Which UC computer science department would my son have a chance with following:
GPA: 4.15
SAT: 760 Math, 640 English
Math 2 SAT: 750
Just before I say anything… I’m just a sophomore girl in high school that’s enrolled in college admission schools and read quite a lot of CC posts.
I would need to have more information. Is he at a very competitive school? Is he an athlete? Does he have leadership positions? Is he disadvantaged in any way?
If he is a middle class, heterosexual, nonathletic dude with no extracurriculars in computer science or leadership positions… at a decent high school… I would actually recommend CSUs… computer science is too competitive to get into at a UC.
Now, if he has any leadership position or an EC relating to computer science… 75% chance at UC Davis or UC Irvine.
If he has a leadership position in an EC relating to computer science or a minor award in the field… 85% chance at UCSB…
But if he is disadvantaged… he does have a fair shot at UCLA or or UCB.
CS is probably one of the most competitive majors at the UC’s. The UC’s have their own way of calculating the UC GPA, so you need to know the unweighted UC GPA, Capped weighted UC GPA and Fully Weighted UC GPA.
His SAT scores are within range for several of the UC’s, but stats alone will not get an applicant accepted nor rejected. The UC’s also consider EC’s and personal insight essays in their application review. UC’s tend to be very GPA focused and HS course rigor can be a big consideration. Any AP’s, IB, UC approved Honors or DE courses and how many? Any CS related EC’s, volunteering, community service or leadership roles?
For UCLA, here were the admit rate information for 2018 CS majors: The admit rate for CS for the fall of 2018 is 8.2%. The average CS act score is a 35 and the SAT is a 1550 average.
UCLA/UCSB only offers CS in their Engineering department while UCB and UCD offer CS in the Engineering department along with CS in the College of Letters and Sciences. For the Engineering department, UCB and UCD (CS and CPE) direct admit into the major. For UCB L&S CS, they do not admit into the major but you need to meet GPA criteria in pre-req courses before declaring the major. UCD’s CS major in the College of Letters and Sciences also does not direct admit into the major but into the division. CS in L&S is not ABET accredited but CS/CPE is ABET accredited.
For UCI and UCSD, they admit into the University first and then into the major. Since CS is impacted, they would like applicants to list an alternate major that is not impacted, so their is possibility of getting into the school but not into the major.
UCR and UCM direct admit into the major but also consider your alternate major. UCSC requires applicants to apply to CS in the College of Engineering, but a student needs to take pre-req courses while maintaining a specific GPA to declare the major.
Below is some UC statistical data which is not major specific so CS majors will require above average UC capped weighted GPA and test scores to have a solid chance along with lower admit rates. Also he needs to apply widely and if a California resident, some Cal States should be added to the list such as SDSU, CSULB, CPP etc…
I would identify 2 solid safety/likely schools that he is willing to attend no matter what and are affordable. Then he can start looking for Match and Reach schools.
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
UCLA: 9%
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 37%
UCLA: 41%
UCSD: 70%
UCSB: 80%
UCD: 89%
UCI: 75%
UCSC: 92%
UCR: 96%
UCM: 98%
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71
2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
UCB: 1360-1540
UCLA: 1340-1540
UCSD: 1300-1520
UCSB: 1270-1500
UCD: 1220-1480
UCI: 1230-1490
UCSC: 1210-1450
UCR: 1130-1380
UCM: 1020-1280
UC GPA calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/