Chance Me: UCs and Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Chance me for some of the schools I’m applying to (UCs and some Ivies)
Demographics
Asian Male (identify as non-binary)
Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.)
California, go to large public high school in east bay. No Hooks.

Intended Major(s)
Electrical Engineering & Computer Engineering

ACT/SAT
1520 SAT
MATH: 800
English: 720

UW/W GPA and Rank
3.92 Unweighted GPA, 4.4 Weighted
Rank: top 9% ELC

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc)
AP Calculus AB: 5
AP Human Geo: 5
AP Calc BC: 5
AP Physics 1: 4
APES: 4
AP Lang: 3
did Dual enrollment classes in: English, Statistics, CS, Biology, History

Awards

  • National Rural Recognition for PSAT Scores

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership & summer activities)
Science Fair: won at regional level in engineering category (1st place), qualified for ISEF.
Political Volunteering: Canvassed for a presidential campaign in local communities, volunteer role only.
Science Olympiad: Won at Regional/Invitation Level. Involved for junior year, plan to repeat next year.
Academic Decathlon: Vice Captain of the Team. Won 1st place Math at Regional Level.
Orchestra: Play Viola at High School Orchestra, made all regional orchestra for past 3 years.

Essays/LORs/Other
N/A Have only started rough drafts so far
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

Schools
(List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc; List one school of each safety/match/reach!)

  • Safety*
    San Jose State University
  • Match*
    UC Davis
    I don’t know whether UCSD, UCSB, UCI, and Northeastern are reaches or matches for me.
  • Reach*
    Stanford
    MIT
    Cornell
    UC Berkeley
    UCLA

What are my chances of getting in? What can I do to improve? And where should I do an Early Action Application? Also any other schools to add to my list?

2

For UCs, recalculate HS GPA as described at GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Most UC web sites use the weighted-capped HS GPA unless otherwise stated. CSU uses the weighted-capped HS GPA, except that semester college courses count as two semester courses and two grades.

SJSU thresholds for fall 2021 are shown at Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions . Note that some majors like computer science were extremely competitive.

3

UC GPA: 4.13, Unweighted 3.95, Weighted without the cap thingy 4.58

4

All the UCs care about is with the “cap thingy.” :wink:

I’d pick a safer safety than SJSU. Don’t overlook WUE schools as they can offer very good merit beyond the WUE exchange tuition.

5

Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California shows frosh admit rates by HS GPA. For HS GPA = 4.13, the admit rates for fall 2020 were:

Campus Admit rate for HS GPA 3.80-4.19
UCB 14%
UCD 55%
UCI 38%
UCLA 8%
UCM 97%
UCR 90%
UCSD 39%
UCSB 40%
UCSC 82%

However, engineering divisions or majors are typically more selective than the campus overall stats may suggest. You may want to add UCM, UCR, and/or UCSC to your UC application, and CSUs beyond SJSU and CPSLO to your CSU application.

6

so are UCSD/UCI/UC Davis/UCSB reach schools or do you just suggest more safeties?

Also I thought my stats clear the bar for SJSU especially for EE

7

I’m pretty clear I cross the threshold for SJSU… what more safety schools would you suggest?

8

Overall, UCSD, UCI, UCD, UCSB would appear to be high match to low reach. For the more selective engineering majors, you probably want to consider them reach, although not as reachy as UCB and UCLA.

For SJSU, it looks very likely for EE, low match to likely for computer engineering, and reach for computer science.

9

You will probably get into EE at SJSU. That is the minimum threshold though, not a guaranteed cutoff. It really depends on who else applies.

A safety has no “probably” in it. It is a GUARANTEED admit that it GUARANTEED to be affordable. Every year students make that mistake and then get locked out.

10

The numbers listed on the SJSU web site were the cutoffs for that admission year. Obviously, the cutoffs can change in subsequent years, since they are competitively determined.

11

I misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying!

12

my backup to SJSU is community college (so I can transfer to a UC later if all else fails) the community college system is guaranteed admit right?

13

Can you suggest more match schools since it appears that all my UCs are reaches

14

UCR, UCSC, SDSU and CPP would be solid matches to add to your list.

Good luck.

15

You have great stats and ECs but admissions to UC are simply not guaranteed for anyone. Your achievements will yield you admissions to many private schools and out of state schools most of which will offer merit aid that will yield costs at or even below in-state tuition in California.

I’d add a few more safeties and private/out of state matches. It’s unclear to me if there are real guarantees coming from CC. Perhaps this year really is an outlier. Consider adding Santa Clara University, a couple out of state public’s, Arizona and Arizona State would likely admit you to their honors colleges and tuition would be at or below in state tuition.

You very well may be admitted to some of those UC reach schools but have a few other low cost options that you’d truly be happy at.

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16

A match isn’t a school you’re guaranteed to get into. It’s a school where your stats hit the median. Some schools, Stanford for example, are reaches even if you hit the median or above. They’re wholistic and just get far too many apps to accommodate everyone.

That said, even though engineering is more competitive, I would suspect all your UC schools with the exceptions of UCLA and UCB to be matches.

You really need another safety or two. You could bail to CC if you get locked out, but if you can afford it, there are lots of solid 4 year schools to consider.

UCM is probably a safety and an up and coming option. They don’t offer straight EE though. I would think Cal Poly Pomona would be too. Engineering is so competitive though. @ucbalumnus will be a better judge of this.

Outside the state Colorado State and Oregon State both participate in WUE. OSU usually doesn’t, so that’s a bonus. Both would be safeties.

Any reason Cal Poly (the original :smiley:) isn’t on your list somewhere? They have a great engineering program and in state your price is very good. I’d consider EE a match and CompE a reach. Full disclosure…my son is a CP alum from OOS. He had the stats, but didn’t have any interest in UCLA or UCB.

17

The OP’s GPA is in the “UC disappointment zone” (especially for engineering and CS applicants) where the “mid tier” UCs (UCD, UCI, UCSB) are often perceived to be “matches” or even “safeties”, but the admit rates for that GPA range suggest that they are (at best) high matches to low reaches (and more difficult than that for engineering and CS applicants).

UCM has computer science and engineering, but not electrical engineering.

Unfortunately, CPP is not transparent about historical admission thresholds like SJSU and few other CSUs (e.g. CSUN, CSUFresno) have been.

1 Like
18

would the University of the Pacific (65% admit rate) located in Stockton, CA be a good safety. They have my major. Also according to their scholarship calc, I can probably get a hefty scholarship there.

19

also forgot to mention I am applying to Cal Poly SLO

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20

and sorry for too many posts, but since these are unrelated I want to keep them separate. How low would my chance be for Cornell? Should I even apply or would it be a waste of application money?