Demographics: Asian Female at a competitive top CA high school where many Asian females also want to do CS.
Intended Major: Computer Science
Academics: 4.0 U/W GPA in 10-12th grade, 2 B’s total from 9th grade & 6 APs by end of senior year (inc. APCS-5). SAT Math-800, SAT Physics-730.
Extracurriculars: CS extracurriculars include participation in hackathons and an electrical engineering internship.
Questions: What are my chances of getting into CS at UCLA, Berkeley, and UCSD? Mainly for UCLA-should I apply for a different major if I really want to go to the school? Thank you!
UCSD for sure, UCLA you stand a good and Berkeley as well if applying to the College of Letters and Science. If the college of engineering it may be a toss-up. Not sure how local context will affect your situation.
What’s your ACT or SAT score?
For the UCs, being Asian won’t hurt you, being female in CS will help you. I remember a publication saying UC Berkeley’s EECS admission rate for girls are 20+%, while for boys are ~10%. So you have a decent chance.
For UCLA, the College of Letters and Science should have a higher admission rate than the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
I think you have a good chance at getting into UCSD CS, and an OK chance at UCLA and Berkeley. For UCLA, I would say apply to the CS major in the college of engineering. If you want to study CS and go on to a career in that field, then it doesn’t make sense to change your path just to go to UCLA. Also, UCLA L&S is still highly competitive, so for your situation, i.e. female with a background that screams “CS major” your chances at CS/engineering might just be as good as, or better, than your chances of getting in L&S.
I think you have a very good chance of getting into a CS program at one or more of the following UCs: UCSB/UCI/UC Davis/SC/Riverside.