I had a pretty rough Early Round with mostly deferrals/rejections (besides ASU):
UT Austin: Reject
UIUC CS+X: Reject
UMD: Reject
UMass: Waitlist
Purdue: Defer
UMich: Defer
USC: Defer
GeorgiaTech: Reject
CMU SCS: Reject
I have a 3.81 UW gpa (2 B’s in AP Spanish and 2 B’s in AP Chemistry both in junior year as well as a B in Spanish 3 in sophomore year). My UC Capped GPA is around a 4.13 and my fully weighted GPA is 4.55. I have a 1530 superscore sat (800 math, 730 Reading). I took the most rigorous coursework offered at my school (15+ AP’s taken), including advanced math taken at my local community college. My extracurriculars are pretty strong: ranked nationally in STEM olympiads, volunteer work, research, etc. Given the results from the EA round as well as my stats, I am wondering what my chances are for the RD round with schools like the UC’s (in-state), Santa Clara, Case Western, RPI, WPI, Northeastern, UWash, Rice, Caltech, and some of the Ivies. I know that the Ivies are a long shot, but I’m wondering how my chances are especially for the top 5 UC’s (UCB, UCLA, UCI, UCSB, UCSD) along with the other schools mentioned above. Is my GPA what’s causing these deferrals/rejections? As I mentioned, I took the hardest course rigor available at my school so I’m hoping that’s factored in. I also got a 5 on the AP Chemistry exam, even though I got a B in the course. I also have pretty good essays.
Here are the CS admit rates for 2022 if available. GPA alone cannot determine your chances. Edited: OP stated they applied to all the UC’s on their other discussion thread so in-state likely schools are on the list.
Campus
CS
Berkeley
2.9% L&S EECS 4.5%
Davis
No data but <20%
Irvine
5.8%
Los Angeles
3.8%
Merced
85%
Riverside
36%
San Diego
No data but <10%
Santa Barbara
No data but <10%
Santa Cruz
60%
Here is the 2022 admit rates for all UC campuses based on the Capped weighted UC GPA and does not take into account highly competitive majors such as CS.
Campus
4.00+
3.70-3.99
3.30-3.69
3.00-3.29
Berkeley
17%
3%
1%
0%
Davis
58%
20%
5%
2%
Irvine
35%
10%
3%
0%
Los Angeles
13%
2%
1%
0%
Merced
97%
97%
95%
85%
Riverside
95%
83%
42%
17%
San Diego
37%
8%
1%
0%
Santa Barbara
41%
8%
3%
0%
Santa Cruz
69%
45%
16%
4%
Academically you look like a competitive applicant. You will know in March where you stand with the UC’s. ASU is a very good option. Best of luck.
I think WPI and Santa Clara are likely - not looking at UCs so hoping one or more comes in for you. and btw nothing wrong at all with ASU - and it’s great you had a safety and hopefully affordable at that. This is the reason why. ASU is strong !!
CS is tough -but you accomplished a lot - hold your head high.
My son tells me that he knows a lot of people applying for CS and most of them have been seeing results similar to yours and they are frustrated too. These are students with ~3.9-4.0 UW GPA with good rigor, >1500 SAT, respectable ECs etc. I think it is just a very tough time to apply for CS and my gut feeling is that your GPA is not necessarily “the thing” that is holding you back. You are just facing tons and tons of competition.
That said, the UCs can only see your GPA, they can’t see your excellent SAT. So your application might not look quite as good to the UCs as it would to (for example) WPI.
UW is also a school that will not look at your SAT (like the UCs), and they admit so few students from OOS that I think that is an unlikely admit.
Santa Clara, RPI, and WPI would sound like more likely admits than the others on your list, but it’s hard to say! It’s great that you have a good safety already lined up.
Yea, it’s a bummer that UC’s don’t look at SAT. Am I correct in saying that only UCB and UCLA look at the weighted gpa without any cap (4.55)? I should specify that I did EECS at UCB not CS, and I know that CS at UCB was insanely competitive this year. But I know that EECS is also competitive, if not harder than CS. I am also showing demonstrated interest to SCU, RPI, WPI by attending virtual sessions and I also visited SCU in person so I hope that moves the needle.
I think we can assume that all of the more competitive UCs use all the 3 UC GPAs (unweighted, weighted capped, weighted uncapped).
It is just insanely competitive all around.
The main reason CS at Cal is so limited right now is that they are having very serious staffing issues. This is an interesting video that was posted on the Cal thread: 2023 EECS/Data Course Staffing Summary - YouTube
But I am sure that Cal is not alone in this, other UCs may also be experiencing similar issues to what Cal is facing (because of the union negotiations), and it seems like a lot of schools are having staffing problems with the huge demand for CS at this time… we have heard snippets of this at various schools.
What do you mean by “get ready to pull the trigger on others if none come in”? While I like ASU, I would much rather prefer schools like WPI or RPI or even Santa Clara. What do you mean by “RPI can be great, but it’s very different”? Given the choice between RPI and ASU, I would choose RPI, but I’m not sure if I’m missing something.
What I’m asking is - are you that unhappy with ASU that if nothing else came through you’d want to open up to others. That’s what I meant by ready to pull the trigger. Or would you go to ASU…which is strong and located in a tech hotbed.
Bu different I mean ASU is a huge complete university with majors galore, sports teams…traditional.
RPI is very tech focused. Not in the nicest part of the country. Very male skewed. It’s not a traditional school in the sense that an ASU or UC is.
WPI is interesting. They actually have 7 week terms. But seems hands on vs others. I would read about the issues with mental health their students suffered recently leading to unfortunately suicides.
Of course there’s a monetary factor too. ASU is likely to be less.
Don’t give up hope. You have incredible stats. A couple years ago, my daughter was deferred from many schools in EA and then got in RD at most of her schools and with a lot of scholarship money. Hang in there, you have worked hard and deserve a good outcome!
It’s going to be tough to get admits at the schools that have ED and EA but you applied RD…Santa Clara, WPI, RPI, CWRU, NEU will all have low RD acceptance rates because they have filled a substantial part of their classes in ED and EA rounds. You will get an acceptance if you fit the institutional priorities in the RD round in any of these schools.
You said on your other thread you applied to CSPLO, did you apply to any other CSUs?
Make sure to send a LOCI to Michigan and Purdue…have you done that? Have you filled out the EA deferral form at USC?
How confident are you that your LoRs are strong? Perhaps ask your GC to take a look at those?
There’s also some chance that there is an issue with your essays, you did have many to write. Did you write your common app personal statement about anything controversial? Were you very specific in the why us essays, citing classes you would like to take, profs you’d like to do research with and clubs you’d like to join?
Do you want any other suggestions for schools that are still taking apps that you might like better than ASU?
Can you explain why? This would give us a better sense of what you are looking for. RPI is nearly 70% male.
Hm, I didn’t know that RPI was male-skewed. I would rather go to WPI over RPI because of the project-based learning as well as better location (relatively closer to Boston).
I wasn’t aware that RPI was 70% male. I think I would rather go to community college for 1 year and then transfer to a UC(if I have no other options) as a junior compared to going to ASU for 4 years.
I did fill out LOCI’s to Michigan and Purdue as well as the Deferral form for USC. I also filled out the waitlist form for UMass (I put both Fall and Spring, so hopefully that increases my chances as I don’t think they accept a LOCI).
I am pretty confident that my LOR’s are strong as I had a close relationship with both of the teachers who I asked.
With regards to the essays, my common app personal statement wasn’t about anything controversial and I was specific with the why us essays, including professors/labs I would want to do research with and classes I would like to take.
In terms of RD acceptance rates for schools that offer EA and ED, how much do you think that decreases my chances? I don’t believe I fit the institutional priorities for any of these schools (not entirely sure what that means), but doesn’t it depend on how many students accept their offers from the EA rounds? I am showing demonstrated interest as well by attending virtual sessions and I also visited SCU’s campus.
You sound like my son. 4.0/4.6/1540. Deferred from UMich, USC and Santa Clara. Accepted to ASU. We are hoping for a UC acceptance. A SCU RD would be nice as well. Good luck to you!
It sounds like you are doing all the things you can be doing, so good job on that. Missing EA deadlines makes it tough…schools won’t know who from EA is committing until May 1, and assume nearly 100% commit from ED round(s).
I know getting denials and deferrals is stressful, as is the waiting. If you don’t want to put in more apps (which is ok), there’s not much more to do. Try to keep busy doing things you enjoy and focus your energy on things in your control. I wish you the best of luck, and please keep us updated.
Hm, alright. Are there any stats on schools like WPI, SCU, or Case Western from previous years on how many people they accepted in Early vs Regular rounds? Also, sorry that I didn’t respond to the question in your previous post about other schools that I can still apply to. What other schools are still accepting applications currently?
I think I would rather go to UCI over ASU, mostly because of location and proximity to home (would much rather stay in California than go out of state), which is why I really want a UC.
