My junior likes Computer Science and gaming (but not looking at gaming as a career). Attends a tiny school for 2E kids (gifted and learning differences). Has ADHD, which has been effectively managed. Considers himself one of the more neurotypical at his school.
After a freshman year of B’s (hello, distance learning), he’s gotten all A’s. ACT of 34. Should be a NM Commended Scholar, given his PSAT.
But his school doesn’t offer AP’s and he hasn’t wanted to do Honors classes until senior year. He just signed up for a Concurrent enrollment course this spring in CS. So, his GPA is currently about a 3.8 UW (4.0 for UC’s).
EC’s are not stellar, but he has shown growth. He’s tutoring less-privileged kids in math and just told me he wants to start a tutoring program at his school. He has built his own Roblox games. His passion is bouldering and he was a fencer until he was injured. Summer pre-college program in Logic last year, will learn about AI this year.
He’s an excellent writer and I think his essays and LOR will be strong.
Any suggestions of schools to investigate, at any level of reach/target/likely? He is interested in CS, but knows how competitive it is. We are in CA, so all the UC’s are on the list, but not sure if any would come through. We visit University of Denver in April, and places like WPI/Clark in June. If he could get into Rice (not happening, I know), that would be the ideal sort of place. Looking mid or small, but doesn’t matter where. No financial aid needed.
Best shot for CS at a UC might be UC Merced, if he’s open to that possibility. We also have excellent CSUs - has he looked at any of those? Cal Poly Slo, Cal Poly Humboldt, Pomona, SJSU, etc. Depending on where you live, your local CSU will likely have a preferential admissions program for local students.
What about some Cal States if you are in California? Several Cal States are not impacted for CS which would make good Likely options:
CS is a highly marketable degree so name/prestige is not as important. My son went to SDSU (ABET accredited) for CS and is doing extremely well post grad as a Senior Cybersecurity Analyst 4 years post graduation.
Here are some UC CS admit rates along with some of the Cal States that I have compiled. Some campuses are not forth coming with data but it does give you an idea of how competitive CS can be.
CS admit rates for 2022:
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 around 5-6%
Santa Cruz
60%
SLO: 9%
SDSU: 40%
CSULB: 54%
SJSU: 31% but to be competitive, a CSU GPA of 4.35 was need to meet the threshold for admission.
What the admit rate data does not show is how competitive that applicant pool can be for each campus especially if GPA admit ranges by major are not available.
Thank you. He’s not concerned with prestige, so we are open to all. That said, I’m hoping for him to attend somewhere where it’s a low number of commuters, so he gets a weekend college experience (in all its glory, lol). Was starting to look at Cal Poly, but even that looks like a pipe dream, acceptance-wise (on this forum anyway). Will investigate others!
Thank you for this info! And glad to know you have first-hand experience with a Cal State for CS. Is there any chance of a transfer to a different UC, if he started at a Cal State, or at Merced?
Community college transfers have first priority in UC transfers but UC to UC and CSU to UC transfers are definitely possible. This issue with the CSU to UC transfers is the articulation of courses. UC to UC transfers would be slightly easier with articulation and each campus may have different required transfer courses.
CSU to UC transfers are more difficult since there are is no source for the course articulation. You would have to try to compare the UC required transfer courses to the CSU courses via Assist.org.
If considering the transfer pathway, CC to UC is a well proven path and a great backup. The only limitation with CS, is the UC TAG program for CS is only available for UCM and UCR. All of the rest of the UC’s do not offer their CS program as an option for their TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee) but students can transfer as a regular transfer.
Also I would not attend any UC or CSU with the expectation of transferring. You would be surprised on how many students plan to transfer out of the original college and end up staying.
Awesome info, thank you. I guess his Concurrent enrollment at Santa Monica College (which is a transferable class) will put him on the right track, should other universities not come through! Man, this year is going to be a doozy…
These three schools are not impacted in CS (according to the PDF that @Gumbymom linked) and are classified as residential campuses, so I’d take a good look at these as possible schools, though perhaps someone else can indicate how likely they think an acceptance would be for them.
Cal Poly Humboldt: About 5400 undergrads
Cal State - Monterey Bay: About 6700 undergrads
Cal State - Chico: About 14k undergrads
As your son may have different feelings about urban/suburban/rural, climate, etc, this is a pretty wide-ranging list of schools that your family may want to consider:
Brandeis (MA): About 3600 undergrads
Bucknell (PA ): About 3700 undergrads
Clarkson (NY): About 2900 undergrads
Gonzaga (WA): About 5k undergrads
Illinois Institute of Technology: About 3k undergrads
Lafayette (PA ): About 2700 undergrads
Lehigh (PA ): About 5500 undergrads
Macalester (MN): About 2200 undergrads
Manhattan (NY): About 3200 undergrads
Occidental (CA): About 2k undergrads
Pacific Lutheran (WA): About 2400 undergrads
Rensselaer Polytechnic (NY): About 5600 undergrads
Rose-Hulman (IN): About 2100 undergrads
Seattle (WA): About 4200 undergrads
Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ): About 4100 undergrads
Trinity U. (TX): About 2500 undergrads
U. of Denver (CO): About 5900 undergrads
U. of Portland (OR): About 3600 undergrads
U. of the Pacific (CA): About 3300 undergrads
U. or Rochester (NY): About 6600 undergrads
U. of San Francisco (CA): About 6k undergrads
U. of Tulsa (OK) About 2700 undergrads
Wentworth Institute of Technology (MA): About 4k undergrads
Thank you for this list…will have him research all and add to his list! I’m hoping he likes DU because we have relatives in Denver, which could be helpful.
If your son has a sense of how he feels about Greek life, or the level of enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports, climate (How would he do with lots of overcast weather? Or does he prefer warm weather, etc?), types of locations (middle of nowhere, in a major city, or somewhere in-between), what kind of “vibe” he likes, etc, then posters here may be able to help narrow down this list. But if he’s completely wide open, then there’s an array of schools with different attributes that can help him to think about what his preferences are.
He’s not into Greek life or sports, and he claims that he doesn’t want to go anywhere too, too rural. But, other than that, he’s wide open. Doesn’t matter how near/far (we’re in Los Angeles), big/small. He’s quirky/nerdy, but also has a preppy side. And given that he’s very smart, but with a low GPA for selective places, it’s been a conundrum.
It’s so different than my oldest son, who knew exactly what he wanted to study (Japanese & Linguistics) and where (University of Edinburgh).
What is too too rural? You might take a trip up north and visit Chico and Humboldt. While they might feel rural compared to LA, it isn’t like they don’t have cell service.
In terms of rural, Bucknell, Clarkson, and Rose-Hulman would probably be the ones that are the most rural on the list.
With respect to Greek life, Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh used to have a reputation for more Greek life, but there have been some recent threads discussing if that remains true today. So something to investigate at those particular schools.
I’m glad Clark is on your list. Immediately came to mind- recently rated #1 for game design. Good size, good for “late bloomers”, about 90 mins from Boston Logan (albeit a long ways from California)
