Chance a CS major for UCB, Princeton, and UCLA?

Chance Me / Match Me!
21

My EA list ended up being Caltech, MIT, UIUC, Purdue and UMich Ann Arbor.

I plan to apply RD to the following 10 schools:

  • Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton because they’re restrictive EA
  • UCs, USC, Cal Poly SLO, San Jose State Uni, and UT Austin because they don’t do early at all
  • Rice and Duke because they only have ED

I’ll split my colleges into Safety, Match, Reach, and Super High Reach below.

Safety
– UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, SJSU

Match
– UC Davis, Cal Poly SLO, USC, UTAustin, UMich, UIUC, Purdue*, UCSD (@ucbalumnus @penguin2 I get that CS is super competitive but based on resumés from CS girls from my school in the last few years, I think the last two are a match for me)

Reach
– UC Berkeley, UCLA, Rice, Duke

Super High Reach
– Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Caltech, MIT

The ones with asterisks* are those I’ve already applied to.
If I stick with this complete list, I have 15 schools and 24 if I count each UC separately. Obviously this is way too big, so if anyone has any RD schools (especially those in Reach or Super High Reach) that they think I should cut based on my credentials above, please let me know!

22

Only one comment: UCSB would be a Match not a safety for CS.

23

As an out of state applicant applying for CS, I would put UTAustin, UMich, UIUC, and Purdue all in the reach category albeit not as reachy as the other schools on your list.

24

UT Austin and UMich are reaches for OOS , UIUC is a reach for CS, and USC is a reach for everybody (assuming you mean U Southern Cal)

Cal Poly SLO may not be a match either.

Duke is also a super high reach.

However the issue I noticed was that you didn’t report the scores of subject SATs

MIT and Caltech require them, Princeton and Harvard require, unless you are low income and those tests would be a financial hardship for you, and Duke strongly recommends at least one for applicants to their colleges of engineering.

25

@MWolf I was worried about clutter and didn’t think posting SAT subject test scores here would help or hurt how my profile’s viewed, since they’re pretty in line with my APs.
Math 2 - 800
Physics - 800
Chem - 780

26

@Gumbymom @momofsenior1 @MWolf
Jeez I overestimated my safety-match-reach-superHighReach categorizations a lot. I’ve redone the list according to your advice.

???
-UC Merced

  • UC Riverside
  • UC Santa Cruz
  • SJSU
    ???
  • UC Davis
  • UC Santa Barbara
    ???
  • Cal Poly SLO
  • ???
  • UTAustin
  • UMich AA*
  • UIUC*
  • Purdue*
  • UCSD
  • UC Berkeley
  • UCLA
  • ???
    ??? ??? ???
  • Duke
  • Stanford
  • ???
  • Princeton
  • Caltech*
  • MIT*

The italicized schools (USC, Rice, and Harvard) are the schools I’m now considering cutting based on the tuition and reachiness.
Any recommendations on anything to add to match or take from reach?

27

Have you calculated your MCA points for Cal Poly SLO? They use 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation with an 8 semester honors cap for Honors courses taken 10-11th grade.

Here is the MCA Calculator link and you want an MCA point score of 4900+.

https://mca.netlify.com/

28

I would say that your list looks good, and while I don’t know whether you’ll be accepted into any of the super high reaches, I would not be surprised if you are accepted into at least a few of your reaches.

Considering your interests, you are likely cutting the right ones.

For further matches, i would propose Wisconsin, UMN Twin Cities, UMass Amherst, OSU, in fact, any of the Big 10 except Michigan and UIUC. The only question is whether you can afford OOS tuition, though some of them will provide good merit money, for which I think that you are eligible.

Also, with a Rensselaer Medal, you may want to consider applying to RPI.

29

@Gumbymom My MCA score according to that is 4929, so I barely scraped by. There wasn’t a metric on it for honors or AP courses though, so maybe the actual calculator factors those? That would probably boost my score, but that’s ok.

@MWolf I’ll look into OSU and UMass as possible other matches, but for a match I’d wanted to stay in state if possible, so I’ll also take a look at U San Diego. OOS tuition is a problem, and my parents are only willing to pay 60K+ if it’s definitely worth it. If I don’t get a scholarship, I’d go to UCDavis over UTAustin. The only exceptions are really the super high reaches I listed.

And for RPI, the only problem I have with it is the recent backlash over its travel program. It’s otherwise affordable thanks to the medal.

30

@penguin2:
Your AP/Honors courses are weighted in the SLO GPA calculation but unfortunately that is capped at 8 semesters, so you are penalized in their GPA calculation for having higher HS rigor.

High school course rigor is determined by the # of semesters for each a-g course requirement category. Did you include any Math classes (Algebra/Geometry) or Foreign Language classes from Middle school in the # of semesters listed?

31

@Gumbymom I didn’t include any middle school classes, but I did include community college courses that I took in high school. A question about that, by the way. I took Stats and Physics EM and Mech at a local CC, and each course took a semester by the college timeframe to complete. But since they would be full length 2 semester courses had I taken them in a high school, does it count as one or two semesters each?

32

College courses for the CSU’s and UC’s count as 2 semesters for HS purposes. You input the grade received twice on the CSU application. And 2 extra honors points for the GPA calculation.
For the UC’s, you input the grade once for each semester and you get 1 extra honors point in the UC GPA calculation.

33

Your numbers, experiences, and focused interests are incredible! I personally think you may be a top tier candidate for all of these schools. Personally, I would focus on the non academic/extracurricular side of things now. What are your values? What do you do when not worried about what colleges what? Do you have a passion for a musical artist or TV show? I think your STEM work is phenomenal and undeniably strong. You will be at the top of the spectrum in academics and work. But a liberal arts school like Princeton values your philosophical decisions. What was the meaning behind your community service? What is your life goal with robotics/comp sci/STEM? Do you want to solve a problem in the world by inventing something?

Personally I would make your essay connect your high school experiences with your “Why I do these things” and then relate them to a long term specific goal (Ex. I’m an International Relations major and mine was wanting to change healthcare/mental health policy in the world) of the difference you want to make. I personally think that would give you the best hook at those kinds of schools and show your identity in a more unique way.

34

“If I stick with this complete list, I have 15 schools and 24 if I count each UC separately. Obviously this is way too big, so if anyone has any RD schools (especially those in Reach or Super High Reach) that they think I should cut based on my credentials above, please let me know!”

A lot would depend on your EA results, if you get into any of your EA , then you can drop a whole lot of schools. Assuming you get deferred to all of them then, I would cut a few UCs - UCR, Merced, esp if you think SJSU and Santa Cruz are safeties. I’d probably drop UT-Austin, Duke, Rice, and one of Harvard/Princeton. If you get into any of your EA schools, then you can drop Santa Cruz, Davis, UCSB and just keep SJSU if you need it for cost.

Also Cal Poly and USC may be more matches than reaches.

35

Good luck with wherever you end up going! Remember that it’s what you do with your major and not the school that matters.

36

With that being said, while you prepare for getting these results back, try not to be set on one school. With your stats as they are, admissions are really random and you may very well be disappointed if you get rejected to your top choice school. All your schools are of similar standing in how they’ll teach CS and how companies recruit from them, so it’s best to not decide on one just yet and be happy wherever you go.

37

@daunt18 Thank you! I’ll keep that in mind. Let us know where you get in later on.

@blondeboynj I split my essays into three categories: robotics, research, and advocacy. For robotics I wrote about teamwork and Girls in STEM. For research I wrote about the thrill of solving real world problems and the delicate nature of overstepping the bounds of AI and how I can relate to that. For advocacy I wrote about my debate and volunteering experience and how I want to use a CS platform to push for change in underprivileged and girl’s exposure to STEM fields. Does that make sense?

@theloniusmonk That is very true, I didn’t think about that. If I get into Purdue or UIUC (I’ve kinda given up on the rest after spending so long on CC), then I can drop all my safeties in the RD round except SJSU. I thought Cal Poly SLO and USC were matches too, does anyone know why they’re reaches? Is it because CS is generally more impacted or is it something specific to those two?

38

SLO’s CS acceptance rate hovers around 5-6% so that is why it should be considered a Reach school.

39

"I thought Cal Poly SLO and USC were matches too, does anyone know why they’re reaches? Is it because CS is generally more impacted or is it something specific to those two? "

For USC, being a NMSF would make it a match.

SLO CS is pretty tough as Gumbymom has posted but I think female CS with 1550 with capped gpa of 4.15, your #1 rank would make it more a match. SLO 75% is 1430 and you’re 120 pts above that. Your HS naviance and GC should give you an accurate picture for SLO (and other colleges as well).

40

@penguin2 As an aside, I’ve been looking at your ECs:

This is one of my favorite ECs on CC.

PS. There are many issues I had with the movie (another story for another time), but I think that the idea of having such a “Society” is great.