Chances for CS programs

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi. I’m currently a junior and will be applying to college in the fall. I’m targeting a variety of CS programs and would like to know my chances for them as of right now and how I can improve them, especially for the reaches.

Info:
Chinese Male
Southern California
300k+ income
10-11 Uw gpa (predicted): ~3.7-3.8 (So far I have 3 B’s in history, a B in honors chem from sophomore year, and a B in AP Calc BC this year. I also got a C in English the first semester of this year (kinda my fault but I take full responsibility). I’m predicting two B’s this semester.)
UC GPA: ~4.0-4.2
10-11 Weighted GPA: ~4.4-4.5
PSAT: 1410 (660 verbal, 750 math)
ACT: 35 (35 E, 35 M, 33 R, 35 S, 8 Essay)
SAT 2: Math II (800), Chem (760)
AP: Comp Sci (4), World History (4), Physics 1 (4), Physics 2, Chem, Psych, Calc BC
Community College Classes: Data Structures and Algorithms (A)
Awards: AP Scholar (should have distinction by the end of this year), AIME qualifier, USNCO qualifier

Extracurriculars:
FTC Robotics team mechanical member (10-now) - we’re not really competitive and have never won anything, but it’s a lot of fun and this could be a good essay; should secure a leadership role next year
Math Team (10-now) - weekly meetings and practice for competitions; we’ve competed in a few local competitions but have never really done that great
Volunteering (11-now): have about 15 hours
Online CS courses (11-present) - I’ve completed a few edX and Coursera courses and have some certificates
Personal CS projects (April 2018-now): I’ve recently started doing personal projects after learning over 10 programming languages tools/online; I’ll release some of the apps I’m making to the App Store; developing websites for school clubs
Hackathon Organizer (May 2018 - present): a few friends and I are organizing a hackathon at our high school which will take place in November
Competitive programming (May 2018-now): I’ve been doing a lot of practice and think i can achieve a pretty respectable rank; I’m also competing in the USACO next year and have a good shot at making platinum
Research with USC professor (april 2018-now): I’m developing a novel algorithm to reduce computer hardware energy consumption; applying for a patent; likely to publish in a few relatively prestigious journals/conferences; will be submitting to Regeneron STS/Siemens/Google Science Fair/JSHS and I’m hoping to get semifinalist
Software development intern at educational robotics startup (8 weeks during summer 2018): its ~75% remote and ~25% on-site
CS Club founder/president (starting next year): I’ll give weekly lectures and lead everyone through a semester long development cycle
Model UN (joining next year

You can see that most of my worthwhile ec’s were started late in junior year. I didn’t really do too much during the first 2.5 years of high school and I assume this will hurt me a little bit. Though I absolutely love doing computer science research (genuinely interested in the theoretical side) and developing websites and apps and I’ll definitely highlight this in my essays. I’ve also spent a lot of time socializing

Intended Major: applying for CS in the engineering department everywhere

Also, I’m planning on doing RD to all of them.

Schools:
All the UC’s (EECS at Berkeley) plus Cal Poly SLO
Stanford
Harvard
Princeton
MIT
Caltech
Upenn
Cornell
Brown
CMU
Umich
USC
GATech
UIUC

So, please give me an idea of where I have a good shot at and how I can improve my chances for the reaches. Also, feel free to provide other suggestions. I’d like to have a good list of schools to apply to and come up with a strategic method to target the reaches. And maybe narrow down the reaches a bit.

2

Oh, I’ll also add that I should be able to get an excellent letter of rec from the professor I’m working with (he’s tenured). Maybe that will help??

3

Here are the 2017 UC admission rates by UC weighted capped HS GPA, from http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21182988/#Comment_21182988 :


Campus  4.20-   3.80-   3.40-   3.00-
        higher  4.19    3.79    3.39
UCB     43%     13%      2%      1%
UCLA    47%     12%      2%      1%
UCSD    84%     39%      7%      1%
UCSB    82%     45%     10%      1%
UCI     94%     52%     11%      3%
UCD     90%     56%     17%      4% 
UCSC    93%     76%     44%     14%
UCR     98%     90%     63%     23%
UCM     98%     96%     89%     57%

Given that CS is more selective, you are probably looking at:

UCB high reach
UCLA high reach
UCSD reach for CS, low reach for campus (but getting into CS after enrolling is difficult)
UCSB reach for CS, high match for campus (but getting into CS after enrolling is difficult)
UCI low reach for CS, high match for campus (getting into CS after enrolling needs a 3.0 technical and 2.7 overall GPA)
UCD low reach for CS, high match for campus (getting into CS after enrolling needs a 3.0 GPA)
UCSC high match for CS, match for campus (getting into CS after enrolling needs a 2.8 GPA)
UCR match for CS, likely for campus (getting into CS after enrolling needs a 3.0 GPA)
UCM likely (almost safety) (CS does not appear to be a more selective major)

USC may look more favorably on your test score heavy profile, compared to UCs which more heavily favor GPA. But it is probably still a high match at best.

CPSLO’s MCA point system appears to favor test scores more than the eligibility index point system used by other CSUs.

UIUC is a reach for CS, but may not be that difficult to get into the campus. But getting into the CS major after enrolling is difficult. UIUC also has partial CS majors (e.g. math/CS, statistics/CS, CS+linguistics, CS+anthropology, etc.).

All of the other private schools are reach for everyone.

4

@ucbalumnus Does this mean that if OP is truly willing to attend Merced, he doesn’t need additional safeties?

5

@gallentjill The bottom tier UC’s are the only safeties I can think of. Any other specific suggestions?

And how do I know whether or not a school is a safety? Can I consider it a safety if the acceptance rate is at least 40%?

6

@ucbalumnus just wondering, why are you considering UCSD a low reach for the campus and and UCSB, UCI, UCD high matches for the campus? My GPA seems to be within range of accepted students and my chances seem to be better than 1/3 based off of sheer numbers. Is there something else I’m missing?

7

My son had 3.95 unweighted UC, 4.33 Weighted capped, and 4.5 uncapped UC gpas. He and the salutatorian were the ONLY ones from his school to get direct admit to UCSD CS. Several others with a few B’s got in undeclared but not for CS like they wanted. GPA is king for the UC’s. They want to see you get tippy top grades in all your high school classes because they know their quarter system and class rigor will be overwhelming. He was waitlisted at Cal Poly CS and was accepted off waitlist. Add Cal Poly Pomona to be safe. Be sure to add Santa Clara as well.

8

Do you have limitations or preferences for location. You have all the Ivies on your list so I assume you are willing to travel outside of California.

9

Probably if he is ELC-qualified (UC weighted capped GPA >= the threshold GPA for the top 9% set by a recent previous class from his high school), since ELC-qualified applicants are supposed to get into a UC (not necessarily the one of their choice, so the usual result is a UCM admission if they get shut out otherwise). If not, UCM is as close to a safety as it can be without an explicit automatic admission statement (but 4% of 2017 applicants in his GPA range were not admitted in 2017), which is why I wrote “likely”. Perhaps those in his GPA band who got rejected from UCM wrote exceptionally poor essays?

The OP may want to add another safety anyway.

Admit rate for your GPA band is lower for UCSD than UCSB, UCI, UCD.

Of course, there is some subjectivity on how low reach, high match, etc. are defined relative to admission rates for those in your stat range.

10

@CopperlineX2 Are you saying that you need pretty much straight A’s to get into UCB, UCLA, or UCSD for engineering? Are they really more stringent on GPA than the top privates? AFAIK, 3.75+ unweighted is usually considered good enough for the top privates. Also, do they care about what classes you got the B’s and C’s in? Will it hurt less if the majority of my less-than-A grades were in English and history? And will the A’s in CC classes, the Olympiad awards, and the graduate-level research compensate for my low GPA?

And Sure I’ll look into Santa Clara. I didn’t know it existed until you mentioned it. It looks like a pretty decent safety school.

@gallentjill If it’s a very good school with a great reputation and CS/engineering program, I don’t care where it is. Location isn’t really a priority.

11

I think you are messing up your unweighted GPA calculation. Unless I am misunderstanding something, you have 6/7 credits of Bs and a potential C.

Use this to calculate unweighted GPA (keep in mind that some colleges, such as the UCs, have their own way of calculating GPA, as you know):

A/A+ = 4.0
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.0
B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.0
C - = 1.7
D+ = 1.33
D = 1.0
D- = 0.7
E/F = 0

12

@yikesyikesyikes my school doesn’t give +/- grades. 80 and 89 are treated the same. It’s kinda unfortunate because my gpa would be much higher (I’d have 4 B+'s, 1 B-, and 1 C+).

13

@Huangmaster

Fair enough, I guess you can just use this scale:

A = 4.0
B = 3.0
C = 2.0
D = 1.0
E/F = 0

14

CS is not really my field but how about these for matches/safeties?

Purdue
Penn State
University of Delaware
UMass Amherst
University of Connecticut
Boston Univeresity
New York University
Northeastern
Georgia Tech
Umass Amherst
RPI

15

@gallentjill sure, all of those are definitely possible options, except for University of Delaware and University of Connecticut.

And I could probably apply to up to 20 schools. Maybe 2 safeties, 5-12 matches, and 5-12 reaches. I’d like to figure out which reaches I should apply to and how I can target them the best.

16

From what I understand, UCs do not use +/- for GPA calculations for frosh applicants, but do use +/- for college GPA calculations for transfer students.

Since the OP is a frosh applicant, +/- should not matter for his GPA calculator for UC application purposes.

17

Be aware that some of the schools listed in reply #13 have more competitive admissions for CS majors and/or a secondary admission process to get into the CS major after enrolling.

18

Re the privates (at this point, others can explain the UC situation better.)
The B in honors chem and AP calc BC are tough, as they relate to your interests. The volume of B grades is tough, partly because they want kids fully on their game and partly because once there, the classroom bar is high. Adcoms select not just for admits but for college classroom strengths.

The 4 scores in comp sci and physics 1 are tough because, again, they relate to your major interest, reflect learning success. (A 4 isn’t bad, per se, but this is a fierce competition, they’ll cherry pick.)

And the cherry picking: as said before, it’s not like you offer an outstanding record in EC depth and breadth. As you realize, lots of what you project listing on your app is yet to be done.

Sorry, but lots of kids do online courses, personal programing, create apps, do internships, enter contests. Plus non-stem activities in high school, and significantly more service, in their communities.

The UC research is good, but you’ve barely started, will likely not publish anything (it’s a long cycle to get work vetted, acepted, then enter the publishing timeline. And your name on an article, as a hs kid, is nice, but not a tip.)

And the other sumer work is good- but the value in the sw development internship (or similar, in engineering) is in the collaboration, the interactions, teaming, etc… No telling how it being mostly remote will be seen by adcoms.

You’re asking for a projection based on “If” I do this or that, not an estalished record, yet. Add to that, thousands of kids will apply for stem from CA and these colleges like geographic diversity.
…

What I suggest: you can finalize reaches in 4 months. For now start looking hard for safeties, colleges and universities that do not expect a long term, fuller picture of activities and for whom B’s and 4s are within range of their sucessful applicants. Get a Fiske Guide to colleges and as you find schools in your range, explore their EEand CS oferings and strenths. I can’t suggest many of these, my perspective is the most competitives. I know what comes in stem/ engineering apps for that level and it’s ridiculously competitive- there is no magic trump card.

So CYA first.

19

A non-impacted CSU where CS is not an impacted major is a safety, since you easily surpass the CSU baseline eligibility criteria (for California residents, 3.0 GPA with any test score, or a sliding scale of lower GPA and test score; GPA is calculated like UC weighted capped). However, the only CSU campuses that fit this description are CSUB, CSUCI, CSUDH, CSUStan, and SFSU.

However, it is probable that all CSUs other than CPSLO and SJSU are very likely admits for you even for CS. But only SJSU and CSUN appear to publish past frosh admission thresholds.

20

Well, since nobody addressed the elephant in the room yet, let me address it. You are an Asian Male wanting to study Computer Science. Look around and check other Asian Male CS applicant’s GPA and test scores and ECs, then decide if you still want to apply to the Ivies and Stanford/MIT/Caltech. Several people already mentioned that CS program usually require higher stats and ECs; and an Asian Male applying to CS will require even higher than the already high stats and ECs.

IMHO, if you apply to all UCs, you have your safety covered (with UCSC, UCI, UCR, UCM). You can add a few high reaches for lottery, but don’t expect much from those. If you want a slightly better chance of Ivies, do ED to UPenn and Cornell.