What are my chances are my college list? + Berkeley L&S or MET and EECS?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics: Asian Male in the Bay Area, pretty competitive private high school. No hooks. No financial issues.

Intended Major(s): Computer Science, looking for a minor in Business/Econ and maybe in astronomy/physics/bio/math.

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1520 (720 RW 800 M), will retake again just to see if I can get better (realistically could probably get 1550+)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.94 UW, 4.39 W (1 B in English 1 H in freshman year, and 1 B+ in APUSH Junior Year S1)

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

Took 1 AP in soph year + 1 self-study AP. Got a 4 on both.Taking 4 this year + 1 self-study.Taking 5 next year + 1 self-study (maybe).

Pretty much the most rigorous possible courses (school limits aps), probably around 11-12 APs by the time I graduate.

Awards:

Math – Math League, Qualified to Nationals in Freshman Year. Math Kangaroo, Nationals Winner, ranked 10th nationally.

FRC Robotics - 2nd place at worlds, won every competition we went to other than Worlds.

Policy Debate - Won 2 local tournaments. Placed as 9th alternative at State Qualifiers. (might be trying out public forum fo next year instead of this)

Congressional Debate - Placed 2nd at 3 local tournaments. Semifinalist at a big tournament. Top 30 at CA state tournament (Semifinalist).

Reached apple top charts for the app (award?)

I would love to hear recommendations for competitions or awards to try for!

Extracurriculars:

App Business CEO/Founder: By far my most meaningful activity to me although it’s not too impressive. I built and a unique iOS app from scratch, and I consistently roll out updates. It has around 1000 downloads, but I recently recruited a few people to the team instead of doing everything solo, the story behind it is pretty cool and it has a good message.

Software Engineering Intern at a pretty big VC-backed software startup. I contribute a lot and have directly pushed a lot of features to production. Did most of a customer service re-invention project, currently helping recruit a senior software engineer (lol), did marketing analytics work by working with an SDK within the app (Swift), learning a ton about management and tech, very insightful for me especially since this is a startup.

CTO of a startup a few friends and I are starting. It’s a unique marketing platform, and we have validated it with several businesses and have started the development process. MVP is almost done, and we will try to get some VC/traction/join an accelorator this summer.

Speech and Debate all 4 years. Compete in Policy Debate, Congressional Debate, and Original Interpretation Speech. This is a big commitment and my school is very competitive at speech and debate.

Youtube – I run a small tech channel where I review tech products and talk about tech news. It has been growing faster recently, and I just hit 12k views but have 150 subscribers. Also has a blog/website.

Writing – I really enjoy this in my free time. I write articles about cool stem (mostly space) concepts. I dive deep into research, watch lectures, and talk about and explain these super complex concepts in a way that anyone can understand. (Check out the Feynman Technique!) Got to interview a really cool astronomer at Caltech, wrote an article about the concept. I want to try writing and publishing a book about astronomy/space over the summer as well.

Investment Club – leader, grew it to one of the biggest clubs on campus (30 → 200, although only like 30 people show up at this point, we technically have 200 people in the club all from this year).

President of iOS dev Club – building an app that we hope to publish by the end of the year, may work with the school admin.

Leader of the ML Club – I specialize in NLP and Computer Vision. We compete in some competitions but mostly learning. We are looking into creating a parent org with chapters at schools, where we host free events, have free courses, and other resources for learning ML.

Technology + Outreach Director at an advocacy organization. I maintain the website, but mostly I just act like a normal leader. I have led 3 webinars featuring some pretty big people. Recognized by the United Nations Youth Convoy for 9k, several chapters in CA and FL, other chapters have raised several thousand dollars as well. Looking into making an app for the org over the summer.

Volunteering: Taught a basic CS class last summer, before covid I would go to senior centers to teach people how to use tech (super fun and they are really nice, definitely would reccomend this). Phonebanking for senior citizens, asking if they need anything during covid (under a political internship but I don’t like the dude). Might be joining a coding nonprofit to create curriculum for an ios dev course.

Summer:

  1. Development/Research Assistant position at a HYPSM lab, will continue until I go to college.
  2. (Hopefully) A summer program where I do astro/cs research, haven’t gotten the result yet but am optimistic. Work one on one with a professor and end with a paper.

Essays/LORs/Other:

Essays and LORs should be ok but not insane, I am a good student and I am also looking to working with my AP Calc teacher on my astrophysics research project as well and either my AP Bio teacher for bio research at a local school, English Lit AP teacher for my book + articles, or APUSH/debate coach (doesn’t really coach my events though) for debate. Plan on spending a ton of time on essays.

Schools:
One of my top schools is UC Berkeley, and especially since I am in state and live 40 minutes away, I really want to go here, so my priority is getting in. However, I am conflicted on how to apply. For CS, I know there are 2 options: Taking CS at L&S (BA) or at EECS (BS). I know generally L&S is easier to get into, but the reason I am considering EECS is because of the MET program, which lets you take EECS + a business degree at Hass – this is my dream program, likely puts Berkeley above all the ivies for me, but it does have a <3% acceptance rate. If I apply to MET and don’t get in, I am automatically put into the Engineering school applications (EECS), which I believe is more competitive.

That being said, here is my full reach colleges list at the moment, in order of preference. Do I have a good shot at Penn ED/how can I improve over the summer?

Stanford
MIT
Berkeley MET
UPenn – Will be applying ED here for NETS or CIS + minors in engineering entrepreneurship and maybe astronomy/physics
Princeton
Berkeley EECS
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
Berkeley L&S
CMU
Northwestern
UCLA
USC

I appreciate your help, and I hope you have a great day if you are reading this!

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You’ve amassed a solid record, but these are all reaches
for everyone. You are applying to the hottest major on the planet.

I would suggest you pick an EA (probably Stanford since it’s number one on your list), an ED (probably Penn, since you mentioned your interest), both UCs since they are in state and one is your dream, give up on the rest and really concentrate on match and safety schools. It’s easy to pick reaches, but by definition it’s unlikely you’ll get in.

@ucbalumnus and @Gumbymom can give you the stats for all of the UCs.

I can tell you that the capped and weighted 25th percentile GPA (included 9th) at Cal Poly in the whole College of Engineering was 4.12 last year! That includes several majors that are not competitive at all dragging the numbers down. In 2018 they had 5300 applicant for 100 CS spots. They were overenrolled the previous year so it was brutally competitive that year, but last year they still had over 5000 applicants for 170 spots. Cal Poly rejected more than 12,000 4.0+ applicants last year.

So, no one can advise you on reaches other than to say that they are all statistically unlikely for everyone. Spend your effort on picking match and safety schools.

Good luck!

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Thanks! I 100% agree with everything you said. However, for Stanford their EA is restrictive, so I wouldn’t be able to apply EA or ED to any other schools except publics. I have been leaning back and forth between Stanford REA (+ EA to UMich, GTech, UIUC schools) and UPenn ED. As for focusing on matches, this list will certainly change based on where I get in/don’t get in EA. For example, if I get in to GTech, UMich, UIUC, or even SCU EA/Rolling, I will probably drop the schools under them, and if I don’t, I will add matches and safeties like Purdue, UMD, and some UTs.

Here is the rest of my possible list including some lowerish reaches, matches, and safeties, also in order of preference.

UMich
GATech
UW(higher for direct)
UCSD
UIUC
UCI
UCSB
SCU
UCD
CalPoly
UCSC
SJSU

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Since all the UC’s are test blind and also the Cal states for the 2022 admission cycle, GPA will be highly weighted. I can post the 2020 Admit stats for you but they do not reflect the test blind admissions for this year and that data is not available until January/February 2022. UCB is a great in-state option but both MET and EECS are highly competitive.

You need to calculate your Capped weighted UC GPA = CSU GPA (unless you have CC courses on your transcript), your Unweighted UC GPA and Fully weighted UC GPA. ‘

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:

UCB: 14%

UCLA: 8%

UCSD: 39%

UCSB: 40%

UCD: 55%

UCI: 38%

UCSC: 82%

UCR: 90%

UCM: 97%

2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:

UCB: 37%

UCLA: 38%

UCSD: 78%

UCSB: 81%

UCD: 86%

UCI: 60%

UCSC: 92%

UCR: 97%

UCM: 98%

2020 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:

UCB: 4.22 (4.13-4.30)

UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.31)

UCSD: 4.16 (4.04-4.28)

UCSB: 4.15 (4.03-4.27)

UCI: 4.11 (3.96-4.26)

UCD: 4.11 (3.97-4.25)

UCSC: 3.94 (3.71-4.16)

UCR: 3.88 (3.65-4.11)

UCM: 3.68 (3.40-3.96)

Admit rates for competitive majors such as CS will be much lower and since the test blind data is not available until next year, I would err on the side of caution with these stats.

SJSU lists their impaction index threshold for 2021 admits so you can gauge your chances using the links below for CS.

It is easy to find Reach schools, but concentrate on the Match and Safety schools since this year has proven that it is going to be another tough admission cycle for the UC’s.

Best of luck and you are very well qualified for all the schools on your current list, but unfortunately none of them are guaranteeed.

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Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2020 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 37% 14% 2% 1%
Davis 86% 55% 16% 7%
Irvine 60% 38% 9% 1%
Los Angeles 38% 8% 1% 1%
Merced 98% 97% 95% 88%
Riverside 97% 90% 65% 30%
San Diego 78% 39% 8% 1%
Santa Barbara 81% 40% 9% 2%
Santa Cruz 92% 82% 59% 26%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective). For example, the Berkeley admit rate is most reflective of L&S (the largest division which does not admit by major, though there is a proposal to do so for L&S CS), but CoE majors are typically more selective).

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What is the reason for wanting MET?

Be aware that MET requires more than the usual 15-16 credits per semester: Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and Business Administration < University of California, Berkeley

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None of these are safeties for CS, especially in a no test scenario.

With your GPA, I could guarantee that CP is neither a safety nor an match, but rather that you won’t likely be admitted. They admit by algorithm with GPA accounting for roughly half of the points. ECs are just hours. The quality of them doesn’t matter. They account for very little. CS is the hardest admit on campus. If you want to apply to Cal Poly, choose SE. It’s a slightly easier admit and it’s one of the majors where you can still transfer to CS if you meet their criteria.

Do not wait until you get results from EA/ED to decide the next step. Develop your list now. More than anything, you need a safety or two.

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Thanks for that! I currently am applying to SCU as a safety since my school used to be a part of SCU so most people do get in. I also have UCM as a safety even though I am not applying since I am a guaranteed admit, and I see UCM as a great school. Aside from that, I see SJSU as a safety, but I’ll definitely look at applying to more!

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Remember, a safety is not a school that you are pretty sure you’ll be admitted to. It’s a school that you KNOW, beyond any reasonable doubt, that you will get into and you KNOW you’ll be able to afford BEFORE you get your award letter. In a perfect world it would also be a school that excites you.

As for SJSU being a safety, CS is very competitive. @ucbalumnus knows their published cutoffs and could answer that better.

Also, if you calculate your capped and weighted GPA, remember Cal Poly is one of the few (maybe the only one) that uses grades from 9th. If they’re good it can’t hurt, but the extra semesters in the calculation dilute the honors and AP/IB weighting.

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SJSU CS for fall 2021 required the equivalent of a 4.25 weighted-capped HS GPA for admission.

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@anonk2022 Don’t bother with a UMD app if you’re going to apply after their EA deadline of Nov. 1. Their CS program is a Limited Enrollment program - so it gets filled up pretty quickly. I can’t speak for the other so-called “safeties” you have on your list - but keep in mind that CS may be limited enrollment there too. Best to check out EA deadlines and the CS program rules even for your “safeties”.

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I couldn’t find that in the link. :slightly_frowning_face:

Also, isn’t the Minimum Impaction Point Index number the bare minimum to even be considered? It reads as though they rank all applicants above that number and pick the number of acceptances that will get them to capacity with yield considered. It’s not a guaranteed admit if you hit that number is it?

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Purdue admits the vast majority of their class EA. Many majors close out very quickly. You can also only be considered for honors college and merit in the EA round, and CS is very competitive. Not a safety or a match for CS. I believe the same is true for UMD.

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Is that for all cs admissions? Several people with lower GPAs have gotten in this year. Especially because my hs is in san jose, almost everyone from my school gets in, hence why I classified it as a safety.

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I see, I will definitely consider applying EA to as many schools as possible then!

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My weighted capped GPA is currently 4.33

17

Thanks everyone for the excellent advice so far! I will definetely focus more on adding mroe matches and safeties to my list.

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What is it if you include 9th?

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Especially because my hs is in san jose, almost everyone from my school gets in, hence why I classified it as a safety.

Do they all get in for CS? Probably not. You are confusing general admissions stats and notions of “eliteness” with the CS admission landscape.

You have to go a few tiers below UMD and Purdue for a true safety in CS. But if you pay attention, and apply EA to UMD and Purdue and UT, you will have a much better chance.

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That is including 9th