Hi y’all. COSMOS just finished and now I want to talk about what it’s like since I only see posts on how to get in and whatever. I went to COSMOS UCSC for Video Game Design this year as a rising senior & I LOVED it so much.
Admissions:
I believe UC Davis’s program is the most competitive out of the 4 schools, idk the rate but I know these were the acceptance rates for the other three this year:
UC Irvine- 19%
UC Santa Cruz- 27%
UC San Diego- 25%
As for Video Game Design specifically, the acceptance rate was 10%. At UCSC, Computer Networking and Robotics was the most selective and I believe Video Game Design was the second most selective. It’s probably because they were basically the only two CS clusters for COSMOS. Biomed is also very competitive. Also, everyone either got into their first choice cluster or got rejected, is what I saw. Your essay definitely matters the most. Your professors are the ones who are reading them. The average accepted GPA for UCSC is 3.91 I think.
Academics:
Video Game Design was SOOOOOOOOO not demanding of previous knowledge. You didn’t need to know coding or anything. The first week was actually way too slow in my opinion. I almost cried because I thought we were wasting time. Later, though, they showed us more stuff and stuff, They also have guest speakers/professors and that was really cool.
Residential Life:
I know UCSC and UCSD are reallllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy sttrict about “free time” stuff. It’s probably cuz UCSC is actually in the mountains but they basically didn’t let us go anywhere on our own, and I heard that about UCSD too. They give us a lot of “mandatory fun time”, like group activities and stuff that you can’t skip. From what I’ve heard, UCI and UCD give you a lot more free time and you can go places as long as you have a buddy, or something like that.
Honestly though when I first started the program I was so surprised that COSMOS is so highly regarded since it was so packed with regular camp activities like making friendship bracelets and picnics and dances and stuff like that.
ya, nobody asked me to do this lol. But here it is.
Was it worth the money in your opinion? I’m thinking about the biochem cluster at UCI, but I’m not exactly sure what I’ll take away from the experience. Is there a big emphasis on lab practices, or just things I could read about online?
For anybody else that did COSMOS, do you think it accurately shows what a major (such as biochem) is like?
@shellll
I did Cluster 4 (Chemical Biology) at UCI this summer! I loved the experience so much.
We spent a decent chunk of time in the lab. It was structured more like a class with lab procedures written out for the first two and a half weeks or so, but the labs were really interesting. 3 days a week were lectures and the other two were long lab days (both before and after lunch). Prof. Van Vranken is super chill and he shares the slides so you can go over them later too. It focused a lot on pigments and molecular structures, which judging from your profile pic I think you will enjoy!
You don’t get to pick your group for the final research project, but in general our cluster was very close, so it wasn’t a big deal. I highly, highly recommend this program if you’re looking to have a fun, summer in dorms with a solid learning experience, but if you are interested in cutting edge research, it might not be for you.
I might expand upon this later and make a new thread so if you have any other questions feel free to ask!
What are ya’ll’s stats? I’m kinda nervous because freshman year my GPA was only 4.143 (low compared to classmates) and this year hopefully it’ll be 4.4 if I continue to get all As… Im in a few clubs and stuff but nothing special, did u guys have a ton of ECs and lab experience?
@avgsopho1223 I think your gpa is fine. As a junior I had a 4.31, which was 9-10 when I applied, I believe? I didn’t have any lab experience, and I have more ECs than the average person at COSMOS, but they weren’t super cool state-level recognition stuff, just a couple of club leadership stuff. Most of my ECs aren’t STEM related. I had Youth and Government, Girls Who Code, Green Lab (environmental awareness club), and a few other small ones I think. I def think that my essay was what got me in