Coursework
10 APs total: AP computer science A (5), AP physics 1 (4), APUSH (5), AP calc bc (5), AP physics C (5), AP lit, AP stats, AP chem, AP spanish, AP gov
Awards
bunch of science fair stuff:
4th place grand award at ISEF in bioinformatics
best of biophysics at california state science fair
ACM grand prize for best computing project
grand prize (best project) at regional fair
1st place regional fair
2nd place regional fair
IBM award for best computing project
team robotics awards:
4th place regionals
engineering design award
2nd place regionals
other:
national merit semifinalist (1470)
presidential service award gold
STEM recognition from mayor
posted on biophysics newsletter, spoke at ACM conference
Extracurriculars
only high school student intern at the UCLA CNSI lab (2 yrs)
president/founder of culinary science club (work with district/mayor to improve food options at school, community)
drummer for jazz band
business lead for robotics
events director for programming club
nhs
tutor people at school classes
Essays/LORs/Other
chem teacher rec (8.5-9/10)
lit teacher (8/10)
ucla professor (10/10)
essays in decent shape, really enjoy writing
Schools
Safety/Likely: ucsb, uw seattle, uc irvine, ucsc, cal poly slo
What is your budget? What have your parents told you that they can comfortably afford to pay?
Are you sure neither of them has gone to college anywhere in the world?
What about at the other private schools on your list?
The schools you have listed as “safety / likely” are test blind, so they won’t see your strong SAT score. They should be moved up at least to the target category and some may be reaches (since you are applying for CS), but you will want to calculate the UC GPAs to get a better sense of your chances. You’ll want to add at least one true safety school to your list (unless you are planning on using UC Merced as a safety).
You will likely be a competitive candidate at the schools on your list, but CS has a low acceptance rate at a number of your schools. I don’t think any of your safety schools are safeties, so lock down an affordable safety first.
UW CS likely has the lowest admit rate of any of your schools on the list, CS OOS was 3% for OOS students (class of 2025), so that’s a definite reach.
You are an accomplished and very qualified applicant but so are many of the applicants to these schools. Your EC’s are excellent and you need to spend plenty of time perfecting your essays to help you stand out.
The UC’s are highly unpredictable especially since going test blind. They will consider all 3 of your UC GPA’s so please calculate and repost. UCSC should go into the Target Category. UCSB and UCI should in the High Target/Low Reach Category along with UCSD.
Here is the UC admit rate based on the capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific. CS is one of the most competitive majors at all the UC’s expect the admit rates to be much much lower than the overall posted.
Campus
4.20+
3.80-4.19
3.40-3.79
3.00-3.39
Berkeley
30%
11%
2%
1%
Davis
85%
55%
23%
10%
Irvine
60%
31%
14%
1%
Los Angeles
29%
6%
1%
0%
Merced
97%
98%
96%
89%
Riverside
97%
92%
62%
23%
San Diego
72%
25%
2%
0%
Santa Barbara
73%
28%
4%
1%
Santa Cruz
91%
81%
46%
9%
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation with an 8 semester Honors point cap. CS had around a 9% acceptance rate for 2021 admits so Cal Poly SLO should go in the Reach category.
UCLA admit rate for CS in 2021 was 8.3%
UCB’s admit rate for the College of Engineering was around 7%. If applying for EECS, it was 4.5%
CS in the College of Letters and Sciences was 2.9%.
UCI’s 2021 admit rate for CS was 7.1%.
No admit rate data for CS at UCSB but historical data show around a 6-8% admit rate.
I see no true safety on your list. UCM as suggested should be applied to directly for CS since many ELC referrals will be locked out of the popular/competitive majors. UC Riverside or possibly Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach and depending upon your impaction threshold San Jose State are good likely options.
You need to re-examine your list since it is very Reach heavy or you may be shut out.
I messed up, misinterpreted 1st-gen lol my parents both went to college. My capped UC gpa is 4.13, and yeah my counselor also told me about uw as a reach bc of oos so likely not applying there. but have also been told i have decent shot at ed duke, rice, washu?? but want to rea stanford instead
How can you have a 4.2 with that many AP classes? I assume a lot of the other ones were honors?
Anyway, I agree. CS at those schools are tough. I might be tempted to just go with chemistry for all of them.
Did your counselor tell you that information?
If so then it is likely valid, as they know the pool you are in . Though you should clarify what they mean by “decent” shot.
Those schools have ED so in general there is more boost for ED vs Regular than REA for Regular, but all are typically reaches for the majority of applicants. Unless you are in the top X% rank-wise in a school that sends on average significantly more than X% to a certain group of schools.
First of all, your ECs are really excellent, but your GPA and test score are on the lower side for an asian. Can you improve your test scores? Also, try to improve GPA during senior year.
I recommend applying as a chemistry major (and skip CS since that makes it more competitive).
Your college list is not well balanced. It has too many Reach colleges and hardly any match or safety (your understanding of reach/match/safety) is incorrect. Ideally - the ratio of colleges should be - "reach: match: safety should be 3-4: 3-4: 3-4 " with total colleges being 10-12 in number. Add far reach but that to another 2-3, so the total is 14-15
Applying to so many same type of schools doesn’t make sense – for example applying to more same type of schools doesn’t increase your chance of admission. You have too many far reach, reach schools including UC’s
My recommendation is to pick couple from reach and apply ED1, ED2. If you apply REA to Stanford, you cannot apply ED to any other private colleges. Getting into Stanford is not going to be easy. Also, this will enable you to apply ED1 and ED2 to two colleges where you will have better chance. You can choose either northwestern or JHU or Duke. Add colleges with ED2 like UChicago. You have a better chance of standing out there.
Remove CMU, Keep UW and add Arizona State. Apply to only 2-3 instate UC colleges and other CA state schools and other colleges like UW, Arizona and USC as EA (early action).
Move Stanford, Harvard, (also Columbia) to RD round. If you get into ED1, ED2 schools, you can skip these.
My strategy is to reduce risk while still giving you a good chance of admission to good colleges
Although UCs are test blind, your Nat’l Merit award informs them that you test high. Your accomplishments and record are great. Look into whether you’re more likely to get into your other reaches applying with a less competitive major, if the Comp Sci that you really intend to do has a pathway into the major, even if you entered not declared as a Comp Sci major.
I think that you will be able to get into an affordable school close to you, but you might want to consider some other OOS public powerhouses in Comp Sci. I think that UMass Amherst would probably accept you with honors and highest OOS merit award, which would bring your cost down to the low 40’s, if you don’t need health insurance.
This is not a widely accepted, nor practiced strategy…the ratio/total number of apps is unique to each applicant and depends on their circumstances. There is often very little reason to apply to 4 safeties.
This is not good advice. OP has a 1540 and is NMSF, there is no reason for OP to spend a minute of additional time on testing.
If the idea is only to maximize chances of getting into a “prestigious” university, then maybe but I would strongly caution against this. OP should follow their true interest.
Would OP be happy enrolling (if admitted) at one of these over any other choices? Seems like not, as OP seems to strongly prefer Stanford.
Again, unless this is a pure prestige hunt I wouldn’t consider Chicago a top CS or Chem school.
OP’s chances at these schools will be quite a bit lower in RD vs ED/REA.
I think OP will do better picking their top choice and applying REA or ED there while also applying EA to other top public schools.
In terms of what you are asking, my main concern is to make sure that you are really applying to safeties, and that you are taking your budget into account (a school is only a “safety” if you are sure that you can afford to go there).
However, something stood out in your post that I wonder about:
After you graduate from university, do you want to work as a chemist, or as a software engineer? These are quite different.
Why would you want a different major at Stanford? The Stanford web sites states: “When you apply to Stanford, you apply to the university as a whole, not to a particular major, department or school”. I do not think that your chances of admission will be impacted by which major you select (and yes you are competitive at Stanford, and yes it is a high reach).