Clueless high school junior... Chance for RPI, UCs, UMich, GT, UTAustin, CMU, Purdue, SJSU, Etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Intended major: probably any engineering, data analysis, or anything else

Cumul. Unweighted GPA (Predicted by end of 1st sem. senior year) : 3.5

Cumul. Weighted GPA (Self-calculated because our school does not weight): 3.9

UC GPA: 4.12

10-12: 3.7 UW, 4.23 W 9th Grade GPA: 2.92 UW/W (No AP or honors offered freshman year)

10th grade goals: 3.42 UW/ 3.6 W

11th grade GPA: 3.75 UW/ 4.25 W

CC GPA( 3 Weighted courses: Calculus IV , Java, Physics C): 5.0

12th grade GPA 1st sem. (predicted): 4.0 UW/ 5.0 W

Note: Large upward trend from rough freshman year (2.9 GPA) and some of sophomore year (3.42 GPA), with around a .3 GPA rise each year

Class Rank: N/A

Asian male

Income bracket: N/A

California

High School: In top 50 high schools in America, students frequently admitted into T20s

SAT: 1530

ACT: 34

SAT Essay: 24

SAT II Math: 800

SAT II Physics: 760

ACT: 34

NOTE: I believe that my writing skills are well above average, so hopefully I can bang in a good essay APs and honors: AP Calc AB (5), AP Physics 1 (5), AP Physics C Mech. (5), AP Comp. Sci Principles (5), AP Econ (5), Chem Honors, French 4 Honors, AP Stats (5) AP French (5)

ECs (Not impressive) - 2 years varsity debate team - Been playing the cello since 6th grade (self-taught) - 8 years competitive soccer (wasn’t able to join school team for personal reasons) - passion for baking and cooking for others - Volunteered at a children’s orphanage in India during summer vacations - Self-studied courses (Java, multivariable calc, intro to astrophysics) - Physics and Engineering Club at school - 250+ Volunteer hours (mostly comprised of humanitarian volunteering) - Job shadowed/interned for a family friend in the computer hardware industry - Student tutor at school - Paid internship at engineering camp

  • Two gold medals for national french contest
    I understand my GPA may be under par for some of these universities, so feel free to suggest matches or closer reaches!
2

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html can help you with the UCs.

Are you sure that your UC GPA is 4.12? If your 10th-11th grade unweighted GPA is in the 3.6 range, your UC GPA is probably more like 3.9.

For CSUs, calculate eligibility index by UCGPA * 800 + SATRW + SAT_M. SJSU publishes its past thresholds at http://www.sjsu.edu/freshmanadmissions/admission-requirements/impaction/ .

For UT Austin, class rank is used in lieu of GPA. Unless you are a Texas resident in the top 6% (automatic admission), it should be considered a reach (and even the automatic admission applicants may not necessarily get into competitive majors).

3

I included community college courses during the summer, which should be part of the Weighted uncapped gpa. If I recall, I believe the capped uc gpa is only used to determine the ELC requirements, no?

4

You should assume that all UC and CSU references to high school GPA are weighted-capped unless otherwise specified as unweighted or weighted-uncapped. Otherwise, you may be overconfident in your chances of admission due to comparing your weighted-uncapped GPA to the admission stats using weighted-capped GPA.

5

Only UCB/UCLA will use the weighted uncapped GPA but all UC’s will use your capped weighted UC GPA, so that is what you should use for comparison criteria.

These following 2017 admit rates are based on the UC Capped Weighted and not major specific:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above:

UCB: 42.7%
UCLA: 47.2%
UCSD: 84.2%
UCSB: 82.0%
UCD: 90.3%
UCI: 94.1%
UCSC: 92.7%
UCR: 97.5
UCM: 98.1%

6

Thanks!

7

If you’re living in CA, you have a lot of great schools that you can go to. Going out of state for college is basically throwing away perfectly good money. I would stick with the UCs and CSUs. Your grades are excellent!

8

@coolguy40

9

Any schools you recommend?

10

If you’re interested in computers, pretty much any of these schools would land you a decent job when you graduate. UCLA and UCB might be a stretch, but you could get into most of these UC schools. It’s really more about the major than it is about the school.

11

This is really helpful. Thanks a lot!

12

If your weighted-capped GPA is 3.9 or so, you should probably consider the six most selective UCs to be reaches for engineering or CS majors, since these majors tend to be more selective than the school overall.

13

Ah ok thanks!

14

UMich would be a high reach for you from OOS due to weak GPA.

15

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats are great and your ECs are good. Write amazing essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools