California resident
White male
Unweighted GPA 3.85
Unweighted UC GPA 3.77 (projected-confident)
Computer Science
Practice ACT 31 (Goal 33-34); PSAT 1250 (Goal 1450); Working with tutor, taking Spring and will repeat best one.
Bottom of top 10% at tiny Catholic high school.
Full pay / high EFCs / budget not a big issue due to grandparent help but saving money always nice.
Will apply early action.
Wants access to teachers, internship availability, probable 4 year graduation, not a lot of extra liberal arts requirements.
Enjoys the woods, cooler climate - enjoys PNW / Colorado - totally fine with leaving California.
Preference for college town, suburban.
Mom likes half day car ride or flight home and a campus where it’s easy to get connected with others rather than a computer school.
Visited, loved on the list: Santa Clara, Notre Dame, CU Boulder (Safety), Washington (serious reach/unlikely for CS)
I have a list of others to research but if you know of a school that sounds perfect, please share. Any other input welcome, even if you think we are being too optimistic or overlooking something. TIA!
One more thing - we are using Kickstart and I’m wondering if anyone has any comments or can link to a thread on that. I feel it might be counting some as targets that might be reaches.
*I’ve been reading some threads here at CC and some news articles and I’m quite concerned about getting put at UC Merced / Riverside due to holistic admissions. Please, offense to anyone who is there or a fan.
CS has become one of the most competitive majors for acceptance. Definitely have your son work on getting his standardized test scores as high as possible.
Very hard to beat the value of UCSD, UCSB, or Cal Poly SLO for CS. I agree UW Seattle is very much a reach for out of state, but one of the strongest programs out there.
Just by way of exploring other options you might look at Utah (strong CS), Purdue (if the geography would work—it is great for CS but is not a PNW feel), Montana State (not known as a CS powerhouse but would be a good option with honors program in a great town if not admitted to stronger programs), Oregon State, Washington State (not as strong in CS as UW, but has honors and in a nice PNW location). Some of those have WUE or other merit options that will make them pretty affordable. Colorado School of Mines also worth a look for CS.
Pretty much any of the Midwest flagships will have good CS—Michigan, Iowa State, etc.
Gonzaga and UPortland would have a similar feel and size as Santa Clara but in PNW; not the same strong CS reputation as SCU but adequate (and in the former case, much better basketball).
If you want to allow for longer than a half day flight you could expand to include Schools like Case Western and further East
If you liked Boulder then definitely check out Utah. Not so much of a party school but much better value for money for OOS students and with many of the same outdoor opportunities (and better skiing). With the opportunity to get instate tuition after the first year and possible merit aid for high test scores (and WUE as another option) the four year cost can be similar to the UCs.
Visited Michigan and didn’t like it. According to sites and programs Purdue is a likely. I wonder if these programs are too optimistic. Sometimes they don’t differentiate for CS. I’ll have to research those numbers.
Thank you all so much for the helpful feedback! I realized that we had a lot of publics on our list but there are so many small schools out there so it’s a bit overwhelming. We would consider East Coast too if strong enough in CS.
@politeperson thank you. Do you have a few private suggestions back East? I’d like him to be closer, but he would be ok going there. I think socially I’d be more comfortable with him going that far if it’s easy to assimilate and campus-centric, congenial but academic student culture.
A few worth looking at for CS that might not otherwise be on your radar: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Northeastern (if Boston would work, they have a unique co-op program which really appeals to some), Umass-Amherst (not a private, but very good CS and in a beautiful location), Case Western (appeals to more kids than I would think given the location, perhaps due to strong CS and decent merit aid for some).
If you’re looking to add reaches (some very reachy)…Cornell has the combo of CS and beautiful setting he’s looking for, Carnegie Mellon is among the best for CS. Those are pretty extreme reaches for everyone though, more in the Stanford or UW out of state direct CS admit bucket.
Honestly, some of the state schools you’re looking at are as strong or stronger in CS than all but a handful of privates, so I don’t know that I’d go out of my way looking for privates unless there are other reasons for doing so.
Definitely take a look at Colorado Mines. That one might be perfect for him.
@politeperson Thank you again! It is good to get perspective here on the quality of our California publics. However, I expect that we may be disappointed with midtier UC results due to space and policy constraints. I think the essay will be super important for UC and hope that he gets admitted to UCSC, which is actually our favorite location even though it is a less popular one. He is interested in leaving the state as well for something new and is tired of wearing sunscreen everyday. A soul who really appreciates natural, lush setting so it would certainly be nice if we can give him the whole package.
As a CA resident, you can check out your school’s record of applications, admissions and enrolled students by year for each UC (see https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school). Admissions are relatively predictable compared to most private schools, with GPA being the most important factor (although you need the other things as well), so if the school has (say) 10 students admitted to UCB/UCLA each year, you know those students will be in the top 15 or so in the class. Since you know his class rank, it should be possible for you to get a reasonable sense of whether he is likely to be competitive for UC admissions.
His school is under 300 students and not really a typical private school as many students get help with tuition, so I think it’s a bit less predictable. It looks like for half of the applicants get into the midtier UCs from our school. So that would lean toward him being accepted, but IDK after what I’ve been hearing about UCs especially with CS impaction. I’ve heard a lot of stories about people from high income families getting into Stanford or Ivy League and not UCSB or UCSD. There is a strong policy preference for first gen here and they accept some out of state and foreign students.
The customs hassle will usually add 15-20 minutes per trip. My D18 is in Montreal. It’s really not that big of an issue.
We visited UBC multiple times, and D almost ended up there. We are big fans. CS seems pretty strong. Very friendly, laid back place with great access to the city and outdoor adventures.
He needs to hit his goal test scores for CU Boulder to be a safety with CS as the major. You might as well check out Mines, but it’s really a “tech” school and has a very different feel than CU or the other schools you listed.
@ShrimpBurrito oh that’s good to know. I’d heard stories but they might have been one time issues. I’m a big fan of UBC, have known several kids who went there and loved it.