My child has 5 in 3 APs, 1560 SAT GPA 3.6 - which college should he apply. Wanted Berkely, Carnegie sort off. Any chances.
Thanks to suggest and help…
The GPA will be a problem at Berkeley. Can he improve his GPA? Average unweighted is 3.87. SAT is on target.
unweighted 3.87- Yes has 6 APs, 3 As and 3 Bs
YES
Unweighted is 3.87, also President of Chess club - Candidate master in Chess. Has launched app, a
UC’s use their own GPA calculation: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Intended major? California resident for UC Berkeley?
non CA resident. Computer Science major with Math along
UC Berkeley gives little to no financial aid to out of state applicants, so he if applies and gets accepted, his costs will be $60,000+/year to attend.
not concerned of financial aid, but he wants to go to Berkley so bad. has a very unique essay - talking about his passion/ weakness in life. he thinks ti will tell is personality and strives to describe new ways to solve small problems
UCB is not a guarantee so all he can do is apply to a number of schools and hope for the best. His test scores are outstanding but his GPA will be an issue for a top school like UCB. Have him calculate his UC GPA capped weighted and fully weighted for a statistical comparison. CS is highly competitive at UCB and will only be able to declare the major after meeting the GPA requirement in pre-req classes.
thanks for the advice, what are your thoughts if he tried for Carnegie or Georgia Tech?
One more thing - he just sold and app to a school - developed an Android - have a letter of interest from the school of interest
FWIW my kid got into UCB, L&S CS major intent with almost exactly the same background - 3.7UW GPA (4.05 UC GPA) 1540 SAT, 10 AP classes, and one of his big hooks was that he also is a candidate master in chess (represented the US at the World Youth before) but focuses mostly on teaching chess and running tournaments nowadays (makes good money at it). I’m somewhat convinced that the chess was what got him in.
I think your chances would be pretty good if you apply for the L&S CS rather than EECS at Berkeley. EECS admittance rates are ultra-low and to a large degree, the 2 programs are the same (or can be made the same).
Carnegie Mellon, you should ED there if you can. They love good chess players and kids who are brilliant at math.
You do not apply as a frosh to L&S CS at UCB. You apply to L&S. If admitted, you will enter as undeclared. Then you will need to earn a 3.3 college GPA in three prerequisite CS courses to enter the L&S CS major.
If you are from a top HS with known grade deflations, you will get into top UG schools, your school naviance will tell. From previous graduates admit history, the guidance counselor will give you guidance.
@ucbalumnus just so you don’t confuse anyone, for L&S you do specify an intent major on the application, such as Computer Science. Yes for L&S I suppose you are considered as undeclared when you are admitted since there is this qualification guideline, but you do not apply as undeclared (unless you want to).
Just to follow up on my last post, apparently it doesn’t matter much at all which major you apply intent for, when applying for L&S. As such, I suppose your odds might be better perhaps to get into UCB L&S if you did apply with an intent of undeclared or something unimpacted like say Philosophy. Once you are admitted, you can choose whatever path you want within L&S.
Because UC’s weigh GPA MUCH higher than test scores, they’d be a poor fit for your son admissions-wise (very high odds of being turned down).
Also, the UC essay format is different from CommonApp (look it up on EssayHell).
He should focus on colleges that really like high scorers, like Vanderbilt or WashU.
What does he like about Berkeley CS?
Do you have 60K in a savings account for his college?
With your stats even if you get admitted in Berkley, you will be put into the “undecided” category, then you can apply for CS after a year, CS admission internally is VERY VERY competitive, so do not count on it.
For OOS, UCs are not giving any scholarships, they are stingy on FA as well, so it is a bad choice.
I think @MYOS1634 is asking if you are ready to full pay for his college? 60K is too little. 
USC (Trojans) also likes high test scores.
For UCB L&S CS, the threshold GPA in the prerequisites is 3.3. About half of students in those courses earn B+ or higher grades.