Chance Me for a UC. Rising Junior, CA Resident, Engineering or CS [3.68 GPA, 3.91 for UC]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Note: Since I still have my upcoming junior year and fall of senior year, this is my predicted/goal stats for my whole application! My main goal is to get into a UC and I prefer not to go to a state school which is why a lot of my stats below is catered towards the UC application system!

Demographics

  • US Citizen (born in US, stayed in US)
  • State/Location of residency: California
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Competitive high school in Orange County with varying student strengths (mostly film, art, engineering, computer science)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Female/asian/vietnamese
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): First generation, aerial arts athlete

Intended Major(s)
Civil engineering and computer science (may apply undeclared as first choice)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.68 (including cc classes)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.12 (including cc classes), UC Capped is 3.91
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: N/A

Note: I heavily struggled with depression in middle school and the beginning years of high school so my GPA is relatively low (I plan to put in additional info as of right now, not any essays or personal insight questions). I’m hoping the upward trend and progress in my grades give me an advantage in my application.

Coursework
I am currently in my school’s engineering pathway (Principles of Engineering and Aerospace Engineering). I got an A in both semesters for Principles of Engineering and hope to do the same for Aerospace.
10th: Honors American History, Honors Chemistry
11th: Honors English, AP Psychology, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Statistics
CC: Chinese 1, History of World Architecture, Web Dev HTML Beginning, Web Dev HTML Advanced, 2-D Art and Design, Intro to Digital Media

Awards
High School Mascot P.R.I.D.E Award (Recognized for continuous efforts, demonstrated personal growth, and overall representing my school values)
High School Recognition Award (Recognized for continuous efforts and having a school represented value, drive)
Presidential Volunteer Service Award Young Adults Gold from The Discovery Cube (250+ hours with this organization)
AP Scholar with Honor (Scored 3 or higher on 3 or more AP exams with an average of 3.25 on all AP exam scores)

Extracurriculars (descriptions are very general)

  • Key Club
    Most involved and had multiple leadership roles. Became lieutenant governor of my division and president of my club. Was also the division communication liaison.
  • Discovery Cube Volunteer
    Had 250+ volunteer hours, teaching STEM to children.
  • Robotics team
    Contributed to brand development of team (member of marketing team) and occasionally helped with building the robots.
  • Sales Employee of a Local Fashion Company
    Worked every summer since before 8th grade and helped develop products to be sold and handled shipments.
  • Programming Club
    Started the club and was president of, helped teach my peers programming and led them to other learning opportunities and other opportunities in the CS field.
  • CS non-profit
    Interned at for a 1+ year, helping specifically with marketing needs.
  • Another CS non-profit
    Helped with brand development and communication, organization taught young local kids coding.
  • Local civil engineering company
    Had a week-long micro-internship and helped with simple tasks (data entry) and got exposure to the civil engineering field.
  • Aerial arts
    Was an apprentice for 4+ years and trained extensively in aerial apparatuses and circus arts like stilts. Got to perform at multiple venues and volunteered with my school for graphic design needs.

Essays/LORs/Other
UC PIQ Prompts (have not worked on CSU or USC essays): VERY GENERAL SUMMARY

  1. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you a strong candidate for admission to the University of California?
    I am proactive and collaborative.
  2. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
    My engineering class where I got exposure to many types of engineering and little cs. This led to me starting a club, getting an internship, and doing research.
  3. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. describe how you express your creative side.
    I used games to build communities. (ex: animal crossing, steam games, etc). I am basically trying to show my interest in civil construction engineering, landscape planning, etc.
  4. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
    I also coded a short game to teach civil engineering in a fun way and it got used by my former engineering teacher in his classes.

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Undecided right now

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability): Community College
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable): CSUF, CSULB
  • Match: UC Riverside, UC Davis, Cal Poly Pomona
  • Reach: UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Southern California, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, San Diego State, Cal Poly SLO
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Each CSU has a local area that they serve. Which CSU’s local area do you live in?

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Congratulations on your solid academic record so far and overcoming some difficulties in your life. An upward grade trend is very helpful for the CSU’s and UC’s.

At the end of Junior year, you need to calculate your UC GPA’s which are the Unweighted, Capped Weighted and Fully Weighted along with Capped weighted CSU GPa.

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

For Engineering or CS, these are direct admit majors for the Cal States and UC’s, so if you have an interest in pursing these areas, you need to apply to these specific majors. Applying Undecided and then trying to change majors later can be problematic to impossible at several of these schools.

I am assuming your school follows the UC/CSU a-g course recommendations and you will have at least 3 years for a Foreign Language and a Physics course completed by end of Senior year?

Below are the 2022 admit rates for CS which includes some CSU’s if the data was 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%

2022 Civil Engineering admit rates

Campus Civil Engineering
UC Berkeley 16%
UC Davis No data but <30%
UC Irvine 23.6%
UCLA 8.0%
UC Merced 91%
UC Riverside No major
UC San Diego No data but <20% Structural Eng
UC Santa Barbara No major
UC Santa Cruz No major
Cal Poly SLO 38%
Cal State Long Beach 51%
San Diego State 48%
San Jose State 64%

For Cal Poly Pomona, the Civil Engineering threshold was a 4200 MFA which translates around a minimum of a 3.75 CSU GPA. Meeting the threshold does not guarantee acceptance since these can fluctuate year to year.

For CS at CPP, the MFA threshold was 4672 so around a 4.2 CSU GPA to be competitive.

https://www.cpp.edu/admissions/freshmen/freshman-student-profile.shtml

What the admit data does not show is the average CSU/UC GPA for admitted students and how competitive the admitted students can be.

Below a 4.0 Capped weighted UC GPA/CSU will make many of these schools a difficult admit.

Likely/Very Likely: CSUF if local
Match depending upon major: CSULB, CPP (Civil)
High Target: CPP (CS) if Local. UCR
Low Reach: UCD, SDSU
Reach: UCI (Civil), SLO (Civil)
High Reach: UCB, UCLA, USC, UCI (CS), SLO (CS).

For additional Likelies/Safeties consider your local Cal state if it is not one of the schools listed or a non-impacted campus listed below:

Best of luck and apply widely. You might also want to consider WUE schools which could be comparable in costs to the California schools listed. https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/wue-savings-finder/?majors=Computer%20Science

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Remember, the reader(s) don’t know who you are. They know you are applying to Engineering/CS. What else do you want to tell them about yourself?

What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
I also coded a short game to teach civil engineering in a fun way and it got used by my former engineering teacher in his classes.

But, you have these,

  • Key Club
    Most involved and had multiple leadership roles. Became lieutenant governor of my division and president of my club. Was also the division communication liaison.
  • Discovery Cube Volunteer - Had 250+ volunteer hours, teaching STEM to children.

Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. describe how you express your creative side.
I used games to build communities. (ex: animal crossing, steam games, etc). I am basically trying to show my interest in civil construction engineering, landscape planning, etc.

You also have this

  • Aerial arts
    Was an apprentice for 4+ years and trained extensively in aerial apparatuses and circus arts like stilts. Got to perform at multiple venues and volunteered with my school for graphic design needs.
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Completely agree with @lkg4answers

Your PIQs do NOT all need to relate to your intended major. In fact, they are a great place to highlight what sets you apart from other CS/Engineering applicants. I would much rather hear about your Key Club work or aerial sports than hear multiple variations of “I created a game, developed an app, etc” which frankly every single other CS applicant will also have and be talking about. You have a chance to stand out from the pack with your other activities - use the PIQs to do just that.

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UCs are state universities…

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Note that changing into CS or engineering majors after enrolling as general undeclared may be difficult or impossible at some UCs.

However, it is not difficult to change into any major at UC Merced, as long as you have been passing the prerequisite courses.

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Engineering/CS is a very marketable major and you do not need to attend a UC to do well post graduation. As long as the program is ABET accredited especially for Civil Engineering, the Cal states will give you an excellent education.

https://amspub.abet.org/aps/name-search?searchType=institution

If UC’s are your main focus, then you need to add UC Santa Cruz and Merced to your list as Likely/Target schools.

You still have 1 more year before applying, so if you continue with your upward grade trend, then some of those Low Reach school may turn into to Match/High Match schools but please be open minded.

Other posters can give you more out of state options if you are interested but University of Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State, Univeristy of Utah are popular suggestions with very good Engineering/CS programs.

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In fact, everything on OP’s list other than USC is a state school.

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Maybe the OP meant “I prefer not to go to an out of state school,” but didn’t include the words “out of”? All the schools on the OP’s list are CA schools.

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Saying that your budget is “undecided” isn’t really enough information for us to make good recommendations. Would you require financial aid to attend a UC? Or is it a situation where you know you could afford the full cost of a UC, but you’re “undecided” about how much more you could spend above that threshold?

If it’s the latter, and you have a 35-40K/year budget to work with as your baseline (with the feasibility of more expensive schools being undecided), then that opens up a lot of possibilities, particularly flagship schools in the Western Undergraduate Exchange that often cost less than UC’s with the WUE discount and potentially merit money as well… and many of these will offer more flexibility to change your major than the UC’s will. (Applying undeclared will make it tough to move into CS or CivE at most UC’s.)

One flagship that comes to mind is the University of Nevada, Reno. Its STEM programs, including CS and civil engineering (which is housed in a joint civil/environmental department that also offers a construction management minor), are very strong. (There’s also Geological Engineering fwiw.) The suggested GPA cutoff to apply to the Honors College is a 3.65 unweighted, so that would be a possibility. (Apply to both the university and the honors college as early as possible, in order to have the option of a spot in the residential honors LLC.) Plus, Reno has a huge aerial arts community. The university itself has aerial programs at its rec center, and the larger community has many opportunities if you’re too high level for the rec program. Reno is only 15 miles from the California border, so it’s the smallest distance you can travel “out of state” to a flagship university. The total cost of attendance with WUE is just over 33K/year, so less expensive than a UC even before any possible merit.

That’s just one example of a WUE school that could work well for you. U of Utah is another possibility (lots of aerial arts stuff in SLC as well) - the Civil department offers undergrad degrees in both CivE and Construction Engineering.

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Congrats on your grades and achievements! And I agree, with Engineering or CompSci, you can still do great at a state school, so don’t rule those out.

But yeah, it will be an uphill climb to get into some of those. For comparison, my daughter graduated in 22 with a 4.72 GPA, 1580 SAT, National Merit Scholar, Head of Orchestra, 4 year track letter, and lots more. She got rejection from Stanford and USC, wait list at UCLA, but her first choice was UCI, she got in there and loves it. I’ll be honest, we went on tons of campus tours, and CPSLO moved way up the list. Really awesome school for Tech. She felt bad saying no thanks to CPSLO.

Don’t sweat it though, sounds like you are on a good path, and you’ll get a great school!

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My understanding of their statement was that they weren’t interested in CSUs, just UCs? But, yes, tit wasn’t phrased very clearly and I personally disagree with the underlying sentiment.

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Oh my goodness, that’s quite a typo!

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All of your targets are reaches, tbh but there are plenty of good cs schools where you can get in (e.g SFSU)

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Others have more insight into CA schools, I did want to ask about your math path. You have AP Stats listed in 11th. Are you veering off a Calculus path? You want to be ready for Calc 1 college freshman year if you’re interested in engineering. Best of luck to you.

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@skylarnguyen

@Darcy123 made a great catch. AP Stats is a very useful class but Calculus will be the first Math course you will encounter as an Engineering/CS major at all the UC’s and CSU’s and you want some exposure to the material prior to entering College.

Do you have a planned Senior year schedule? Will it include a Physics course and a Calculus course, both which are very important for your potential majors?

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I think OP means prefer UC over CSU system

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I hope OP will come back at some point and provide clarifications.

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