Chance me please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I live in California and attend a competitive high school. I am in Asian in 12th grade. I want to go to a UC school and UCSB is where I would most like to go. My major is going to be computer science. Here are some stats about me.

Extra-Curriculars: I was part of my school’s Interact (volunteering club) for 1 year during 9th grade. I joined FNHS (French National Honors Society) in 10th grade and I am still an active member, this is my 3rd year. I have been the Vice-President of Physics Club for the past 2 years, this is my 2nd year. I am also part of Astronomy Club, this is my 2nd year. I recently joined Book Club, this will be my first year. I played soccer my whole life but stopped in 10th grade because I wanted to try something new. I did cross country in 11th for 1 year and was part of the Junior Varsity team for half the season and part of the Varsity team for the other half. Outside of school, during 10th grade, I helped K-5 grade school kids with their homework and earned 45 hours of volunteering. During the most recent summer, I earned 84 hours from volunteering with special education kids from the special education summer school.

9th grade classes/1st Semester Grade/2nd Semester Grade

Geometry A/A
PE 9 A/A
Principle of Business B/A
Biology B/B
French 1 A/A
Literature and Writing B/A

10th grade classes/1st Semester Grade/2nd Semester Grade

Chemistry Honors B/B
World History B/B
PE 10-12 A/A
World Literature and Writing A/A
French 2 B/B
Algebra 2/ Trig B/B

11th grade classes/1st Semester Grade/2nd Semester Grade

3D Design 1 A/A
American Literature Honors C/C
AP US History C/B
Pre Calc Honors B/C
Physics Honors B/B
French 3 B/B

Current 12th grade classes/Current Grades

Intro to Programming: Java A
AP Physics A
AP Calc BC A
French 4 Honors A
US Government/Economics A
British Literature A

GPA:
Cumulative GPA: 3.278
Unweighted 10-12 GPA: 3.083
Unweighted 9-12 A-G GPA: 3.167

My UC GPA according to http://rogerhub.com/uc-undergraduate-admissions-calculator/ is: 3.42 (8 semesters of AP, IB/HL, or CC courses) I used my honors as part of the 8 because I think they count for it.

Explanation of Grades:
Freshman year, I think I did pretty good, but those grades don’t really count towards colleges. Sophomore year I struggled because of my Chemistry Honors class which had a lot of work since the teacher taught the class like an AP Chem class. Junior year was terrible. I did cross country which really affected my 1st semester grades and since I did cross country 1st semester, it affected me a lot 2nd semester since I could not spend enough time studying during 1st Semester. Also I joined American Literature and Writing Honors midway through 1st semester and was never given the opportunity to catch up, the teacher didn’t allow me to complete the assignments that I had missed. Senior Year, I am actually doing really well right now. I have 6 high A’s, and no that’s not because school started recently. I have had 1 test each in my APs and a lot of small quizzes and short tests in my other classes. I think I’m doing better this year is because I don’t have an AP class like APUSH that really drained me.

Current SAT score:
1800 but I have been averaging 2100 on practice tests, so I will definitely get a good score when I take it again in October.

Subject Tests:
I haven’t taken any but I am going to take the ones for Math 2, Physics, and US History. I am going to take the US History test because I want to prove that even though I got a C in AP US History I can get a 750+.

The schools that I am applying to are:
UC Berkeley
UC Los Angeles
UC San Diego
UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara
UC Irvine
UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside
UC Merced
CSU San Diego
CSU San Jose
CSU California Polytechnic (Cal Poly SLO)
University of Urbana Champaign
Purdue University
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Northeastern University
Santa Clara University
UT Austin
Texas A&M University
University of Washington
Any Suggestions?

Note: I am already aware that UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles are definitely high reaches for me.

Some Questions:

  1. Can you chance me on all the colleges that I’ve listed? Thanks!
  2. How “good” does my personal essay need to be. I do have a life story that I can write about. My parents are foreign and don’t know much about the American education system so I was left to do everything myself.
  3. Are there any other colleges that I should apply to for computer science?
2

Oh also my current grades (12th grade grades) do not affect the GPAs I have listed. Also I took the APUSH ap test and got a 3, its disappointing. I’m going to be taking the SAT subject tests in November.

3

ugh sorry for more comments also I am getting teacher recs from my French teacher that has known me for 2 years and me Pre-Calc teacher. Im sure they will write good recs since I had a good personality and was liked by the teachers during the class.

4

Your GPA will keep you out of many of the schools on your list coupled with the fact that CS is extremely competitive and popular. You need to be at or above the average Stats at these schools for a decent chance. Increasing your SAT will help but for the UC’s especially, they are very GPA focused.
Senior grades will only help your chances at the privates, not the UC’s or CSU’s, however, doing well will maintain your provisional admission.

That said, here is how I see your chances based on posted stats:

SLO/UCLA/UCB/UCSD: High Reach
SCU/UCD/UCI/UCSB: Reach
UCSC: High Match
UCR/UCM: Match

SDSU/SJSU: High Match/Match

If you raise your SAT score, SDSU/SJSU will be solid matches. I see no safeties, but I would drop some of your High Reach UC’s and include Cal Poly Pomona and CSU Long Beach and/or Fullerton to your list since they all have very respectable CS programs.

Good Luck.

5

I’m gonna be a little tough here, so I apologize in advance. Your GPA is really low for any of the schools you listed. Your SAT score will only get you so far too. Your GPA is going to drag you down in the admissions process, and your SAT score isn’t high enough to pull you that far back up. I recommend taking the ACT as well to show that your GPA doesn’t truly reflect your academics.
San Jose State: their computer science major is impacted, so it’s really hard to get into. So I would say it’s a reach, but you could get lucky. It’s also a cal state so they only look at your grades and test scores. They don’t care about your grade explanation or volunteer work, sports, or recommendations (they don’t even accept them).
Cal poly SLO: your scores are way under what they want, so I would say it’s a definite high reach.
SDSU: I would slot SDSU under reach. It can be a little easier to get into than SLO, but it’s still one of the most prestigious cal states.
UC’s (excluding riverside, Merced, and Santa Cruz): these are all very high reaches for you. Unless you can pull off a 2350-2400 on your SAT, I wouldn’t even spend time applying.
UC riverside, Merced, and Santa Cruz: you have a good chance of being accepted to these three schools.
I don’t know much about your OOS schools, so I can’t help you there! But you will at least be accepted to 4 California schools on your list. Don’t be disappointed though, remember that UC schools are all based on a competitive grading system. If you just aren’t at the same level as the other students, you won’t be successful. Being denied to these schools will only help you be successful in a place where you have the ability to be!
Good luck!!!

6

I thought that San Jose State and San Diego State were good safeties for me…wow i can’t believe i suck that much
thanks anyway!
I also have University of SF as well on my list forgot to mention.
Could a couple more people please chance me as well?
Thanks!

7

I would concentrate more on CSUs and some lower UCs ( UCM, UCSC, UCR) only. If you strongly desire to go to a better school, then I suggest you to go to a CC first and then transfer?

8

I’m not sure you can gain much admittance to any of these schools, depending on your major at least. You can go to a state school with an acceptance rate of 60-70%. Sorry pal, I hate to be tough on ya but maybe going to an elite HS can get you a scholarship. A scholarship would really come in handy for you and your family. Chance me back?

9

@wolverinexci: You do not suck, you just need to be realistic about the colleges you choose based on your Stats.
The CSU’s use the eligibility index (except SLO) and rank applicants based on their EI for each major. Other than SJSU, the CSU’s do not officially publish their EI cutoffs for their majors but there are some EI’s threshold posted that can give you a guideline of your chances. For SJSU this year, an EI of 4300 (for SAT) was required for CS. If you have a 4100+ for SDSU, you have a decent chance. CSULB is around 3900-4000 and CSUF around 3900. Calculate your EI (CSU GPA x800) + (SAT Math + CR) and you can determine what SAT score is needed to meet these thresholds. FYI: The EI thresholds will change yearly based on the applicant pool.

http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/static/admission/frosh-f2015impact.html

10

@Gumbymom
Thanks
Also I know I don’t suck that much, but I think it does matter where you go to college (and yes I know that a lot of people say it doesn’t)
Also I think your EI equation is wrong.
On the CSU mentor it says (Your GPA) x 800 + Total SAT score
I plugged mine in and got 4422.4

11

No, EI does not include total score only SAT Math + CR. The CSU Mentor calculator has a typo and have been emailed regarding this problem. The CSU’s only consider Math + CR. Here is the EI calculation from the SDSU website.

http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/freshmen/apply/eligibility-index.html

I have been working with students in regards to CSU admissions, so I know my calculation is correct.
The CSU Mentor website does have the calculation right in another section regarding minimum eligibility

If you are a California high school graduate (or a resident of California for tuition purposes), you need a minimum eligibility index of 2900 using the SAT combined score for critical reading and math sections or 694 using the ACT.

It also states above the actual calculation that the SAT score is the sum of the SAT Math and Critical reading section. The writing section is not used.

https://secure.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/elig_index_calculator.asp

12

bump!
Could someone chance me on my out of state schools as well?
I’m also thinking about applying to U of Colorado Boulder, U of Utah, and Texas Tech

13

For your instate schools, you have a good shot at most CSU’s, except for SLO. Since you’re applying to one of the most selective majors, CPP is a safety, CSULB a match, SDSU is close to a reach (but match for other majors).
UUtah is a safety as is Texas Tech.
UColorado is a match.
However, UColorado will cost your parents 50K/year, no financial aid, can your parents pay that much out of pocket?
Utah and Texas Tech may have merit scholarships but often there’s a GPA requirement which you may not meet, even with unweighted.
Look into New Mexico Tech (if you need scholarships) and Colorado School of Mines (if you don’t).
Look into Santa Clara, who may be able to factor in your high school’s rigor and are excellent for CS.

14

Take UT Austin off the list. CompSci is very hard to get into and you don’t have the stats.

I would be surprised if you got into A&M.

Look at UT Dallas. This is a strong STEM School.
Texas Tech as mentioned would be a safety.

15

@MYOS1634 and @txstella Thanks!
Also I don’t think my parents would have trouble paying that amount but they don’t really want to spend a lot of money if I can learn the same material at a cheaper school.

Also thanks for giving me some more hope on Santa Clara
Could someone chance me on my other out of states? (freaking out about college admission…)
Thanks!

16

Also If i apply to any of the listed schools as a non-popular major (and then switch to CS 2 years later) do i have a better chance? If so which major would that be?

17

For schools that don’t recruit by major, such as Santa Clara, you can indicate physics. I think you’re fine with cs there in any case, as at NM Tech and Texas Tech. However at CSUs you’re pretty much locked into your major unless you switch to a non competitive one. So it’s not the right strategy.

18

bump! chance me on outer states i listed except UT Austin?
thanks

19

Hey guys I was just wondering if I Will get into
Umass Dartmouth as a transfer with a 3.3 gpa? I’m
Currently in my 3rd semester of CC taking mechanical engineering classes and I have
Above the 24 credits you need so I don’t need any
Highschool records. I had a 3.78 gpa last semester
And made deans list the only reason my gpa is lower
Than it should be is because in the summer I got a
C- in a math class that I’m currently retaking. I was
Just wondering if I have a good shot at getting in

20

Bump!! please chance me on

University of Urbana Champaign
Purdue University
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Northeastern University
University of Washington
Arizona State University

Thanks!