majors as his first and only choice even though the CSU application will ask for a 2nd choice/alternate major.
Cal Poly Pomona and San Jose State do consider alternate majors.
For the UC’s, some are very transparent such as UCI and others such as UCD are not. Also UC’s do not all admit by major. Much depends upon where the preferred major is housed at each UC. Biochemistry is in the College of Biological Sciences at UCD so applicants are admitted by College so he will be competing with all the Biology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology etc… applicants and Biological Sciences is impacted at UCD.
UC Santa Cruz does not admit by major except for Engineering applicants.
UC’s are very GPA focused so here is the admit rates from 2017 based on capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79:
UCB: 1.8%
UCLA: 2.2%
UCSD: 7.2%
UCSB: 10.1%
UCI: 11.1%
UCD: 16.6%
UCSC: 43.8%
UCR: 63.3%
UCM: 88.7%
More helpful information regarding UC application review:
- MERCED
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Very important: Academic GPA, Application essay, Rigor of secondary school record, Standardized test scores -
Important: Class rank, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability -
Considered: Character/personal qualities, First generation college student, Geographical residence, Level of applicant's interest, Recommendations, State residency, Volunteer work, Work experience -
Note: Academic record and test scores determine eligibility.
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RIVERSIDE
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Very important: Academic GPA, Application essay, Rigor of secondary school record, Standardized test scores -
Considered: Character/personal qualities, Extracurricular activities, First generation college student, State residency, Talent/ability, Volunteer work, Work experience -
Note: A fixed weight point system comprehensive review model that culminates in an Academic Index Score to determine admission for incoming freshmen.
- SANTA CRUZ
- Very important: Academic GPA, Application essay, Rigor of secondary school record, Standardized test scores, State residency
- Important: Character/personal qualities, Extracurricular activities, First generation college student, Geographical residence, Talent/ability
- Considered: Volunteer work, Work experience
- Note: Test scores, GPA in required subjects most important. Personal statement very important.
- Admission Selection: Important Note for Prospective Engineering Students: Choice of major does not influence the selection of first-year students, except for those applicants interested in a major offered by the Jack Baskin School of Engineering (BSOE). Freshmen who are interested in a BSOE program should be sure to indicate a BSOE proposed major. Students who do not indicate a BSOE program or who apply as undeclared might not be able to pursue a BSOE program.
Thank you!
@Gumbymom , @NCalRent Thank you both for your help with colleges to target. My son was accepted to 8 colleges:
UCR
CSUF
CPP
Whitman College (WA)
Colorado Boulder (Honors)
Colorado State ( with invitation to apply to HURS research program, which excited him as its guaranteed research from entry to school)
University of Arizona
ASU
Any help choosing best school for research opportunities would be greatly appreciated. He hopes to go into research as a career.
Congrats!
For many, net price is a good way to weed out a couple. I am not an ASU fan due to the size and location of the main campus but, it may be perfect for your son.
Assuming they are all equally affordable, I’d visit each of them while school is in session. Spend some extra time on campus, talk to some students in his major about their experience. You may be able to sit in on a couple of classes - take a peek at the lecture halls they use for lower div courses and consider how your son will tackle a difficult math class in that environment.
I don’t have a good sense for the level of access to research for undergrads in bio-chem at any of the schools. I’d think it is most available somewhere that offers a PHD in the subject but, that’s a guess.
I’d caution that most students change majors more than once so, think about the overall student experience more than the single topic opportunities. Keep an open mind and your decision will probably be self evident.
Thank you again for your helpful suggestions.
@Scot2001 has your son made a decision as to where he will commit yet?
@emmam01 He has narrowed it down to UC Riverside and Colorado State University. Most likely it will be UC Riverside, but he would really consider Colorado State if he was accepted into the Honors Undergraduate Research Scholars program (HURS). HURS guarantees reasearch from freshman year.
@Scot2001 On a different note, tell your son to be wary of any premed majors. Salaries are depressed in all of those fields since schools churn out so many graduates that can’t get into medical school. Before committing he should carefully study the job market, and have some kind of plan in place for graduate school.
@damon30 He has no interest in going premed; he wishes to have a career in infectious diseases research or something similar. So, he plans on doing a PhD.
UC Riverside alumnus here…congrats on his acceptance! Biochemistry program very good…a popular major at UCR. The fastest growing UC for a reason that still has a “personal touch” that many other UC’s lack with a collaborative learning experience.
Thank you! He is very excited to be going there. And yes, when we visited he was most impressed with the feeling that it was the most nurturing and collaborative of all the UC Schools.