Maybe?
You are going to see a lot of kids going to UCs at any bay area high school. However, what you donāt necessarily see, until your kid and their friends are receiving their results, is that lots of kids with great GPAs (above average for the UCs of interest) do not necessarily get into the UCs they wanted. The UCs can be unpredictable! Weāre in the bay area too; my son knows some very accomplished kids who didnāt put much effort into the safety / likely section on their college lists, and will be attending UC Merced, or community college, or taking a gap year. (Not that thereās anything wrong with Merced, etcā¦ but itās not at all what these kids were expecting.)
For CA kids, because UC admissions are unpredictable, it can often be helpful to find a few great safety / likely schools outside of CA. You donāt need a million of themā¦ but do find somewhere that you would be happy to attend, preferably a school that notifies applicants early in the admissions season, so that you arenāt in limbo waiting until the CA schools notify you in mid to late March.
UCB doesnāt have feeder schools, and seems to be admitting fewer kids from the immediate bay area in recent years, compared to previous years. Hereās a lengthy article from Berkeleyside about UCB and Berkeley High, for example: Berkeley High was once Calās biggest feeder school but not anymore
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I was thinking USC given the profile. Thanks for mentioning.
OP - any reason you chose Cornell and UPenn (where an ED is likely a must). You spoke about willing to have geographic flexibility - Iām wondering why these two or only these two ? What about them vs Duke or Hopkins or others? Have you been to those two?
From what I understand, cognitive science is interdisciplinary and may have different focuses at different schools. So Iād encourage you to look beyond a name and at curriculums. Also realize this degree, to work in the field, grad school may be in the offing.
I would triple check each of interest offered by schools - not just the programs but the depth and breadth of offering. Other CA schools who offer according to US News are Stanford, UCLA, UCB, UCI, UCSD, UCSC, UCM, Fresno State, Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, Occidental, CSU Stanislaus.
I could see a Pitzer (low reach) or Occidental (likely) being a nice fit.
But again, check depth and breadth of curriculum at each. And you might find other schools with same same content under a different name.
Great student but when we hear of kids getting into UCB but rejected at SDSU - weāll - you just have to be prepared on the lower end.
You are guaranteed Merced; very, very likely for Riverside; also very likely for Santa Cruz. If you are good with those choices, then you are in a fantastic position and there is no reason to stress. You will definitely go to a UC, if thatās what your goal is. So you can relax - everything else will just be icing on the cake.
Yes, you do have a strong shot at the middle UCs. But again, if youād be good with UCM, UCR, and UCSC, then icing on the cake.
There are no official agreement between the UCs and various high schools, although it does often appear that some schools are serving as quasi āfeedersā into various UC. I recall last year there was a thread on CC about whether the UCs have geographical preference, school preference, etc. My Dās school also has a high acceptance rate to UCB (higher than the state average), so it does make you wonder. But still, thereās nothing official there. Probably just AOs are more familiar with certain schools and/or have tracked success rates of students from certain schools and therefore have a slight preference for those schools? But this is just speculation.
Well, you can verify that here:
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You have great stats, as others have said. Weāre also based in the Bay Area at a competitive public high school that sends a ton of kids to UCs.
My D22 with similar stats (and a very different thread of ECs) applied to Berkeley, UCLA and UCSBāthese were her only CA schools as she was initially thinking about going out of state. She was admitted to UCLA and UCSB, rejected at Berkeley. Her group of friends, all great students, had a mixed set of results but all had a well-ranked UC to choose from. Many noted that very few were accepted to both UCLA and Berkeleyāusually it was one of the other. Of course that isnāt planned, but with such low acceptance rates maybe itās no surprise.
Kids looking to stay in CA should definitely apply to some CSUsāSDSU, Cal Poly, Long Beach are popular for kids in my kidsā high school). And then Occidental, Chapman, LMU, Santa Clara, Pitzer, Scripps, USD, ,fill in for targets and safety choicesāall fine schools with lots to offer (and merit aid.Youāll be fineāyou have a lot to offer! Just make sure you do some research and apply broadly. And you might be surprised by all that is out there.
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Yep! I just put cognitive science as my first choice major, but Iām definitely looking to get into CS/AI so I was probably thinking of just majoring in computer science at UCSB and UCR. Thanks for the heads up!
haha sorry, typing fast. I meant UC Santa Cruz.
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Got it! I havenāt heard of Vassar college, and havenāt really delved deep into liberal arts colleges but Iāll definitely look into all the ones you listed. Thanks so much!
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, Iāve heard that the UCs can be pretty unpredictable. Iāll definitely look into adding more target/safety schools to my list, especially ones outside of CA.
I really appreciate your feedback!
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For reference here are the CS admit rates for the UCās and some CSUās. What the data does not show overall how competitive the applicants are for the CS major, since all the schools admit into the major and many are difficult to impossible to switch into later after being accepted.
2022 CS admit rates if available
| Campus | CS |
|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 2.9%-L&S EECS-4.5% |
| UC Davis | No data but <20% |
| UC Irvine | 5.8% |
| UCLA | 3.8% |
| UC Merced | 85% |
| UC Riverside | 36% |
| UC San Diego | No data but <10% |
| UC Santa Barbara | No data Historically 5-6% |
| UC Santa Cruz | 60% |
| Cal Poly SLO | 9% |
| Cal State Long Beach | 54% |
| San Diego State | 40% |
| San Jose State | 31% |
I am pretty flexible with geographical location (pretty much anything but the hard south). I was just thinking about Cornell because of I visited its campus (really gorgeous!), and UPenn was recommended by my parents as a really good option for both its prestige and programs. But Iām totally open to more schools.
I am well aware that I might have to attend grad school, thatās something Iāve definitely thought about and have taken into consideration.
Iāll definitely take a look at those schools you provided. Again, thanks for all your insight, itās greatly appreciated.
Yep! If anything I was just really hoping on UCSC as a fallback (campus is really gorgeous!). Really hoping for those middle-top UCs though. Thanks for the reassurance.
As for the Berkeley thing, that was just poor wording on my part lol, I think my school just has a higher admit rate due to its geographical location and proximity to UCB.
Thanks for all your feedback and advice!
Haha the bay area and the UCs are tough. Iāll definitely look into CSUs and more of the options youāve listed. Iāve realized I probably need to broaden my horizons lol.
Thank you for all the compliments and I really appreciate your insight!
Got it! Thank you!
As of now, if I get in as a cognitive science major, I donāt believe Iām planning to switch. But thereās always a degree of uncertainty so this is especially helpful.
Thanks again for all the organized statistics!
I imagine ucsc happens. But if the āother two ā UCs are a no go, hereās a close to CA - almost as close to So Cal as No Cal is. I realize youāre from No Cal but am easy flight.
It wasnāt on the US News list of 49 offering the major but youād get $30k off.
Perhaps Oregon schools offer too if youād consider them moreso the the three safety UCs.
Got it! Iāll keep tabs on the University of Arizona. I donāt know if Iām too interested in the location but maybe the program will win me over. Thanks for the recommendation!
As lkg4answers noted, it would be helpful to elaborate on which aspects of CogSci interest you most. For exampleā¦
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UCLA has a CS+Linguistics major in Letters & Science that might appeal if those areas are of greater interest than the bio/neuroscience/psych side.
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Occidentalās CogSci major is more psych-heavy
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For CS-heavy programs, look at the CogSci majors Carnegie Mellon and RPI, as well as the Khoury joint majors at Northeastern: (CS or Data Science) + (Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, or Linguistics). Penn has gotten rid of the Computer & Cognitive Science major in the engineering school, but has a CogSci concentration within CSCI in addition to the CAS BA in CogSci.
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Pomonaās CogSci major lives in a joint CogSci & Linguistics department, so itās strong on the Linguistics side but also well-rounded, with its own CogSci core in addition to strong offerings in CS, psych, neuroscience, philosophy, and even Human-Centered Design (via Harvey Mudd classes). Scripps, Pitzer, and CMC students can also declare the Pomona CogSci major. (Of these Scripps and CMC have more merit opportunities than Pitzer, if that matters - Pomona gives no merit at all.)
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USC has multiple tracks within CogSci - emphasis in Psychology, Language, Philosophy, or CS - so thereās a lot of flexibility there, and great music opportunities for nonmajors, too.
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Vassar has a strong and well-rounded CogSci department.
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URochesterās Brain & Cognitive Sciences major could be worth a look; their flexible curriculum lends itself to interdisciplinary pursuits, and it could be a terrific place for you musically.
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Another West Coast option (with fairly predictable admissions, and you seem very well qualified) would be UBC in Vancouver About Cognitive Systems | Cognitive Systems Program
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UC-wise, UCSDās CogSci program is the most robust, with multiple tracks and tons of research activity. Make sure you consider which residential college has the distribution requirements that you like the best - donāt do this as an afterthought when youāre done with the application. http://compare.ucsd.edu/
Good luck - I think itās likely that youāll have good options in the UC system, and if you add more CA privates and maybe UBC, I donāt see a reason that youād have to leave the west coast; but there might be a few east coast programs that could entice you to do so.
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Wow! Thank you for such a detailed response.
I am definitely leaning more towards the CS/AI portion of cognitive science. Iāve been thinking about branching out however, so this organized list is really helpful for me. Iāll do more research into the specifics of each program and make sure itās exactly what I want.
Thank you again for taking the time out of your day to provide such a detailed and organized list. Research has been really stressful so I cannot thank you enough.
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You need to check course enrollment policies at your schools of interest if you want to take AI courses as a Cogsci major. At most places these courses are in demand and often reserved for people taking cs or data science.
For instance, at UCSC CogSci majors can only enroll in upper div cs courses in 2nd pass. At UCB, you canāt enroll in AI or ML upper divs. So do extensive research on whatās feasible at each school.
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Got it! Iāll take a look at that. Thanks for that information, I wasnāt aware courses were prioritized for different majors.