Hello reader!
I am curious to know my chances of getting into UC Berkeley. I am a Chinese kid from Maryland, being the first generation to attend college in my family. My UC GPA is 4.46 with a 1400 SAT Score (15 on essay) 760 Math 2 and 800 Chinese. I retook the SAT in Dec, hoping for 1500. As of my Senior year classes, I am currently taking 8 AP classes. I have been active in my community (numerous hours every year in high school) and have few leadership position including: Co-Leader of MESA team, Treasure and Historian of Computer Science Club, Unpaid Tutor for Math and Chem, and Unpaid Teacher Assistant for a Chinese Class. In terms of clubs, I listed National Honor Society, FBLA, Class Council (4 years), and Academic Team. I applied to Computer Science in Letters and Science for Berkeley and Computer Science and Engineering for UCLA. I am welcome to any opinion, as I want truthful answers in my chances of getting in. Thank you!
You look like a competitive applicant for both UCLA and UCB but consider them Reaches just due to the low acceptance rate and the randomness of the UC decisons. As long as your parents are willing to pay $60K/year to attend, I am sure you could get in one of these schools.
This might not be a right place to put it, but I just noticed that I selected Computer Science and Engineering as Major and Computer Science as Alternative Major for UCLA. Knowing that the Engineering school is highly selective and assuming I do not get accepted to the Engineering school, will UCLA look at the alternative major or reject me overall?
I don’t think UCLA will consider major outside school of engineering if your first major choice was in school of engineering. D accepted a few years ago to alternate major but both within school of engineering.
“Within the College of Letters and Science, the major an applicant chooses is not a factor in the review process at the freshman level. UCLA does not normally consider the alternate choices of applicants who applied to majors in the other schools (Engineering, Arts, etc.).”
At UCB, there are no direct admits to CS in Letters and Science. Students take the prerequisites and apply if they meet the GPA threshold.
UCLA does not consider alternate majors.
Alrighty, thanks! Only thing I can do now is cross my fingers and hope that the engineering school does accept me.
When my D applied, she applied as computer engineering. She ended up contacting admissions before the January 31 deadline to change major for new applicants She added EE as an alternate major because it had a CS track. She got in as an EE, but ended up attending another UC for EECS This was in 2012 so things may have changed.
@svlab112 I’ll call them tomorrow and see if they could swap the majors or change CS to mechanical or electrical engineering. Thank you!
The America.Society for Engineering Education (asee) publishes free profiles of engineering programs with detailed stats on size of each engineering program broken out by major among other data points, if you are interested.
What is your unweighted HS GPA and UC recalculated weighted-capped GPA?
UCLA CS (in the engineering division) should be considered a reach for everyone. UCB L&S undeclared (all L&S admission is undeclared; you would have to earn a 3.3 college GPA in the CS prerequisites to declare the L&S CS major) could be a high match or low reach if you have a top-end HS GPA in hard courses.
As a non-California resident, if you cannot afford to pay out-of-state list price ($61,000 per year or so) with no financial aid, both UCB and UCLA should be moved to the high reach category, because you need a Regents, Stamps, or similarly large scholarship to afford them, and there are not that many such scholarships. (You may want to check if those scholarships still do cover the out-of-state additional tuition.)
The 1400 SAT is low for UCLA college of engineering, maybe OK for UC Berkeley letter and sciences but still on the low end. Did you take a science SAT II in addition to the math and Chinese? This is highly recommended (i.e. essentially required) for engineering applicants at most UC schools. UC schools do not give financial aid for out-of-state applicants, so you would be full pay at $60K per year, as stated above. Overall I think you don’t have much chance of getting into UCLA college of engineering, and probably have less than 50% chance of getting into Berkeley L&S. And if you do get into Berkeley and attend, then the process of getting into the CS major after two years is also very competitive. I think you probably have better/cheaper options for CS majors at Maryland in-state schools.
As for the cost of attending, I plan on receiving some aid through scholarships and the rest is paid through working. I do not mind the $$ because a) Berkeley and UCLA has been a dream school for me since a child b) I already saved a good chunk (1-2 years worth of tuition and room). I did take a science SAT; however, I did not perform extraordinary well, 720 Chemistry. My weighted is 4.2, unclear what unweighted is.
Financially, it looks more realistic for you to attend the University of Maryland. Some University of Maryland alumni do make their way to California after graduation.
So you will have saved nearly a quarter of a million dollars to pay for the public UC’s?
I agree with@ucbalumnus, it’s unrealistic to assume you will be able to afford the UC’s if you were to get through the admission caps.
U Maryland College Park has an excellent comp sci program. Even UMBC’s CS program is reputable. I’m sure you have applied to either or both. If so, it’s fine to try the UCs and compare price if admitted. Don’t have unrealistic fantasies about UCB and UCLA. They are great schools, but they suffer from all the same problems other public schools have – huge classes, graduate TAs, bureaucratic admins, impersonal professors, etc.
Do not ignore the extreme lifestyle changes involved with either of these California schools. Both are radically different from each other, as well as, being a world away from Maryland. UCB is the absolute Dr. Pepper of universities . . .you’ll either like it or hate it. There is boundless energy and creativity on the UCB campus which can be tremendously fun. But UCB can be weird, really, really weird. It is the only place I’ve seen a live, wild squirrel wearing a pierced earring. At the same time, the cold wind, fog, huge overshadowing stone buildings, can make for a chilly, lonely, depressing experience for some. UCLA is both warmer and friendlier than UCB but the crowded SoCal life can be phony and artificial, too. I think you’ll get admitted to at least one of these schools but please, please, please visit, talk, and explore with your eyes wide-open before you sign the dotted line.
After a stressful 3-4 months of waiting, I have been rejected from UCLA and as of today, I have not been informed about UC Berkeley. This is a bummer and has severely decreased my self esteem. I now feel like Berkeley will be a far reach for me and a dream that will never come true. God bless those who made it and will attend UCLA. Guess UMD is the way to go for me
You are a competitive applicant for UCB. Write amazing essays and you could get accepted
Update: Thank you to all those who have commented on this thread. I would like to inform everyone that I indeed got into UC Berkeley and will attend the Summer program and enroll Fall Semester. To those who also got accepted, congratulations!