My daughter is applying for Fall 2018 to SDSU, CPP, and some UC’s --UCSC, UCR, and maybe UCD. Her GPA is 4.1 w/UC, SAT is average (1190), but would be a little higher if superscoring. Her essay score 17, and she has average EC.s. Her interest is in Bio, but she likes Chemistry. Since Biol Sciences are impacted would it increase her chances of admission to the UC’s /CSU’s to apply to Chem or Biochem?
your ap list is fine and your daughter is already a well qualified candidate for most of schools you list. Davis is the only one that could go either way. I’d encourage her to apply for the major she’s interested in and let the chips fall where they may.
Why no CP SLO?
SLO with an SAT score of 1190 when the average for the College of Science and Mathematics is 1391, projected acceptance rate of 12% for Biology and over 4000 applicants for that major, will be a tough admit. If she wants to add it as another Reach school, then submit the app.
If she was applying to a less impacted and competitive major than Biological Sciences at UCD, she would have a better chance there such as Chemistry. Biochem is still in the same College.
What does she plan to do with the Biology major, that may be more of importance in determining which schools to target?
She’s interested in lab research, or working in a state or federal wildlife program, like Marine Mammal Center. Possibly zoos. Her big dream was vet school but she isn’t sure she wants to stay in school that long now.
Also, I’ve noticed that the CSU system EI for the sciences seems to be rising A LOT every year. I’ve looked at a ot of posts on this board and the EI threshold rises as much as 100 points a year on some campuses for popular majors in STEM. Just want to be sure she has a choice of admits. We’re panicking a little.
I think if she applies widely, she will have several great options.
If she wants to work in the Wildlife area or Chemistry, I would suggest she consider these alternate Environmental Science majors including Environmental Toxicology offered at UC Davis. SLO and CPP also have Environmental majors. A slightly easier admit than straight Biology and some great research opportunities available especially at UC Davis.
UCD offers internships and research with their Bodega Marine Institute.
http://bml.ucdavis.edu/about/bml-news/cmsi/
(Older son just graduated as an Environmental Science Major from UCD).
Majors and Minors for College of Agriculture and Environmental Science:
http://www.caes.ucdavis.edu/students/academics
Any of these type of fields will involve a graduate degree, so she should plan for that.
Also check at Santa Cruz’s Environmental major and concentrations: https://envs.ucsc.edu/undergraduate/prog-reqs/index.html
SLO’s Environmental majors and concentrations; http://nres.calpoly.edu/degrees_b.ldml