Santa Clara: Silicon Valley Job/Intern Opportunities? (Tech, CS)

Hi, so I’m planning on applying for Santa Clara Engineering as safety, but the only reason I’d even want to apply is because its in silicon valley and I’m assuming I can get good access to job opportunities and internships at good/top tech/finance companies (obviously if I can prove myself). However, I don’t quite understand how Santa Clara can even possibly fare against Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvey Mudd, etc in this job market, so are there actually good job opportunities for Santa Clara CS students?

Yes

Can you please elaborate?

SCU is no safety, stats are the same if not better than the mid-level UCs.

Are you talking about summer jobs and internships or permanent jobs after graduation?

The stats on the website were like 1400 is the 75th percentile

I’m talking about both I guess. I’d like to hear about both.

As an international student you need to be aware that obtaining employment in the US is very difficult. You need to be prepared to go back to your home country to work.

Understood. I have heard that lots of my friends have gotten jobs in America after university. And can’t you get work visas after getting a job, etc?

Stats are a lot higher for CS.

It seems to me that you’re asking a lot of questions looking for shortcuts without knowing your own stats. I suggest you wait until after you have all your stats in before asking so many questions. Entry for CS for the good schools will be way tougher than posted stats, which includes Santa Clara.

OK where do i find these tougher stats?

You need to go to each school’s website and look up their CS stats. Some schools provide that info, others do not. There is no shortcut for doing your own research.

As an international applicant, expect the international acceptance rate to be even lower.

The jobs are designed to be temporary to give students a year or so of experience so they can get a job when they return home. To hire an international permanently a company would have spend a lot of time and money to prove that there are no Americans qualified to do that job. I don’t think the chances of that, especially in Silicon Valley, are very good.

^ especially in the last two years.

If your SAT math scores are low for regular admission then they’re too low to get into selective CS programs.

Not a Safety school.
For SCU school of Engineering 25-75th percentiles below:
GPA on a 4.0 Scale : 3.67-3.92
SAT Math: 690-770
SAT EBRW: 650-710

For CS, you want your stats at or above the 50th percentile and SCU admissions is not just based on Stats. You will be reviewed “holistically” which includes your EC’s, essays and letters of recommendation. Also you will need to provide financial proof that you are able to afford to costs to attend.

I’m definitely 50th percentile in SAT. And yes my gpa is 50th percentile. i know its hollistic and i’v worked very hard on the essay & ECs. And I will be able to full pay.

(I know its holistic, but just lets focus on the scope of SAT)
So if i’m 50th percentile it should be target/match? If I’m 75th percentile it should be safety?

So basically this is target? (I know its holistic, but just lets focus on the scope of SAT) or should i change it to upper-target/lower-reach just cause I’m an international student

Rather than having someone spoon feed you, you need to research this on your own. There are plenty of threads on this very same Santa Clara sub-forum on stats of other people who got accepted, plus there are many more on other popular sites. None of us here are admissions officers.

@momofsenior1 @austinmshauri @Gumbymom @ProfessorPlum168
[Please read everything before responding]

All I’m trying to say here is that I’m looking to find where all the deeper stats are for acceptance rates per major/school in the university or SAT for the specific major/school in the university.
This applies to any university. Thank you for sharing the specifics for USC, but those engineering SAT scores were really easily found so I can’t help but think that I need to figure out how to find those stats for all my other universities (they are not easily found… they might say the general SAT or general acceptance rate even with some digging…) or else I will make the same mistake thinking the school is a ‘safety’, etc
It also helps finding international student acceptance rates.

Its hard to find these stats because even with digging deeper the class profiles / general stats don’t help (as we’ve discussed)… I’m not trying to be spoonfed, I’m just legitimately lost in finding these deeper stats for CS or for engineering.
Like you guys said it might just not be released (but I doubt it… once the stats were on some old blog by the college which was infuriating… or sometimes they’re on this pdf somewhere on the side)… . if it’s actually not released is it worth emailing the college for more info if they don’t show it on their website/if I really really can’t find it?

If you can help with sharing some resources, great! If you can’t, that’s okay.
Perhaps there is a centralized resource for all this or maybe theres a way to dig deep in the site (perhaps a specific search term) to find these specific stats.

There is no centralized resource and in many cases, you will not find the specific stats by major. As in SCU, you will find some statistical data by College but the more competitive the major, the higher the stats are needed for an acceptance. Since CS is one of the most competitive majors at all schools, assume at best you need at or above the averages and for safety schools even above the 75th percentile (schools which only use stats for admission purposes). If you get into the holistic application review so many other parts of your application can contribute to your chances at these schools. A school with an almost predictable acceptance threshold is San Jose State. They list the Eligibility index cutoff (calculation of GPA and test scores) for each major for the prior year. If you do not meet this threshold, then you do not get into the major. The Eligibility index can fluctuate from year to year, dependent upon the stats for each in-coming Freshman class. As an International applicant, you need to assume that you need to have a much more competitive overall application since many schools will cap their International/OOS acceptances.