What Colleges Should I Apply To

College Search & Selection
1

I am a junior about to go senior year. What are some computer science schools that I could apply to with my stats below.

GPA:
UW:3.56
W:3.83
I go to a very competitive highschool in California (top 5 in the state)

Sat:
1460
(790 M)(670 RW)

Ap/Honors Classes:
7 AP’s and many honors by end of senior year, most STEM/math related.

EC:
Varsity Water Polo
Varsity Swimming
3 Internships every summer since freshman year at startups doing mobile software development. (Paid)
400+ Hours of community service with 200 being helping coding events
Couple of programming awards

2

Intended major? Want to stay in California or OOS schools on your radar? College Budget?

3

@Gumbymom computer science, no preference, not a factor in decision process right now.

4

UC’s would be the logical choice along with some Cal States as solid safeties/low matches.

Your UC GPA will be an issue even going to a competitive HS, since you will compared to your peers.

Computer science also happens to be one of the most competitive majors for both UC’s and Cal States so it will be a tough admit for many of the UC’s. Below are stats for UC GPA only and these are the averages, so competitive majors will require above average GPA.

Freshman admit (2016) rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 14%
UCLA: 14%
UCSD: 44%
UCSB: 54%
UCD: 58%
UCI: 65%
UCSC: 85%
UCR: 94%
UCM: 96%

I would apply to a few of these UC Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara for Match-High Match schools. UCSC as a Match-Low Match and add SDSU/Cal Poly Pomona/UCR or Cal State Long Beach for Low Match-Safety schools.

Cal Poly SLO/UCB/UCLA/UCSD would be Low Reach-Reach schools. Maybe consider San Jose State which has an excellent CS program or Santa Clara University. For OOS schools, Arizona State (Barrett Honors College) CS program would be a good Match.

I am sure there are many more OOS schools that other posters can suggest but depending upon your budget, your in-state options would likely be the most affordable and you have some top CS programs to choose from right here in California.

5

@Gumbymom thanks, I’ll check them out!