I am a rising senior and I need help making a college list as a result of the COVID19 school closure

College Search & Selection
1

Hi I’m a Indian Male Junior from the Bay Area, and it appears that my school will be converting our grading system to a pass/fail system due to COVID-19, so I wanted to start looking at possible colleges to apply in the Fall.
Here are my Stats:
Freshman Year:
Engineering PLTW: A|A
English: A|A
Honors Global Studies/Health: B+|A-
Geometry:D+(changed to an A-)|C
Biology: B|B-
French 2: B|B+
PE: A|A

Sophomore Year:
Honors. Engineering PLTW(Weighted): A-|A+
Algebra 2: B+|B+
Chem: A|A
English: B+|A
French 3: B+|B+
Computer Science PLTW: A|A
World History: A|A

Junior Year:
Honors. Engineering PLTW(Weighted): A-|A(right now)
Physics: B| A- (right now)
APCS PLTW(Weighted): A|A (right now)
APUSH(Weighted): A+|A (right now)
English: A|A (right now)
Honors. Precalc(Weighted): B-|C+ (right now, but should go up soon because of homework)
Cybersecurity PLTW: A|A (right now)
Online:
AP Calc AB: A| A (right now) → does not go on my transcript, so I will have to submit separately
College:
Introduction to Programming → Summer & does not go on my transcript, so I will have to submit separately

Senior Year Classes:

AP Art History(Weighted) or Digital Art
Honors. Engineering PLTW(Weighted)
AP Calc BC(Weighted)
AP Stat(Weighted)
AP Gov/Macroecon(Weighted)
English Lit.
Online:
BYU PE → first semester and in-school PE → 2nd semester
College:
Fall: Introduction to Programming 2 ->does not go on my transcript, so I will have to submit separately
Spring: Introduction to Programming 3->does not go on my transcript, so I will have to submit separately

ACT: 35
M: 35, R: 36, E:34, S: 36
SAT Math 2: 790
SAT Physics: Not Taken

Extracurriculars:

  1. Tutor for teaching kids engineering and coding(6-7 hours/Week) <= might increase due to the school closures
  2. President of Engineering Club (May 2019 - April 2021)
  3. Director of Software Engineering - Startup to help streamline educational needs for students in the Bay Area
  4. Research Internship with Professor at SJSU
  5. 450 hours+ volunteering at local temple
  6. Bay Area Regionalist for PLTW+Chevron Design Challenge(Engineering competition where students design products that could be used to help students)
  7. High School Engineering Pathway Award => award given for doing very well in all the engineering courses possible.
  8. *Not sure if this counts, but I’ve been playing the violin at home.
  9. I’m releasing a website later this month which will contain videos for people of all ages to learn how to code.
  10. I’m coaching basketball over the summer, but I’m not sure if the camp will go on.
  11. I will also be coaching basketball during fall for my city’s youth rec league.

My UW GPA is around a 3.6, and my Weighted GPA is around a 3.8, but if the 2nd semester does count, it will be a 3.9.

I’m having a bit of trouble decing which schools I want to go to for either engineering, data science, or computer science. Here is my list so far:
ASU
RIT
UMinn
UC Riverside
UC Merced
UC Irvine
UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara
SJSU
Santa Clara University
USF
Cal Poly Pomona and San Luis Obispo
CSU Long Beach
RPI
Texas A&M
CU Boulder
University of the Pacific
Worcester Polytech
Virgina Tech
Purdue - Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace or data science
UIUC - Engineering or CS + [x] program

I’m having trouble shortening this list and adding colleges that could be safeties for me. I would prefer to stay in state because of tuition, but I’ve looked into colleges, like RIT, that offer scholarships to those who have taken many PLTW courses and am also okay with those types of colleges. Also do you know if college Admission Officers are going to be more lenient in regards of admissions numbers next year. My guess is that they will not, because they will want to take more International Students to fill a quota.
Thank you!

2

For UCs and CSUs, calculate your GPAs with https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ . Be sure to include high school and college courses even if they are not at your main school (college courses that are transferable count as honors).

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-general/2174563-2019-uc-freshman-admit-rates-updated.html can help you with UC admission rates by weighted-capped GPA band, but be aware that some majors (like the ones you are interested in) will usually be more selective than overall campus stats may suggest.

http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/ gives SJSU thresholds for past admission cycles based on eligibility index = GPA * 800 + SATRW + SATM (GPA is the weighted-capped version). Note that computer science is typically one of the most selective majors there.

https://admission.asu.edu/first-year/apply lists Arizona State admission requirements. But be sure to follow the links to your desired major web pages which show whether there are additional higher admission requirements for your desired majors.

3

Be sure to talk to your parents about how much they will contribute and run the net price calculator on each college’s web site to check if it will be financially realistic.

4

The University of Minnesota weights class rank pretty heavily in their admissions and scholarship decisions (if available; admissions told us at an event that they really like to see class rank because grading standards vary by high school). So it matters more how your GPA is relative to your peers at your school. Then they look at coursework/rigor, grades/GPA, test scores, and then other factors are secondary.

It’s a great school, but expect out-of-state costs to go up. If you’d need a $10-15,000/year scholarship to make it work, you’ll need to have backups in case that doesn’t come through.

5

So, I used Rogerhub’s UC GPA calculator and there are 2 possible GPAs that I can have
a) if my school ends up removing this semester from our grades, I will have a 4.00 capped GPA or b) if the school ends up finishing the year online, I will have a 3.97 capped GPA.

6

2019 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and Not major specific:
UCB: 12%
UCLA: 7%
UCSD: 33%
UCSB: 32%
UCD: 47%
UCI: 35%
UCSC: 72%
UCR: 87%
UCM: 96%

2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
UCB: 4.23 (4.15-4.30)
UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.32)
UCSD: 4.16 (4.03-4.28)
UCSB: 4.16 (4.04-4.28)
UCI: 4.13 (4.00-4.25)
UCD: 4.13 (4.00-4.26)
UCSC: 3.96 (3.76-4.16)
UCR: 3.90 (3.69-4.11)
UCM: 3.73 (3.45-4.00)

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT composite + language arts
UCB: 28-35
UCLA: 29-35
UCSD: 26-34
UCSB: 26-34
UCD: 24-33
UCI: 24-34
UCSC: 24-32
UCR: 21-30
UCM: 18-26

7

So would UCSC and UCR be target schools for me and UCM as a safety?

8

I’ve been having trouble deciding what CC courses, for this Summer, I should take if I want to pursue a career in either engineering or CS. I can take CS7: Intro to CS course(3.0 Units), Astro 10 or 20(3.0 units) (Intro to Astronomy :Solar Sytem and Stars and the Universe => I’m planning on minoring in astronomy in college), Econ 1(Microeconomics), or Chem1A(if I choose Chem1A, I cannot do 2 courses because this course is 6 units.) All of these courses are UC approved. What course would make the most sense for me?

9

I am also from California. I am a senior this year and I also applied to UMN, but make sure you can afford the high OOS price as I found it too expensive.
CA have a lot of great schools. unless your application fee re waived I wouldn’t really waste money to apply to nonaffordable school.

10

Perhaps https://www.assist.org can help you determine which may be more useful for subject credit at the UCs and CSUs that you may consider.

11

@Pokemanexpert: Yes, UC Riverside and Santa Cruz would be good target schools. UC Merced would be a safety along with CSULB and CPP. CP SLO and SJSU would be target schools depending upon if you are applying for Engineering vs. CS. CS are both tough admits at these Cal states and the most competitive major available.

Cal Poly SLO is the only Cal state that uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation with the 8 semester Honors point cap, so you would need to recalculate your SLO GPA using the Rogerhub calculator.

12

So my grades are confirmed for the semester and here they are:
Physics: A
H. Precalculus: B+
Cybersecurity(PLTW): A
APCSA(PLTW): A
English: A-
H. Engineering(PLTW): A
APUSH: A
APCalc(Online): A
College CS course( Not sure - over Summer)
How would you rate my improvement curve from freshman year to now? In freshman year, I wasn’t really that hard-working. However, this year I believe that I improved a lot.

13

So my cumulative weighted GPA is a 3.86(without calc and college CS course), while my unweighted will be a 3.62. If we were to add in the Calc and CS courses, it would be a 3.9 Weighted and a 3.64 UW. Would I be able to get into universities such as Stevens Institute of Technology, Worcestor Polytechnic Institute, Oregon State, SJSU, CSU-LB, or University of San Francisco?