Chance/match me as a 3.75 GPA black student in California :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Thanks for checking out my post, I’m currently a junior in high school trying to plan out my last year before apps! Advice for getting into my top schools is greatly appreciated :slight_smile:

Demographics

  • US domestic: US permanent resident
  • State/Location of residency: California (norcal woop woop)
  • Type of high school: slightly competitive public school, around 23 APs offered but average GPA is somewhere in the low 3’s
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Black female (African immigrant)
  • Other special factors: Immigrant, underrepresented minority

Intended Major(s)
Applying undecided, but will probably double-major in CS and IR or bio

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.75/4
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 3.91/5
  • UC GPA: 3.88
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1370 SAT (will be retaking)

Coursework
9 (or 10) APs by the end of senior year, 2 dual enrollment courses (not factored in GPA but I got A’s in both), 2 EDx courses from Harvard and MIT with certificates (CS570 and Calculus).

AP List: Computer Science Principles, English Language and Composition, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Psychology, Statistics, Computer Science A, Literature, Environmental Science (might add AP Spanish)

Awards
AP Scholar with Distinction (probably)

Extracurriculars
Founder and President of Black Student Union
3x published poet
Article published in top news journal
Founder and President of an organization for minority students
Employed (ice cream shop lol)
Student Board Member for my district
President and founder of a school-based think tank
Volunteered at hospital for 2 years

Essays/LORs/Other
I am really confident in my essays, I think they are pretty powerful and I pride myself on being a great writer. One of my essays would also explain the slip I had in grades during sophomore year (I swear I had a justified reason lol).
I have no idea what my recommenders will write but I think the letters will be pretty good but not amazing, the teachers I plan to ask have known me for a while but not especially deeply.

Cost Constraints / Budget
No specific budget, while it would be nice for it to be more affordable, my family is extremely lucky and would be able to cover around $40k/year.

Schools

  • Safety: The lower-tier UCs like Merced and Riverside (eligible for guaranteed admission)
  • Likely: University of Washington, Howard, mid-tier UC’s like UC Davis
  • Match: I feel really bold putting these here but UCLA, USC, NYU, UC Irvine
  • Reach: Harvard, Yale (don’t laugh), Columbia, UC Berkeley, Brown, Princeton

Favorite schools: UC Berkeley, Harvard, UCLA, USC, U of W, Columbia, Yale

Location: Has to be either in California or on the East Coast, and a college near a big city is preferred

Thank you so much for reading all the way, I seriously appreciate it :sob:

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One piece of data that’ll help you see your odds with the UCs will be your “UC GPA”, which you can calculate here (see instructions at the bottom of that page, like only including 10th and 11th grade classes).

I’m not really qualified to give an assessment on your chances, but have seen enough threads here that I can predict that’ll be one of the first follow-ups folks will ask you for.

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My school calculates it and puts it on our transcripts, and I believe it’s a 3.88. Thanks for the feedback, I’ll make sure to add it!

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You have a lot of accomplishments and an interesting profile. I definitely think you are on the path to a successful life.

With that said, however, your list is extremely reach heavy. With the possible exception of UC-Irvine (just because I don’t know the UCs well enough), all of your matches are reaches for even the most highly-qualified students. You have good credentials, but odds are very, very low that you would receive an acceptance.

You also mention that you’re interested in applying undecided and having the opportunity to switch majors. When CS is one of those majors, it becomes really, really tricky. I think that major is at maximum capacity at almost all of the UCs, and at many colleges it is strictly limited and far more competitive than entry as a regular major. U. of Washington, one of your favorites, has about a 3% acceptance rate of out-of-state students to its CS major. So similar in difficulty as to getting into Harvard. U of W is not a likely.

Before I even got to your list I was thinking about Howard for you, which I agree is likely. You may also want to consider Spelman, the women’s HBCU. As part of the Atlanta consortium you can also take classes at Morehouse (the men’s college) and Emory, among others. Alternatively, a very low-price option would be Oglethorpe in Atlanta which is part of that same consortium, but offers a flagship match scholarship to qualified students like yourself. So you could pay UC rates while attending school on the east coast.

UC - San Diego and UC - Santa Barbara have a well-reputed international relations programs and CS. @Gumbymom may be able to give greater insight into how competitive these options will be.

I would take a look at Occidental in Los Angeles. You’d have lots of flexibility with your major and you can tell your parents that Barack Obama went there, too. :slight_smile: You may also want to look at the Claremont Colleges, especially Claremont McKenna and Scripps, the latter of which is a women’s college.

You may want to look at Fordham (NY) and Seton Hall (NJ…right by NYC) as two options where your odds of admission are likelier (Fordham is probably a high match, and Seton Hall a likely or safety, depending on the Net Price Calculator).

Dickinson (PA ) is not by a big metro, but it’s just outside of the capital of Pennsylvania and has a great reputation for international relations.

If you decide to consider the non-coasts, I’d think about Macalester in Minnesota or U. of Denver in Colorado.

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Thank you so so much for your suggestions, they’re really helpful! I’ll certainly be looking into those, a lot of them were colleges I wasn’t even considering before! My heart isn’t really set on computer science, or any major really, so I think I’d be fine as long as the college offers a good range of options and isn’t too difficult to switch majors in. Occidental sounds great too :slight_smile: How difficult do you think it’d be for me to get into UCB/UCLA or U of W (as a non-CS major)? And thanks again, I really appreciate your help!

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In addition to the CS barrier, UW is not likely to come in under 40K/year, even with the maximum OOS merit award.

Northeastern is a university that seems to fit the pattern of schools you like, and it’s particularly good for students interested in combining CS or data science with other fields via their combined majors. NEU stands out in terms of its co-op opportunities, which are particularly good for students who are acquiring computational skills. The CS and data science programs tend to front-load the CS content in the first 3 semesters, so that you have a solid skill-set going into your first co-op placement.

Emory’s QSS major(s) might appeal to you too, and Atlanta has a lot to offer as a student city Error 404 | Emory University | Atlanta GA

Definitely check out the Claremont Colleges, as AustenNut already mentioned. Each college is small, but the consortium is very closely integrated, so in many ways it’s like a mid-sized university with 7000-ish undergrads. There’s no special procedure to cross-register - everything is in one combined portal, and you register the same way whether the class is based at your home college or one of the others. They all meet full need, although each has its own formula so your actual costs would vary.

It’s hard to “chance” you yet for UC’s, because the UC GPA is based on 10th and 11th grade only, so you only have half the grades that will go into that calculation (and fewer than half of the AP/honors weighted classes). The CA publics are test-blind, and do not directly consider race/ethnicity, so GPA ends up being very important.

You might check out the Morrill Scholarship at Ohio State, which can provide up to a full ride. https://odi.osu.edu/msp-about OSU is a huge school, but the Morrill Scholars are a close-knit community with a ton of supports and networking opportunities. Given your interests in community service and in Afrocentric spaces, it could be a good fit and could save a lot of money compared to relying on need-based aid and paying your EFC. They have a particularly good Data Analytics major, with multiple tracks including a Social Science Analytics Specialization. Majoring in Data Analytics | Data Analytics Major

Lots of good options - those are just a few thoughts to start with.

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You have strong accomplishments and will be a competitive candidate at most schools.
You’ve received good advice here already, but I’ll mention a few more things:

  • The RD round at the Ivies is really hard. You may want to consider doing ED or REA at one of them to improve your chances. But - is $40k/yr what your family is comfortable paying or is that the number you got from the net price calculators? If the latter, you’re fine because the Ivies meet need but if it’s the former you’ll have a significant budget gap and may need to take these schools off your list.

  • if you know you want to major in CS and bio why are you applying undecided? If you think it’ll boost your admission chances, that isn’t really true

  • your matches are probably low reaches.

  • you may want to consider Stevens Institute of Technology in NJ right across the river from Manhattan. You may not have heard of it but I feel you might like it a lot, so look into it. Checks off a lot of boxes for you, I think. Great school, great location and their co-op program is wonderful. And I’m pretty confident you’ll get accepted with enough merit $$ to get the price close to your budget.

  • “One of my essays would also explain the slip I had in grades during sophomore year (I swear I had a justified reason lol).” Hmm, usually not a good idea. If you do have a good reason, it’s better for your counselor to explain it in their letter.

Good luck!

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Here is some information about UC admission rates, but be aware that admission to CS is likely to be more competitive.

Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2021 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

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 75% 35% 5% 1%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).

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The UC’s consider 3 UC GPA’s Unweighted, Capped weighted and Fully weighted in their application review which only includes the a-g courses taken 10-11th grades. Since you are a Junior, you need to wait until the end of your Junior year to really know where you stand. Please use the Rogerhub calculator and DE course grades will also be part of your UC GPA if UC transferable.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

The UC’s and CSU’s are race and test blind.

You have some wonderful accomplishments however, GPA, HS course rigor and the personal insight essays are Very important in the UC application review.

As noted by @AustenNut, CS is highly competitive at all the UC’s so you need to apply as a CS major or even a Biology major (impacted at many campuses). Switching into the CS major later will be extremely unlikely. International relations would be a slightly easier admit but UC’s like UCLA, UCB will be Reaches with a UC Capped weighted GPA under 4.0+.

If you are ELC eligible (top 9%), the default campus is UC Merced however you are not guaranteed a competitive major such as CS so apply directly to the campus if using it as a Safety. There are plenty of Cal states especially your local CSU that could make a good safety/likely school for CS. Please note the CSU exceptions below posted by @ucbalumnus.

Your categorization of your UC chances is overly optimistic so use the chart above for a general gauging of your chances then use this link for your CS chances. Biology will also be competitive depending upon UC campus.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/uc-computer-science-admit-rates/

Applying Undecided can work for IR , possibly Biology but not CS.

The most important thing you can do right now is research schools that would best fit you and make sure you are your parents identify acceptable Safety/Likely schools before proceeding with the rest of your college application list.

Best of luck and come back with your updated data at end of Junior year.

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Although not if your local CSU is CPSLO or SJSU.

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Also understand you cannot apply as a double major on the UC or CSU application. You can select a 1st choice major and an alternate major for the UC campuses and some CSU campuses. To double major, you have to be admitted and then work with your specific UC/ CSU campus advisor to plan and declare a 2nd major.

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If your heart isn’t set on CS, do not apply as CS. However, know that if you don’t apply as CS, it is unlikely that you will be able to transfer into it once you are admitted.

Not sure of your reason, and how much of a slip there was, but this may make it difficult for the UCs. The UCs only consider grades from the summer after 9th grade through the summer after 11th grade. Do yourself a favor and use the tools linked above to confirm your UC GPA. Many HS indicate a 10-11 GPA which is different from a UC GPA.

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Don’t do this. Waste of an essay. There’s a good chance you will lose some momentum in the admissions review if you do this. If there’s a really justifiable reason, your guidance counselor should mention it in his/her write-up.

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I’ve heard a whole lot about Northeastern, I think this might be a sign to add it to my list! The Morrill Scholarship sounds incredible too, although I’m not sure how I feel about living in Ohio! Social Science Analytics kinda sounds like the perfect major for my interests though…

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Thank you so much! This is a really detailed response (seriously appreciate it!) so I’ll try to respond in bullets too.

  • ED and REA sound good, although I heard that it’s more expensive to do it that way? And does it really help that much for Ivy’s since they don’t have to worry about their yield as much? But $40K is a number that some financial advisor told my parents, I think it’s what he expected their EFC to be. I think that we’d be full-paying regardless, but even if financial aid is lacking I wouldn’t mind continuing to work part-time/writing essays to get more scholarships if it means I can go to my dream school!

  • Since I’m not actually sure that I’d want to go into either :sob: I’m interested in CS right now but I also don’t want to risk lowering my admissions chances by applying to a major that I’m not sure about. Kinda the same thing with bio except I hear bio is less saturated

  • You’re probably right :sob:

  • The name sounds kind of familiar, but that location is really selling me right now! And the possibility of merit makes it even more appealing, it would be less stress on my family. Thanks for letting me know about it!

  • I want to do that, but at the same time the counselors at my school are seriously uninvolved with students (unless they get in trouble) and a lot of us rarely ever see them, much less tell them about what’s going on in our lives (they’re also notorious for using the same template for every letter of rec they send out). That’s why I feel like I should tell it myself, but I would make sure that the essay wasn’t solely about the grades but also about the event and my growth since then.

Again, thank you so much!!

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Yikes those acceptance rates look awful for my 3.88. I’m hoping that the focus on essays at UCLA and UCB will help me out :sob:

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Thank you so much! This is all very informative. I feel like the more I hear about it the more I turn away from CS and towards IR, not just because of how impacted it is but also because I don’t know if I really like CS enough for all that. Do you think that by application season my GPA could become competitive enough (or at least close to competitive) at these schools if I’ll be taking 7 classes and 4 AP’s between now and the end of junior year?

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Yeah, the further I read the less convinced I am in majoring in CS, I just don’t think all that stress would be worth it.
For the sophomore year thing, it was a kind of combination of a lot of factors including a serious family emergency, mental health, and the switch to hybrid learning. The slip was noticeable when compared to my freshman year grades, but that kind of worries me since UC’s don’t even look at freshman year. It basically went from all A’s to a combination of A’s, B’s, and a C, which messed up my GPA. I feel like my best bet is hinting at the reason for those grades in an essay.

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I’ve noticed people saying this a lot, but I feel like I should at least use one to indirectly explain it (like talk about what happened in sophomore year and how I learned from it and grew after that). I wouldn’t make it solely about the grade though, I can see how that would detract from an essay. I would love if my counselor could just write about it for me, but the counselors at my school are very uninvolved with students that aren’t “bad” kids, and so most of us barely even see them, let alone tell them about what’s going on in our lives-- and they know so little about us that they are notorious for using the same template for every student’s letter of rec :frowning: so there’d be no chance of her even knowing about it

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I hear you about Ohio… but a possible full-ride merit scholarship and its attendant opportunities could be pretty enticing, especially since it’s not clear how much aid you’ll get at the needs-met schools you’re considering. (Gunning for outside scholarships tends to be a steeply-diminishing-returns proposition for the amount of effort involved - and at needs-met schools, it may not even benefit you, as many colleges will drop your aid by the amount of the outside scholarships so that you still pay your EFC as they compute it!) And also, if you’re truly interested in poli sci, a college in the capital city of a swing state could actually end up being a valuable experience. I would think it could be worth keeping in the mix, to see if you can snag that full ride.

Closer to home, the capital-city attribute is also a point in favor of UC Davis… and the relative flexibility, major-wise, within the College of Letters & Science (which offers majors in CS and Data Science as well as IR and Poli Sci) could make it easier to explore and combine those interests than at some other UC’s. Great student quality of life at Davis, too.

Don’t underestimate the value of coming out of undergrad debt-free (not to mention with cash reserves, if you don’t actually have to spend your whole college budget!). There are all sorts of fascinating and valuable things you could do after graduation, given your interests, but the most compelling opportunities aren’t always the most lucrative. You don’t want debt load to force your hand when it comes time to make those decisions.

Have your parents and/or their financial advisor run the Net Price Calculators for some of the most generous elite schools, to get a best case scenario for need-based aid. (Example: Net Price Calculator | Harvard - every school has one) It’s pretty important to know whether the amount your family thinks they can afford actually aligns with what the colleges themselves think they can afford!

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