LOL “not mind”. CS at Cornell is intense. It is not a program that you wander into and hang out for a few years. And, the grad school student experience is very different than the UG experience. 100% do not apply there ED w/o a thorough visit- as in, sit in on a class, ideally stay a night on campus, certainly talk to current CS students.
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I would say your UC GPA’s look competitive but plenty of CS applicants with your stats did not get into their choice UC’s this year. UCI, UCSD and UCSB consider alternate majors so select a less competitive major as an alternate. Data Science is an option for UCI and UCSB. DS is a capped major at UCSD like CS so Math-CS or Applied Math are better options.
Ask her which label is more important to her: “Top 10 for CS” or “Ivy”. The two lists are not the same.
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You have an excellent profile and you will be a competitive applicant everywhere, however, that doesn’t always translate to lots of acceptances. I think you have a good chance at UW Madison - my son has two friends headed there next year for CS (we are OOS) with slightly lower stats/ECs . I’d look to add more likely/safety choices because, unfortunately, a lot of your choices are unlikely just because of the number of highly qualified kids they turn away every year. Also, don’t apply to all the Ivies just to please your parents - many of them aren’t nearly as good for CS as other schools on your list and it will be hard to put together compelling applications to all 8.
For OOS applicants, only AP/IB or DE courses that are UC transferable will be given the “honors” point bump in the UC GPA calculation.
UC’s offer little in terms of merit scholarships. Regents is the main merit scholarship offered by the UC’s. As an OOS applicant, you are expected to be full pay. UC’s offer great financial aid to in-state CA students but not OOS or International.
These are the UC Regent’s amounts:
- UC Berkley $2,500
- UC Davis $7,500
- UC Irvine $5,000
- UCLA $2,000
- UC Merced $7,000
- UC Riverside $10,000
- UC San Diego $2,000
- UC Santa Barbara $5,000
- UC Santa Cruz $5,000
Your Match UC’s would be UC Santa Cruz, Riverside and Merced. For OOS, your chances are higher for all the UC’s since you are in a different admission pool, but it is really worth $268K to attend a UC? I have just finished reviewing some Freshman appeal essays for UCB and UCLA and your profile is very similar to these applicants which are all denied for CS this year.
There is no reason not to apply to the UC’s, just be aware of the costs involved and instead I would target schools where merit would be possible. I would look at Santa Clara University as a possible Match and they offer merit. USC although a Reach with merit would make it a better deal than the UC’s.
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Remember that prospective CS majors often find admission much more difficult than those aiming for other majors, because CS is filled to capacity at many colleges. At one state university in California that admits by major using recalculated (with limited weighting – weighted capped) HS GPA plus a small number of bonus points for specific situations, many majors admitted frosh applicants with 2.6 HS GPA, while the threshold for CS was 4.35 HS GPA.
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A student from Oregon may want to look into the WUE rate at UC Merced.
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Will she refuse to help pay for college if you attend one that does not meet her prestige requirements (e.g. Oregon State)?
I do not work in a college admissions office nor am I a college counselor. My opinions are just that, the opinions of one random person on the internet. My guesses are based on a combination of factors. The first is the school’s overall admissions rate. The vast majority of the schools you’re applying to have very low admit rates (sub-10%). Most students only apply if they think they have a legitimate shot at being accepted. So you’re not competing with students with a 2.8 GPA and a 23 ACT; these are almost all students with very high stats, extracurriculars, leadership, etc. And someone in a different thread put it very well. Having low stats can keep people out, but having high stats doesn’t put you in. It just keeps you in contention to be selected. There are students with 4.0 unweighted GPAs with lots of rigor and 1600 SATs who are not accepted to these schools.
Computer science is arguably the most competitive major out there. That makes admissions to CS programs at schools that admit by major very competitive among many of the “top” programs. At UC-Berkeley, students with your weighted GPA going for EECS (direct entry) have no more than an 21.4% chance of admittance (21.4% is for the College of Engineering, but I am positive that EECS is likely the most competitive major within that college). That means that almost 80% of the students with your GPA are being denied, and the UC schools don’t consider standardized test scores.
Even if you’re applying to a school that doesn’t admit by major, they still have a lot of people who want to major in CS. But colleges don’t want to be made up entirely of CS majors. They want people to major in other sciences, humanities, arts, social sciences, etc. They want a balanced group. This does not mean that it’s impossible for you to get in; it just means that the odds aren’t great, and you need to be prepared for various contingency plans.
If you haven’t already, take a look at some of the admissions results threads for the schools you’re interested in. There are some amazing applicants who got in. There were also a lot of amazing applicants who did not get in. It’s less to do with the applicants and more that schools have huge pools of highly qualified students and they pick the ones that meet their institutional priorities. Once they have enough of a certain type of student, they stop admitting them, even if there are tons more highly qualified individuals. (Type could be based on many different factors, including major, location, ethnicity, gender, particular extracurricular interest, etc.)
If I had to guess, I think you’ll probably get into at least a couple of your reaches. But that is a guess, and nothing I would bet money on. Thus, I would include some schools where you are likelier for admission.
However, UCs also do not use recommendations, so applying to UCs would remove both a strength (SAT score) and weakness (recommendations) from the OP’s application.
Still, UCB EECS should be considered a reach.
Important!
I recently discovered WUE. For applicants living in western US states, this can open up a large number of other schools than just in-state in terms of better tuition rates.
I would say the L&S admission process did change this year. The unfortunate consequence appears to be those putting CS-intended were significantly reduced, while others (that can declare CS) were not. Further changes seem likely. Nevertheless, I would say not to count on these numbers if intending to do CS via L&S.
Another factor that you- and your family & friends- need to be aware of: the acceptance rates for many selective programs were dropping sharply even before the pandemic. Schools that were ‘matches’ for the first Collegekid (HS class of 2012) were clearly ‘reaches’ for the last Collegekid (HS class of 2020) (and ‘reasonable reaches’ became lottery tickets) despite comparable levels of achievement. We tend to pigeon-hole colleges at certain levels in our mind, based on who we know that has gone there-but that can be deeply misleading these days.
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I’m just posting to say I love how polite your replies are, OP, and how you seem to be very willing to listen to the advice you’re getting. We don’t always see that with ‘chance me’ posts on this site!
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Hi, thanks for the reply again.
You may want to get insight from your guidance counselor about which teachers to ask.
What exactly is the sort of insight I should be asking for?
I’d highly recommend visiting before committing an ED application.
Do you think that a virtual experience would be authentic enough? I already have plans over this summer so I am fairly sure I wouldn’t have time for an in-person visit. @collegemom3717 I was wondering if you had any thoughts on this too.
I’d encourage you to look at the 4 year plans of study when researching schools.
I’ll keep this in mind
For a match, look at schools like RPI.
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll definitely be sure to keep this school in mind
Overall, thanks for helping out so much, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.
Hey, thanks for the reply again.
I really appreciate all of this major advice. I’ve heard about how there are really similar alternatives to CS, so I’ll definitely have to take some time looking into these.
As for your post about the scholarships, I appreciate all of the information, however, as I stated before tuition is not really my biggest problem. It is a consideration, but not one of my top ones. But you’re right, not to come off as cocky, but if I’m being honest, aside from UCSD, UCLA, or UCB for CS, I have a stronger inclination toward OSU due to a combination of factors. I just heard that the UC application works for all UC schools so I thought I’d apply to multiple, as all of the programs are relatively strong.
And before anyone tells me to not waste my parents’ money, my mom has put a minimum college application cost for me, believe it or not, haha.
Anyways, again, thank you so much for the statistics and you have no idea how grateful I am for all of this advice.
Hey, thanks for the replies.
I am aware of the contrast between majors and have taken it into consideration. However, all of my friends and family who made it in were going into CS/CE, so this doesn’t really apply to my experiences.
I’ve actually looked at that before, however, UC Merced isn’t on my radar for a couple of reasons.
OSU is the only college that she will pay for unless it is T20 overall or T20 CS.
Thanks for trying to help, if I didn’t know that information already I’m sure it would’ve helped a lot. Nonetheless, thanks for taking the time to help out.
Hi, thanks for replying.
What you say is very true, I guess I should’ve chosen to be born earlier haha. I’ll definitely keep that in mind when comparing myself to friends who’ve gone to competitive colleges. Just out of curiosity though, how recent do you think would be an accurate representation? For example, my cousin got into Purdue 4 years ago, if I compare myself to her, would I get an accurate representation of my chances to get into there? Of course, as everyone else has said, essays and LoRs make a big part of the admission process but assuming I can write essays as well as her, do you think I’d get an accurate representation of my admission chances by comparing myself with her?
Thanks!
Hi!
Thanks for the compliment! I’m trying my hardest to not come off as abrasive, and if I do, I don’t mean it. When it comes to things that I am aware that I am much less knowledgeable about I like to stay humble. Like there are parents who’ve sent multiple kids to high-level colleges and there even seems to be an admissions officer/college consultant here. With all that experience I am sure you guys know much more than me, and I’m really grateful that all these experienced people are here to help me.
Again, thanks, it made me happy to see this comment 
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You seriously will want to visit this school when you can as you will want time to visit other schools as well. Cornell ED does increase your chances but make sure you’d be happy to go there.