I live in California and I want to major in Computer Science. I take computer programming classes at a community college. My top schools are Pepperdine, UC Irvine, UC santa cruz, uc san diego, and santa clara university. I do coding for fun, like HTML & CSS (language of websites) and Swift (iOS language for apps). I am currently working on a few apps and have coded a few test apps. I am also a URM (i am colombian) and a first generation student. I know that my GPA is bad, but I REALLY want to get into one of those colleges straight out of high school. If any of you have thoughts on my chances I would deeply appreciate that and be grateful for your input.
Other:
I take AP classes, I love being challenged
I am Cisco Certified in IT
no sat/act scores to share
Based only on your GPA and EC’s:
UCSD/UCI: Reach
SCU: Low reach
UCSC/Pepperdine: High Match/Low reach
CS is very competitive for most schools. UW GPA is low for most of the UC’s, so you should consider UCR/ UCM and some Cal States. Without any test scores, chancing you is moot. GPA will hurt you unless you get some amazing scores and even then many of your schools will be tough to get in. Take the ACT/ SAT and then reevaluate your list. You definitely need some safeties.
If you are not a pious Christian, take out Pepperdine.
I agreed with Gumbymom Your GPA is way to low for some school such as Pepperdine but I think you are a prefect match for UCSD and UCI which are great schools. If you have other ECs that would blow the admissions away something unexpected that would draw attention away from your GPA then you could have a higher chance at UCSC and Pepperdine.
@daydreaming101 UCSD is for people who are as good as UCB/UCLA level but couldn’t make it to those two because there are too much of good people. They are like spill from overfilled cup 3.1 UW gpa is way—too low. Even for UCI/UCD.
Woops sorry guess I was thinking of UCSC thank you for correcting me @paul2752 although both UCI and UCSC have a little higher GPA than 3.1 than accept a score range from a 3.2-3.6. UCSD is way to high 3.4-3.7. Just did the research hopes this helps. I would say try getting at least 3.5 next semester and this can increase your chances of getting into UCI and UCSC.
I am a Christian. @paul2752
Btw guys, @daydreaming101 @Gumbymom I have a 3.5 UC GPA.
UCI average UC GPA last year: 4.05
UCSC average UC GPA last year: 3.82
UCSD average UC GPA last year: 4.13
@ItsHyrdo: Unless you have some amazing essays, UCSC will be your best bet. Last year, younger son applied for CS to several UC’s. He had a 3.7 UC GPA and 31 ACT. UCR was his only UC acceptance. Since CS is so competitive, you need to be above the average. You should consider SDSU, CSULB, CSUF, SJSU and CPP as possible schools along with UCSC/UCR and UCM. Good Luck and work on getting that GPA up a bit. Also try to get a great SAT/ACT score.
Question about the GPAs in the above post… These are averages for admitted students vs. matriculating freshman, right? I looked at some common data set numbers and the first year freshman profiles at UCSC and UCSB showed lower GPAs and test scores than reported on the schools website for “admitted” freshman.
@Shuler99 lots of the time they will list the student body’s average as well as the average for an admitted student. You have to remember that you’re not applying to the student body, you’re applying to be admitted. The scores you should worry about are those for admitted students.
@gumbymom Ok thanks! I am actually considering San Diego State University (SDSU) a lot!
Now how would my chances be for Santa Clara University with my current stats?
Thanks, MandarinSin. I’m really just trying to figure out how skewed the admitted average is. Especially with lower tier UCs like UCSC and UCSB, it seems intuitive that the vast majority of admits pushing the GPA and test scores up applied as a safety option. If that’s true, then it would probaly make sense that most matriculating students are from the lower parts of the range.
For instance, the following data sheet shows that the middle 50 for GPA were between 3.4 and 3.8. That range for enrolled students is more meaningful to me than the 3.82 average of admitted students when I’m trying to assess my chances of being accepted. http://planning.ucsc.edu/portrait/docs/ucsc_profile.pdf
That’s completely wrong @Shuler99 . You’re not competing for a spot in the “enrolled students” you’re competing to be admitted. Even if they applied to it as a safety doesn’t mean they wont get accepted before you. Generally speaking, most schools don’t know who wants to go to there schools when looking at applications so they’re likely to accept high stats people instead of low unless they have a major reason to assume that the lower person will show up.
When determining your chances of getting in, you should look at the percentiles for admitted students, not enrolled.
I disagree. Based on the common data set, 75% of enrolled freshmen had a GPA under 3.8. That means something and provides more context than just looking at the average of admitted students. Of course, it would be great to have an average competitive with or better than the mean of admitted students, but the range provided in the common data set is more meaningful than a single value mean for admitted students.
Common Dataset GPA’s are unweighted. The GPA’s that I posted on #7 post, were UC GPA’s (weighted/capped) for admitted Freshman 2014. Although schools do not breakout admitted students GPA for each major, you need to expect that the competitive majors such as STEM, Psych etc… will have GPA’s and test scores above the 50th percentile so in the original posters case, for a CS major you need to have above average Stats to have a decent chance at an acceptance.
Good point! I didn’t realize that… That changes things.
Again, you’re not applying to be an enrolled student… you’re applying to be admitted. You’re competing with people for admission, not for a slot in the student body. After being admitted, it’s the students choice to attend and that’s why they admit people with higher scores; they assume that the average enrolled will be lower than the average accepted so they raise the average admitted to raise the average of enrolled. Again, remember that you’re not applying against the current enrolled students, you’re applying against other applicants.
Can someone chance me at San Diego State University and Santa Clara University? 
@ItsHydro: I chanced you for SCU as High Match/Low Reach based on GPA and EC’s listed. You really need to have an ACT/SAT score for any chancing to be meaningful. SDSU like all Cal States (except SLO) use the Eligiblility index to rank applicants for each major. You need your CSU/UC GPA and an SAT/ACT score to calculate the EI. Without both no use to chance. Here is the calculation and you want to have an EI for SAT around 4100+ and an EI for ACT around 1000+ for a good chance at SDSU.
(CSU/UC GPA x800) + (SAT Math+CR) or (CSU GPA x200)+ (ACT composite). SDSU will start accepting the highest EI for each major down until all the slots are filled.
Repost at end of Junior year when you have all your Stats.