What are my chances for admission to USC (CS) as a Trustee/Presidential Scholar, UIUC (Math+CS), UWM (Applied Math and CS), UW Madison (CS and Math Double Major), UC Berkeley (CS), and Stanford (CS)
Background
A White and Male high school junior attending a slightly competitive public high school in the metro Milwaukee suburbs interested in studying Computer Science or CS+Math major at a top 20 university
Stats:
UW GPA: 4.0 , 4.81 W GPA: , 15 AP classes + 4 dual enrollment courses (Carroll University)
Class Rank: 1 or 2/300
(A’s on each course)
ACT: 36
PSAT: 1480
Planning on taking the SAT this june (Hoping for a 1500+)
Main Extracurriculars
Varsity Basketball for all three years and planning for it next year too.
Programming Subteam Lead for the FRC Robotics team (Core 2062)
Work
10 Hours per week on weeks with school (30+ in summers) as a cashier and a self checkout clerk for the past two years (Management promotion this August)
Freelance game development/software development for the past five years
@Gumbymom I’m curious about my Berkeley chances.
UCB will be test blind so your test scores will not be considered for admission purposes.
I would say you are a competitive applicant and have a chance at UCB. Are you applying to CS in the College of Letters and Sciences or EECS in the College of Engineering?
Can you and your family be able to afford the $65K/year price tag as an OOS student?
UC GPA’s: Unweighted, Capped Weighted and Fully weighted? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
For UIUC your chances are pretty good - it’s a reach in general, but your stats are strong, so it is better chance for you than for an average student.
As far as I understand, there is no direct admissions to U Wisconsin, so, while U Wisconsin Madison is likely a sure thing for you (but check you school’s Naviance to make sure), you would have to do fulfill their requirements in order to become a CS major.
USC is a reach for anybody, especially for CSand it would also depend on how you present your ECs (more important for USC than for either UIUC or Wisconsin). I am sure that your activities are more extensive than the four lines you wrote here.
Stanford is a lottery ticket at best - their acceptance rates for non-hooked applicants is likely below 3% by now.
Hey! Thanks for responding so quickly!Yes we can, I forgot to mention that I’ve made enough through investing in some very successful stocks to cover the cost for 4 years. I’m considering plain CS because I hope to minor in math and do some game development in college.
My Weighted and Capped UC GPA is a 4.36.
Do you know of any people to respond for the other schools too?
@MWolf Oh whoops! My dad is a Stanford CS MS grad. Does that count as a hook?
The admit rate for a UC GPA of 4.2 or higher at UCB was 37%. This is not specific for major (College of L&S) does not admit by major.
Yes, but I do not know how strong a legacy Stanford considers parents who did a masters in CS, as compared to, say, an undergraduate, but the boost is likely lower for the kid of MS students. It may bump it from a lottery ticket to a very high reach.
You should still apply to Stanford, though. Give it your best shot, but assume that you will not be accepted.
What college did you mean by UWM?
Years ago Stanford included in their normal magazine to alumni an article about admissions. I did pick up that having a dad who got a master’s there does make you legacy (you might guess why I care). The article did not make it sound like being legacy was all that large of a hook. However, it should help you a bit. Given your very strong stats and ECs I think that Stanford is worth an application, but it is a reach.
One issue is whether your basketball is strong enough to make you recruitable for basketball. Stanford does look for strong athletes who are also academically strong. The year I got my master’s there the quarterback of the football team was alleged to be very close to a straight A student.
@Gumbymom Okay! I’ll apply there when it opens up! What about SJSU for CS? Would I have a better shot there?
@DadTwoGirls My basketball skills are somewhat strong. I’ve heard that NCAA division 1 doesn’t allow people to have outside jobs while on a sports contract so for me it’s a turnoff. I’m pretty decent but idk if I’m a D1 level player.
@MWolf Okay! I meant UW Milwaukee. It’s my safety school for CS and Math. They have a decent program but I’m hoping to do software engineering at a large game studios or game company and not any Wisconsin company. My family and I are I
Originally from Southern Cal and my parents went to USC and then my dad went to Stanford and got a job in Milwaukee as an engineering manager at a small but global scale company after working seven ish years in the FAANG industry.
Being a double legacy puts you in a great place for USC, so I would say that it may drop from a reach to a target for you. You should check whether you need to apply ED in order to have the legacy boost, though.
SJSU makes it easy to determine if you are competitive. They use the following calculation to determine an index and admit above that index threshold.
Here is the calculation since test scores are also not considered. GPA is the CSU capped weighted= UC Capped weighted.
A-G Grade Point Average (GPA)
800 points x A-G Coursework GPA
The threshold for CS this year was 3400. The index can vary for year to year but gives you a good estimate of your chances.
@Gumbymom Ok! How do I calculate the A-G gpa though?
@MWolf Okay! That’s good news!
A-G gpa is your capped weighted UC GPA without DE courses since my understanding from several posters is that DE courses not fulfilling some of the A-G courses in HS cannot be included in the calculation.
@Gumbymom Oh, I accidentally calculated it already without the DE courses
@Gumbymom Ok, I recalculated it and the Weighted and Capped is 4.43 and the regular A-G is 4.36. The final calculation makes it a 3488. Is that good? What percentile would it be? Thanks for all your help btw.
SJSU sets the major threshold each year based on the Freshman applicant data so this year it was 3400. An applicant with an index above 3400 was admitted so based on your current GPA, SJSU would be a Match school if you apply next year and you should definitely add it your list.