What are my chances to get into CS programs at any of these with my GPA being what it is (very bad):
Trying UW-Madison, UMass-Amherst, Purdue, VT, UIUC, UMich (reach), UWash (reach), UC’s other than Berkley.
UW GPA 3.52, W 3.96
(had a very bad freshman year at a highly competitive school)
SAT 1520 (m 780, v 740) (not sure SAT will be looked at this year)
Courses: IBs 7 senior year (calc, cs, chem, etc). 7 IBs junior year (math, physics, cs, etc)
3 years of CS courses in HS, 5 years of foreign language
EC’s: not a lot to talk about, but did these: wrestling, debate, chess, cs league, investment club, mentoring/tutoring
Work: volunteering/social service
Any chance of getting a decent admission? Applications already went out for EA. Looking at a few other places for safety now.
I would probably say schools you marked as reach are high reaches and the others are reaches/very high matches. If your GPA trended up significantly (like 3.0, 3.8, 3.8) it may make them a bit more accessible.
With strong references and essays, it’s possibly you will be admitted to a couple/few, but be sure to identify that next tier of schools, including true safeties.
For UCs, recalculate your HS GPA using https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ . The “weighted capped” version is the one used on most UC web sites unless otherwise stated.
You can look up past admit rates by HS GPA (weighted capped version) at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary . However, CS should be assumed to be more competitive than the campus overall.
Note: no need based financial aid at UCs if you are not a California resident.
Thanks! Yeah, I’m concerned there isn’t any safety here, what are some of the true safeties I should be looking at? with decent CS programs, should I be looking at Univ of Alabama, West Virginia Univ, and the likes? I think I can do better since most of the screw up was in freshman, with avg 3.0, and then 3.7, 3.9 (with all IBs), 1st quarter so far all A’s with all IBs.
The uptrend will help a lot. Your freshman year of high school is significantly less important than your sophomore and junior years.
What is your home state? If it is Massachusetts then U.Mass Lowell is probably a safety. If it is California then my understanding is that the various Universities of California are not going to care about your freshman year, which should help you quite a bit.
Do you have any budget limit?