Chance me Stanford ED, CIT, Harvey mudd, Pomona, UC Berkeley

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Bio: pacific islander female. trying to go to CS/finance. Trying to stay in state (ca)

GPA: 3.85 UW, ~4.1 W

Rank: none @ my school; too big

ACT: 33 (essay 22)

SAT Subject Tests: 800 math 2 (I know I need another one for harvey mudd, I’ll be taking physics in october)

AP:

soph: 4 apcs

junior: 5 ap Calc bc, 4 ap lang, 4 ap art history

Senior Courseload: AP stat, AP physics, AP lit, Ap gov/econ (one per semester), AP CS principles

ECs:

-pres of compsci clubs at school since 10th grade

-VP of NHS at school since 10th grade

-club member of animal shelter club 9-10 grade

-Did java class over summer of 9th grade, was TA of that class summer 10th grade.

-Camp counselor summer 11th grade

-Cook for homeless youth since middle school

-Link crew

-National Latin Exam grade 9 magna cum laude

-Math Club grade 9-12

-American Math Competition grade 9-12

Awards:

-local mayor student honor 9 and 11th grade

-Ap scholar with honor

Extra tidbits:

My mom didn’t go to high school (will be talking about this in my essays).

Please tell me my chances for the schools in my title (my top schools) as well as my “backups”: UC DAVIS and SANTA CRUZ. If you have any other schools I should think of, let me know. Anything I could improve or anything, let me know.

I’m getting a really good letter of rec from my CS and Calc bc teacher (he’s the same teacher) so that might really help me as well.

2

Berkeley might be hard, they might be looking for a higher GPA. I’m assuming CIT is CalTech…I think that’s a pretty high reach as well as Stanford. Mudd I’m not sure about. Davis and SC might be pretty reasonable for you. You do have good extracurriculars, though.

3

Whoops, yeah I meant caltech. What can I do to up my chances for Berkeley and Stanford? (Mind you, I wouldn’t even be applying to stanford if my counselor didn’t say I had a chance there). Thanks for the reply!

4

I think Pacific-Islander is URM? What region is your family from? Guam, Hawaiian, Samoan? And the fact you are a female interested in CS with a challenging family background(I only say this in reference to your statement that there were barriers that prevented your mom from attending high school). With that in mind I think Stanford is within your reach as I know they value diversity as well as

5

Stanford does not have ED; it has restrictive EA. It is non-binding, but you agree not to apply EA to other private schools: http://admission.stanford.edu/application/decision_process/restrictive.html

6

Sorry I hit post before finishing. To complete my statement … UC Berkeley. Caltech is a high reach. UC Davis is tough but I think you could get in. Don’t know enough the smaller schools though.

7

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary

2015 admit rates for HS GPA 3.80-4.19 (UC weighted and capped):

12% UCB
52% UCD
83% UCSC

However, CS is an impacted major at many UCs, so you should expect admission to the CS major to be more difficult than the campus overall. For backup options, you may want to add UCR, UCM, and some CSUs to your application list.