Hello everyone,
I am a female senior and I am applying to college this fall. Applications are open but I have no idea what schools are my safety schools but I know almost everything seems like a reach or target right now (Lol I wanna apply CS and everyone is giving me contradictory advice). Could anyone shed any light on this? Pls pls help I feel like I’m drowning and panicking and everyone seems to have it together while I’m not even too sure where to apply. Also do you guys think college will recognize though I’ve gotten a lot of B+s/Bs, they were been in really hard classes.
My Stats:
*ACC is honors at my school
Freshmen Yr
W History Acc: B+/A-
Fresh Eng Acc: A-/A-
Geometry Acc: A/A-
Bio Acc: A-/A-
Span 2 Acc: A-/A
AP Computer Science Principles: A/A
Jazz Band: A/A
Taken over summer
Algebra 2: A/A
Sophomore Yr
APUSH: A/A
AP Lang: A/A
Pre - Calc Acc: B/B
AP Physics 1: B+/A-
Chem Acc: A-/B+
Span 3 Acc: A-/A+
AP CSA: A/A
Junior Year
IB TOK: A/ A-
IB Econ HL: A/A
IB English HL: A-/A
IB Math SL: A-/A
IB Physics HL: B/B
IB Bio HL: B/B
IB Span SL: A+/A
Taken over summer (at community college):
Calc 1 and Analytic Geometry: A
Extra-Curricular:
Speech and Deb (9th -11th) (Leadership)
Varsity water polo (9th - 11th)
CSF Club (10th-11th) (Leadership)
Spanish Club
Dance
Class President (9th -12th)
Volunteer at hospital [office work, filing]l: (10th -12th)
Volunteer at teen suicide hotline not working the phones but helping around the office
JHU CTY Scholar
UW: GPA 3.72 (But my school is kinda infamous for being one of those strict grade deflating schools)
W GPA: 4.43
Sat: 1500
PSAT: 1460
SAT math 2: 800
SAT bio: 760
AP PHYS 1: 3
APUSH: 3
AP CSP:5
AP CSA: 4
What state do you live in? What is your budget? What are you looking for in a college (location, size, etc.). What are your reaches and targets?
Generally CS is a more competitive major than the stats for the university as a whole might indicate, especially for certain state flagships. That may be why you get conflicting information from some people.
I live in California and I’m really not picky in terms of things like details (size, public vs private, location, climate). My reaches are pretty typical CS reaches like Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, UCB, UT Austin, Rice, UIUC.
Im not sure but I think some targets for me could be University of Washington, UCSD, Purdue, Cal Poly SLO (if any of these seem more like reaches or safeties feel free to point it out!)
Both UCSD and SLO could be slight Reaches for CS. If you want a solid safety, I would look at UCSC along with UCSB, UCI or UCD which would be low Match schools. SLO will use 9-11th grades with a 8 semester cap on honors points for AP/IB/Honors courses while the UC’s will use 10-11th grades, 8 semester Honors point cap for the Capped weighted and no cap for the Fully weighted.
Looks like the OP’s UC recalculated weighted-capped GPA will be somewhere around 4.0, which would make UCSB, UCI, and UCD to be high match to reach for CS. The April “UC disappointment” threads are commonly from those with ~4.0 UC recalculated weighted-capped GPA who mistakenly thought of UCSB, UCI, and UCD as “safeties”, particularly for more competitive majors like engineering majors or CS.
I calculate your UC capped weighted at exactly 4.00, which will probably make the top 6 UCs as reaches of some kind. Your matches/safeties may more be along the lines of UCSC, UCR, SDSU and SJSU.
Note that SJSU’s CS threshold was 4675 in 2019 and 4725 in 2018. For comparison, OP’s CSU eligibility index is 4.0 * 800 + 1500 = 4700. http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/
However, most other CSUs are less selective for CS than SJSU or CPSLO.
Hate to break the news, but UW for CS is a reach for everyone, particularly out-of-state. It is their most-requested major but they only take something like 70 OOS students per year. If you don’t get into CS direct admit, you may still be admitted as a “pre-science” major, but there are very few spots in CS available for those pre-science kids to transfer into later. The UW website actually says that if you want to do CS and don’t get offered direct admission, it is in your best interest to accept admission elsewhere.
I’d recommend you apply to at least one or two colleges at which you could choose a CS major – as well as other potential majors, and classes in general – without significant restrictions. In this way, you could match your academic credentials to the general selectivity of the college without having to consider your choice of major. If you’d like an example, consider Hamilton’s computer science program and flexible curriculum.