Chance me for Engineering - UC / CSU, others

Chance Me / Match Me!
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  • US domestic : US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: : California
  • Type of high school : Large Bay Area California Public High school
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity : Female/Asian Indian
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): None

Intended Major(s) : Engineering; Material Science or Chemical; Alternate major: Data Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95
  • Weighted HS GPA : UC Capped/Weighted GPA : 4.32/4.5
  • Class Rank: School does not rank- However, Top 9% of High School Class according to the UC Application(ELC)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT Super Score 36
    Composite=35 Math=36 Science=35, English=35, Reading=33
    Composite=35 Math=35 Science=34, English=36, Reading=36

Coursework
Honors/AP/Dual Enrollment/College Level: (7 AP’s, 2 Hnrs)

Accelerated Algebra 2/Trigonometry and PreCalculus
Chemistry in the Earth Systems Honors
AP Euro - 4
AP Calc BC - 5
AP Chemistry - 5
AP Comp Sci Principle - 4
AP Spanish - 4 
AP Statistics (12th Grade)
AP Physics 1 (12th Grade)
AP English Lit (12th Grade)

Carnegie Mellon Univ Pre-College Summer
Introduction of Chemical Engineering - A
Statistics - A
Foothill College
MATH 1C - Multivariable Calculus (12th Grade)(In progress)

Awards
– Qualified for US National Chemistry Olympiad;Scored in top-16 in Northern California
– 4th in Team Round Washington University Chemistry Tournament; Fifty teams of six members compete in this day-long national chemistry competition
– American Chemical Society National Conference - Developed/Allowed to present a synthesis route for compound at the lab with teammates
– Piano Certificate of Merit - top 2% students perform at the Certificate of Merit Convention.
– AP Scholar with Distinction

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
–Assist chemistry teacher as a chemical technician; set up labs for AP Chemistry and Chemistry Honors students; - graded course for 12th grade
– ATDP (Academic Talent Development Program) - Introduction to Engineering course
– Reached level 9 out of 10 in Music Teacher’s Assocation of California a standardized evaluation program for piano
– Member of the girls’ high school wrestling team; Pre-COVID in 9th Grade(2019); Stopped after COVID
– Carnegie Mellon University Music Orchestra - Invited to play bass guitar in the Carnegie Mellon University Pre-college Jazz Orchestra
– Bass in the High School Musical Orchestra
– Math Club Executive Officer
– Emory University Research Internship(ongoing) - performing data analysis in R for a paper
– Performed bass guitar at a Beatles concert at a church to raise money for the Ukraine crisis;
– Coached gifted elementary school students on advanced math concepts for the Math Olympiad
– ASDRP (Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program) - Published peer-reviewed paper;Research at chemical synthesis lab
– 6K YouTube subscribers;3K Spotify streams; Original Music curation

Essays/LORs/Other
Decent Essay: Not a great story teller; Would rate 7/10

Schools
UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Cal SLO, SJSU, Cal Tech,MIT,Columbia,USC,CMU,UMich,GTech,Cornell,UIUC,Purdue,UW Seattle,UT Austin

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Congratulations on being a competitive applicant. You are aware that your ACT scores will not be considered by both the UC’s and CSU’s.

Below are the overall admit rates for all the UC campuses based on UC capped weighted GPA and not major specific. Engineering and Data Science will be more competitive so the admit rates will be lower.

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%

Are SJSU or Cal Poly SLO your local CSU? https://www.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/documents/csulocaladmission-serviceareas.pdf

What is your CSU GPA from the CSU application? What is your Cal Poly SLO GPA (9th-11th a-g courses with 8 semester Honors point cap or CSU GPA plus 9th grades)?

Have you calculated your CSU Impaction index? Impaction | Admissions

Based on your GPA information, you will most likely meet the impaction thresholds for Chemical or Materials Engineering at SJSU so a possible Safety.

Cal Poly SLO’s projection target for Materials Engineering is >50% so I would say you have a very good chance at an acceptance.

For UCLA, the admit rate for Material Eng was around 28% and Chemical Engineering around 21% but I would still consider UCLA Engineering as a Reach school.

UCB’s College of Engineering admit rate for 2022 was 7% while the College of Chemistry was 14%. UCB would be a Reach school.

UCSD’s Engineering and Data Science are both capped majors so they do not recommend that you apply to 2 capped majors as 1st choice and alternate. I would put UCSD as a High Target/Low Reach.

UCSB’s College of Engineering had an overall admit rate of 22% with an average fully weighted UC GPA of 4.52. UCSB would be a High Target/Low Reach.

UCI’s Chemical Engineering had a 42.6% admit rate for 2022 and Materials Science and Engineering had a 54.8% admit rate. Data Science had a 7.6% admit rate. UCI would be a Target/High Target for either Engineering and a Low Reach for DS.

UCD’s overall admit for the College of Engineering 2022 was 29%. Materials Science would be a slightly easier admit than Chemical Engineering but I would put UCD as a Target school for both majors.

Best of luck and I am sure you will have several wonderful schools from which to choose in the Spring.

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Thanks so much @Gumbymom for such a detailed notes. Really appreciate it!
What is your [Cal Poly SLO] GPA (9th-11th a-g courses with 8 semester Honors point cap or CSU GPA plus 9th grades)? Unweighted - 3.96 and Weighted Capped=4.32. I have a “B” in AP Calc BC in one semester and A in all other HS courses.
SJSU Impaction: 4.32(A-G GPA)*800+3.8(Math GPA)*400= 4,976

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For SJSU, 4976 is considerably higher than last year’s threshold for chemical engineering (3120) or materials engineering (3000), according to Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions . Also, if you will graduate from a high school in Santa Clara County, you get the +200 local area addition.

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You probably want to take MATH 1D as well there, since ASSIST.org reports that you need both 1C and 1D to cover the multivariable calculus courses at several UCs and CSUs.

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Thanks so much! I am in Alameda County so I guess won’t qualify for +200 bonus points. Also did I calculate the Impaction correctly - 4.32 is the (A-G) UC Capped GPA 10th and 11th? 3.8 is the GPA of all HS Math classes(9th to 11th)?
9th Algebra - 4 CR(COVID)
10th Accelerated Calc(HN) - 4 4
11th AP Calc BC - 3 4
4+4+4+3+4=19/5=3.8

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Thanks! This is so helpful. I just finished MATH 1C at Foothill. Unfortunately Asynchronous Online MATH 1D is not available and other classes are during my High School hours.

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HS GPA for CSU is the same as for UC weighted capped (maximum of 8 semesters of honors points), except that a college course counts as two semesters of high school courses and grades for CSU but only one for UC.

SJSU does not explicitly say how math GPA is counted with respect to honors points.

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FYI … i got into SJSU Computer Science.
SJSU Impaction: 4.32(A-G GPA)*800+3.8(Math GPA)*400= 4,976

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SJSU does not add math GPA for CS, so your index is 4.32 * 800 = 3456 if you do not have any additions for local area, etc.

Looks like they posted the fall 2023 results at Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions which shows the CS threshold as 3440 (equivalent to 4.30 GPA as recalculated).

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How do you get 4.32 GPA? According to this calculator, the max a-g GPA is 4.25 (48 A grades & 8 honors classes)

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Only 10-11 grades are considered.

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The more A-G courses taken, the lower the Capped weighted CSU GPA will become after a certain threshold. Also only grades from a-g courses taken the summer after 9th through the summer prior to 12th are included. Freshman year grades are reviewed for completion of the a-g course requirements while planned/in-progress 12th grade courses are reviewed for rigor and a-g course requirements completion.

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Thanks Gumbymom. Is the above true for only CSU, or also for UC?

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The above is true for the UC Capped weighted but the UC’s also consider the Unweighted and Fully weighted UC GPA’s.

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Grade 10
21025 H Alg 2 Pre Calc Acc A A 5.00 5.00
41050 A AP Euro Hist A A 5.00 5.00
31181 H Chem of Earth Sys Hon A- A 5.00 5.00
11010 H Eng 10 H A A 5.00 5.00
72100 PE 10 A+ A 5.00 5.00
50100 P Span 1 A+ A+ 5.00 5.00

Grade 11
21214 A AP Calc BC B+ A 5.00 5.00
31130 A AP Chem A A 5.00 5.00
73029 A AP Comp Principles A A 5.00 5.00
11100 P Eng 11 A A- 5.00 5.00
50110 P Span 2 A A 5.00 5.00
41100 P USH A A+ 5.00 5.00

21 A
1 B

(21x4+1x3+8)/22 = 4.32 Capped (8 Honors/AP Classes)
(21x4+1x3+12)/22 = 4.50 Uncapped (12 Honors/AP)

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Hi Meow747,

Thanks for sharing your info. Very helpful. I had not realized that only 10/11 grades are considered, and that too PE won’t be counted.

Although I see 7 Honors/AP courses here. Is there a mistake?

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In fact 6 Year long Honors/AP Courses. So a total of 12 semester long AP/Honors. ENGLISH 10 Honors is not a UC approved Honors for our school.

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I see. Our school is in the same boat for English 10 Honors - it’s not in UC’s approved list.

I am reading the requirements for CSU. My interpretation is that, English 10 Honors would still be considered approved Honors for CSU. Is that correct?

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CSU uses the same list as UC does for honors courses.

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