Rejected from Purdue?!?!?

A 31 ACT is low for Purdue CS.

Also, adcoms don’t factor in ‘self studied’ APs (students often dont know that).
Do you have good, affordable safeties?

My son was accepted to Purdue first year engineering. He has applied EA. We are OOS for Purdue but IN for the UCs He is waiting to hear from Berkeley, UCSD, UCI, and UCSD. We are not CS but engineering and CS often are both highly competitive and have ballpark similar acceptance GPAs etc. He has 8 APs, a UC GPA of 4.45 and a 1400 on the SAT, plus Eagle Scout and others. The schools you listed are long shots for him. I am wishing that your school counselor had been more honest with you. I hope that this doesn’t sound harsh, but under a 4.0 UW would be a long shot for any UC. Most are averaging over 100,000 applicants. They have their choice of students. If you have an outstanding essay and maybe one heck of a “hardship” story it’s possible but I would be surprised if the schools you listed came through (hey! I’ve been surprised before so who knows!) But when my daughter applied 4 years ago she had a very similar list as you. She has a 4.25 weighted and 9 APs plus over 300 hours of community service and was wait listed at every UC other than UC Riverside. But I also want to say UCR offered her the Chancellor’s scholarship and she has LOVED it there. Sometimes you get what you need, not what you want and it ends up exactly where you should be! Good luck!