Hi everyone, first time talking here, but college admissions are rolling out now for cal states and UC’s. I was wondering how significant other factors like extracurriculars, 1st generation student, and essays matter in the application process aside from gpa. I have a 4.17 gpa and a 1170 SAT. Lower than what’s expected of my college selections. On top of that I’m Asian and a pursuing a computer science major. How do I stack up against UCI, cal poly slo, UCSD, and UC Davis? I hope that extracurricular matter a lot more than I take for granted since I have a scholarship, tennis captain, and 100+ hours of community service.
EC’s are a very small part of the admissions at Cal Poly SLO. 1st generation can help but again not a significant boost. SLO is very stats driven so GPA, Test scores and HS rigor will be the most important factors.
Your GPA is on target but SAT is well below the average for the College of Engineering of 1467. Since decisions have gone out and they are now waitlisting applicants, I would say that your chances are not looking good especially for CS since the acceptance rate is below 10%.
UCI/UCSD/UCD are still going to be stats driven but EC’s, 1st generation and essays will contribute to your overall chances but GPA and test scores will significant factors in their decisions. Again your GPA looks within range, but your SAT score is going to negatively impact your chances especially for a competitive major as CS.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 (UC capped weighted) and not major specific:
UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
UCB: 1280-1490
UCLA: 1280-1500
UCSD: 1250-1470
UCSB: 1210- 1450
UCD: 1190-1430
UCI: 1190-1420
UCSC: 1170-1380
UCR: 1090-1310
UCM: 1020-1230
I hope you applied to some other schools than the ones listed??
UCI/UCD: High Match - Low Reach for CS
UCSD: Reach for CS
Thank you for the information! I applied to SDSU, UCR,UCSB,CSUSM, and USC besides those schools. I put my alternative majors as undeclared for UCI and cognitive science for every other school. Do alternate majors get matched with you if you fail to meet criteria for your main major?
Some of the schools do consider your alternate major: UCI. UCSB, UCSD and UCR. Rare occasions SLO. USC not sure and SDSU/CSUSM do not.
i think you will get into SDSU, UCR and San Marcos. UCSB is a coin toss and USC, probably not.
I was just rejected from UC Davis and am quite discouraged about my major now being a reach now. I do have an interest in cognitive science, will switching to it help my chances at the remaining UC’s?
Your SAT score, along with your major has made it difficult for some of your choices.
You’ve already applied, and they have finalized most of their decisions by now. You can’t decide NOW that you want a change of major to impact your application. Not going to happen.
Agree with @aunt bea that it is a little late to be switching majors. Once you get all your decisions, then you can look into changing majors as an in-coming Freshman if that is want you want to really do.