The UCs do not look at freshman year. You might want to figure out your daughter’s GPA without it. From my understanding, the UCs also look at weighted grades. Your daughter might want to come in as an undeclared major, too.
For the UC’s, you pretty much need a direct admit into the CS major since switching later is not guaranteed.
OP mentioned that her D has a UC/CSU capped weighted GPA of 3.92 so UCM and possibly UCR might be options. Plenty of 4.2+ UC GPA applicants that were not admitted into CS the last few admission cycles.
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However, it is not necessarily super difficult at every campus, based on college GPAs:
- UCD: 3.0 GPA (CS or CSE). Changing Majors and Double Majors
- UCI: 2.7 (overall) and 3.0 (in prerequisites) GPA (CS or CSE). Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
- UCM: 2.0 GPA. Declaration of Major | Engineering Academic Advising
- UCR: 3.0 GPA. Major Changes | Engineering Student Affairs
- UCSC: 2.8 (BA) or 3.0 (BS) GPA. https://undergrad.soe.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/file-content-type/2021-11/CS_maj_dec_chart_2021_22.pdf
On the other hand, UCB (EECS), UCLA, UCSB, and UCSD are all very difficult to change into CS or CSE after enrolling. UCB L&S CS currently needs a 3.3 (in prerequisites) GPA, but that may change based on various proposals to limit overcrowding.
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Yes I’d reiterate Utah too. WUE gets you to the same cost as the UCs (since base tuition and accommodation is cheaper) and isn’t too hard to get (unlike say Oregon State). It’s particularly good for outdoorsy kids since there are so many national parks and ski areas nearby. SLC is a nice city with a good airport, and it isn’t a problem being liberal there. D18 had a great experience and it’s high on S23’s list.
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I think if she doesn’t get CS as a major, she will likely pursue Econ (with or without a CS minor).
I think she may apply to UCR for CSBA, so she stands a slightly better chance. Do you think the PLTW- Engineering will help much for CS/CSBA?
You can’t assume that second choice majors will be considered at UCs/CP SLO. You have to choose in advance what to apply for. Math and Econ are L&S admits, which are easier than Eng or CS. So think carefully. Though many advise not to apply for colleges/majors with secondary entry requirements (ie a certain GPA in preparatory courses), that can sometimes be better outcome than not being admitted to that college at all.
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Ah…what a bummer. Yes, someone else mentioned that to me that they may not look at 2nd choice at all. Even SJSU mentions somewhere on their website that 2nd choice majors may not be considered…I guess with impaction and all 
we found out the hard way that it is true at SJSU. Use the impaction scores (adjusted for inflation!) and carefully choose the major at SJSU.
You can look at Tech Info Mgmt (at UCSC) and CSBA (at UCR). Both are in the CS Department, but the GPA requirements are slightly lower but not by a lot.
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Depends on how difficult the secondary admission is. However, where the major is direct admit and has the largest increase in frosh admission selectivity is probably where the secondary admission is the most difficult. Where the major is only accessible through secondary admission, the secondary admission difficulty can vary widely at different colleges.
PLTW-Engineering courses help with HS course rigor and if they are UC approved Honors courses then they are weighted in the UC GPA calculation. You can check here if they UC approved Honors here: University of California A-G Course List
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