College selection/choices/chances for a clueless Junior who wants to get into a CS major

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I am a junior in highschool and I am wondering what my chances of getting into a computer science major is. My pACT score was 30 but I am going to be taking the SAT so I am predicting at least a 1400. I have already taken/currently taking/will take all the computer science classes that are offered at my highschool. Last year, I took AP computer science A (I scored a 3 on the AP test) and I am currently taking AP computer science principles. For my senior year, I have already chosen to take Web Design & Development. I am aiming for schools in CA (mainly UC’s). My GPA last year was 4.01 (unweighted: 3.88) and last semester, it was 4.5 (unweighted 4.0). So what are my chances of getting into a computer science major and do you have any recommended uni’s? Also, if my chances are low, do you know any summer programs or internships or anything else I can do that will give me a higher chance?

More info: I am an Asian female who comes from a low-income family. If you have a uni/college suggestion that is not in CA, I generally prefer to not go to a school in the South, so keep that in mind. After college, I wanna work in IT. I am a second gen. immigrant (my parents were both from a foreign country but I was born in the U.S.). I also want to know what a good safety school would be. Thanks for any help that you can give me.

2

Congratulations on your hard work! Of course, the UCs and Cal State schools will be a great place to start. They publish useful data about grades, test scores, and acceptance rates to help you determine which ones would be accessible to you. These include many great schools where you have a good chance of acceptance.

For schools outside of CA, if that appeals to you, you might google “colleges that provide generous merit aid” and “colleges that meet full financial need.” Look for ones that might be accessible in terms of admissions for you, and maybe focus on those. Understand that in the latter group, the schools may be “need aware,” and it may be tougher for a student who requires a lot of aid. Also, a school might accept you and offer aid that it deems meets your full financial need, but may not be enough in reality. Also, travel costs, to Massachusetts for example, would be expensive.

You are at somewhat of a disadvantage being a well-qualified CA female. Lots of LACs have more female applicants than male, so males can have an advantage at those, and CA obviously produces lots of highly qualified high school graduates who apply all over the country. I think you will be able to find some schools where you might receive aid, although I think it might be difficult to find ones that will be a better deal than some of your in-state schools. One that comes to mind to maybe explore is Clark University in Worcester, MA. You might also check out Holy Cross in the same city–top-notch academics and does claim to meet full financial need. Also, maybe some of the STEM schools comparable to WPI, RIT, and RPI, where the student population is heavily male, and a qualified female might have an admissions advantage.

Here is a merit aid table for Miami of Ohio, a very good school with a beautiful campus. It gives you some idea of what you might roughly expect to find at other schools, though it varies school by school, and student by student. These scholarships are not guaranteed, and someone recently posted about a student with a high ACT who did not receive one. But it gives you some idea, in a simple table. Note that they super-score for admissions AND aid. Also note that the merit aid application deadline is earlier than the application deadline, which is also true at some other schools. Good luck!

http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/

3

My S is a sophomore in Computer Science at Miami of Ohio, and loves it. It’s a rather small program, professor-taught classes (no TA’s) and he is thriving. Being that it is small, the students are easily recognized. In his freshman year he was one of 2 students selected by GE for their 3-summer summer internship program (as long as he maintains a threshold GPA). I have told many parents of students wishing to enter engineering/computer science and not interested in one of the larger “weeding schools”, to take a look at Miami OH. The classwork and program is most definitely very rigorous, but they definitely put as much into seeing each student succeed as is possible.

4

As many students change majors after freshman year, ask yourself what you might have an interest in studying as a second or third choice. Find out if the program has flexibility and if they in fact offer other likely majors. You might add Case Western (@ https://case.edu/) to your list as they are interested in geographic diversity and do well with FA. I would also second the STEM schools of WPI (https://www.wpi.edu/) and RIT (http://www.rit.edu/) as they seek the geographic diversity and would offer many related fields. As Smith College is a very old, highly respected and well financed traditional LA women’s college offering CS and some engineering, you might put them on your list @ https://www.smith.edu/. :bz

5

Assuming that you are a California resident, UCs and CSUs should offer decent financial aid, but use the net price calculators on their web sites to get estimates. Use net price calculators on other colleges’ web sites as well.

CS is often a more competitive major at UCs and the more popular CSUs, so you may want to dip lower on the selectivity scale that you would based on the campus overall stats.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html can help you with UCs, but you should assume that admission rates are lower for CS majors (and changing into CS after enrolling as another major can be difficult or competitive).

http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/ shows previous admission thresholds for SJSU. Unfortunately, other CSUs are less transparent (other than those which are neither campus-impacted not major-impacted for CS) about past thresholds (they admit by an eligibility index calculated from GPA and test scores, except that CPSLO adds additional points for other criteria).

In terms of careers, IT is usually more used to describe managing computers, networks, and software; CS is more focused on designing computers, networks, and software. If you have a more technical preference, you may prefer jobs that are more focused on design and development, rather than IT.