UCSB is my dream school but the only major I would want to go into would be computer science. I’m also getting recruited by the coaches so I was wondering if they would be able to help me get into the school of engineering.
My stats:
UC GPA: 3.91
ACT: 31
APs: CompSci P and A, APUSH, (waiting for these scores) and next year I’m taking AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Gov / Microecon
I’m taking Math 2 and Chem subject tests soon and I plan to get 700+ on them
Could I get in? I couldn’t really find any information about it and I’m stressing about it.
If you are an athletic recruit, then I would say if the coaches concur that your stats are fine for UCSB, then assume you are good.
As a regular CS applicant for UCSB, I would say that your UC GPA is on the low side (below the 25th percentile) while ACT is on target. CS would be a tough admit if not being recruited.
GPA and test scores of middle 25%-75% students for 2017 Freshman at UCSB and not major specific:
High School GPA (capped weighted): 3.96 - 4.25
ACT Composite Score: 28 - 33
ACT English Language Arts: 26 - 31
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:
UCSB: 53.6%
I would expect being recruited could get you accepted, but probably not into college of engineering. They have a small program. Mine applied CS & was given an offer of honors college for any major in college of Letters and Science with a 4.5 uncapped/ 4.3 capped UC GPA. Be sure to apply to CPP, CSUF, SDSU to give yourself options. CS is a tough admit these days.
I agree with @CopperlineX2 that being recruited will help your admission to UCSB, but being an athlete and the workload required for CS might be an issue. If you are really being courted by UCSB for your sport, the coaches and the recruiting staff would have a better insight on the admission policies for athletes and their engineering programs.
It would help if you could give evidence of computer science achievements on your application. Examples might be doing programming for FIRST Robotics, writing an app, competing in a programming competition, or helping kids learn to code. Use your essays to describe how CS is something you feel driven to do.
@E4tHam That’s not true. Sure those numbers make you competitive, but at most of the UCs the GPA won’t need to be that high. We have a kid at UCSB in CoE who had a slightly lower UC GPA than that (but higher SAT) and is a Regents Scholar there. Another one got multiple Regents with just barely higher than 4.4, so that is certainly not the lowest GPA needed to even be considered.