What colleges should i look into applying for?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey everyone, I just finished my junior year at an extremely competitive high school in California and I have very little idea on which colleges to apply to in terms of where I have a realistic shot at getting in. I have always wanted to do a Computer Science major or any engineering major, but I doubt that I will be competitive into those high selective majors at any good colleges, but hopefully you can provide insight on that. I’m fully open to any other options in terms of major, such as applying for a major and then switching or any other pathways related to that. Below I have given an overview of my transcript so far and my SAT score. Sorry I know this is a bit vague but any recommendations on what colleges I should look into applying for and any advice or pathways in terms of what major I should consider would be very helpful.

9th grade sem 1:

Honors English 9 = A
Algebra 1 = A
P.E. = A
Health = B
Spanish 2 = B
Honors Biology = B

1st sem GPA (UW / W) = 3.5 / 3.5

9th grade sem 2:

Honors English 9 = A
Algebra 1 = A
P.E. = A
Geography = A
Spanish 2 = B
Honors Biology = B

2nd sem GPA (UW / W) = 3.67 / 3.67

10th grade sem 1:

Honors English 10 = B
Geometry = A
Algebra 2 = B
Spanish 3 = B
US History = A
Honors Chemistry = C

1st sem GPA (UW / W) = 3.17 / 3.17

10th grade sem 2:

Honors English 10 = B
Geometry = A
Algebra 2 = B
Spanish 3 = B
US History = A
Honors Chemistry = B

2nd sem GPA (UW / W) = 3.33 / 3.33

11th grade sem 1:

Honors English 11 = B
PreCalculus = B
AP Physics 1 = C
Intro to Design = A
US History = B
AP Statistics = A

1st sem GPA (UW / W) = 3.17 / 3.67

11th grade sem 2:

Honors English 11 = B
PreCalculus = B
AP Physics 1 = C
Intro to Design = B
US History = B
AP Statistics = B

2nd sem GPA (UW / W) = 2.83 / 3.33

New SAT: 1500 (out of 1600)

(planning to take SAT Math II Subject Test in August)

Projected 12th grade schedule:

AP Literature
Calculus
Intro to C++ / Discrete Math
P.E.
Govn./Econ.
AP Computer Science

I know there are a lot of other factors that go into the application such as extracurriculars and AP test scores but hopefully you can give me a general idea of what colleges I should be looking into and what major pathways I should take based on my academic statistics above. Any responses or advice will be extremely helpful and much appreciated. Thanks! :slight_smile:

2
  1. What can your family afford to pay each year for college?
  2. Home state?
  3. Size/location preferences? Public/Private?
  4. Reason for downward grade trend?
3
  1. My family is willing to pay $40,000 max for each year of college.
  2. Calfornia
  3. Honestly, I don’t really have a specific preference right now, I’m mostly open to anything.
  4. Relationship Issues, but I don’t know that this reason actually will be seriously considered.

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it! Hopefully you can get back to me soon.

4

You can go to a terrific school where you can get a terrific education. You have strong test scores, and will be taking some challenging classes. Your family apparently has some good financial resources. The bad news is that the Ivies are probably not in the cards, but the great news is that there are many, many of these terrific schools with outstanding students, faculty, and staff. Of course, your education will depend much more on you than the school.

Also, good news, bad news . . . you live in CA, with lots of great schools and lots of great students.

A great start, beyond CA schools, will be to look at WUE schools, where you can get reduced OOS tuition for certain schools. It’s fairly complex, so you’ll have to research it for your areas of interest. But probably the most important point is to apply early, as many of the schools have limited WUE spots, as I understand it (not expert in this, just familiar with it). This will give you lots of OOS possibilities that will be within budget.

https://www.wiche.edu/wue

If you like the outdoors, especially, many of these schools are wonderful places to live and learn.

Another very real possibility are some of the less competitive state flagships/land grant colleges. Less competitive does not equate to less good. Many of these are excellent research universities with many of the brightest students in the state attending. I’m not thinking UNC, UVA, and Michigan. I’m thinking Kansas/Kansas State, Nebraska, Iowa/Iowa State, Missouri, Michigan State, Oklahoma/Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio University. Of course, I don’t know which would work out in terms of admissions, but you’d certainly be a very reasonable applicant to any of them.

You might think, “Kansas, what the heck.” But Lawrence is a great college town with a lot going on, including in tech. University of Nebraska (Lincoln) is actually an urban school. Same with University of Iowa. KSU and ISU are terrific STEM schools. Again, you will meet fantastic students at these schools.

Now, you’ll need to run the NPC to see what they might cost you. I’m guessing most of these cost more than $40k but not much more than $50k OOS sticker price. You’d have to see if you could get some aid. I don’t know much about financial aid at these schools.

And computer science is a field where you will want to check if students are directly admitted into the program, which can be more competitive than admission overall, or what GPA etc. is necessary to declare CS as a major. This can vary greatly.

And the most important question for you to ask yourself is, why is my classroom achievement somewhat lagging my academic potential? What can I do the change that? Having a strong first semester senior year would help, especially for RD applications, so commit yourself to working hard from Day 1. See what you can do with the pedal down. It’s also good prep for college. When you get to college much more independent work is required. You spend much less time in the classroom and much more time studying, reading, doing problem sets, writing programs, etc. Being able to manage your time and execute on this is critical. It’s why many students don’t succeed. Last thing, don’t be afraid to get to know your professors. You’re paying their salary. Go to office hours, go to help sessions. It helps if they know you, know you’re working hard, and are rooting for you. Good luck!

5

Go to the website for the University of Alabama at Huntsville and review the chart listing SAT & GPA requirements for automatic scholarships. This is an engineering / business / biology & health sciences oriented school. Has about 5,300 full time students. Huntsville, Alabama was recently named as the best small city in the country for business & lifestyle if I recall correctly.

6

It would help a lot if you could point to a few things that you really enjoy. Even if it’s just an extracurricular that you love, or an elective course that you really liked, that would help to steer us in making suggestions. That Design class that you got an A in - is that an area of interest? Did you do well in stats just because it was easier, or might you enjoy a major that leans in that direction? Do you want a college where you can participate in certain kinds of recreational activities?

Honestly, it feels as if you’re asking us who you are. https://vimeo.com/21952758
This makes me wonder whether depression might be a factor, as that can really mask your true interests and enthusiasms. If that’s the case, please make your mental and emotional health the first priority! If you need to take a gap year, do that (as long as you have a constructive and productive plan) - life is not a race.

However, just based on the practicalities, I can say this: it looks to be as if you might be best off at one of the good out-of-state public U’s that participate in the WUE reciprocity program. This would keep your costs in the range your parents can pay (in most cases with enough buffer to afford the “five year plan” if you should want or need to), while giving you more flexibility and growth-path than you would get at most of the CA schools that would be available to you with your stats.

There are many possibilities including:
U of Arizona, Arizona State
Colorado State, U of Colorado Denver
U of Idaho, Idaho State, Boise State
All of the U of Montana and Montana State campuses
U of Nevada, Reno and Las Vegas
U of New Mexico and New Mexico State
Portland State
U of Utah and Utah State
Western Washington and Washington State

There are very bright students and honors options at all of these schools, so there would be plenty of room for growth and achievement. What you need to do is narrow down by the kind of environment you want, the amount of flexibility offered for students who aren’t sure what they want to study, and particular programs that might catch your eye.

For example, if you are interested in the intersection between STEM and design, you might enjoy programs like these:
https://www.wwu.edu/majors/industrial-design-bs
http://design.cap.utah.edu/programs/

If you want to straddle the boundary of stats and CS, you might like programs like this one:
http://math.arizona.edu/academics/undergrads/requirements/SDS
(And there’s a lot of interesting Big Data stuff being done at UofA:
https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-leads-project-big-data-and-black-holes

https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/researcher-looks-digital-traces-help-students )

If you want a solid, traditional, ABET-accredited Computer Science program that your GPA won’t keep you out of, in a vibrant, student-friendly city, consider these:
https://www.pdx.edu/computer-science/
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/Engineering/Programs/Computer-Science-and-Engineering/DegreePrograms/BachelorScience/Pages/BachelorScience.aspx

You have lots of options. Dig deeper into which schools will give you the kind of environment where you can thrive, and the kind of flexibility you need to explore what you really want to do.

http://wue.wiche.edu/search1.jsp

7

I calculated your CSU/UC capped weighted GPA based on your posted grades and I get a 3.29. Combined with your excellent SAT score, your Cal State eligibility index is 4132. This EI could get you into most of the CS programs at the Cal States with exception of Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, San Jose State and maybe CSU Long Beach.

I would definitely apply to CSU Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Northridge and look at Sacramento State, Chico State, San Francisco State among others where CS is not impacted. I would add UC Riverside and Merced to your list also.

You might also want to consider University of Redlands, Azusa Pacific, University of the Pacific, University of San Francisco and Chapman to name a few privates.

Other posters have given you some good options for OOS schools through WUE.

8

If your transcript shows a WGPA of 3.5+ your SAT score would qualify you for the Presidential at Bama. I calculate just under a 3.5 but maybe your transcript rounds up.

9

Just as a point of reference my son goes to Kansas State from a big TX city. He LOVES it. He says the students he is in class with are smart, the teachers care a lot about their students and everyone there seems happy. He goes biking and hiking on the weekends, even boating. They even went skiing one weekend. He loves the social life and we love how well he does academically. So as the above poster has said just because schools may not be difficult to get in to they have some excellent academics, honors colleges, and travel abroad programs.

10

You need to clarify a few things before anybody can give you meaninful guidance. Like how much money are you and your family willing to pay per year, for 4 years? What parts of the country do you want to go to and which parts would you prefer to avoid? Do you want a college in a big city, suburb, small town, medium-sized city? Do you want bigtime sports or fraternities? How big of a college would you prefer? Are political or religious beliefs a concern?

11

@TTG thanks so much for the advice will definitely look into the colleges you mentioned! i will make sure to work as hard as I can in senior year so that those RD applications look better as you mentioned.

12

@Publisher I looked into UA Huntsville and checked out their campus and website very clear on what kind of lifestyle they have there and I was very interested so I added it to my potential college list. Thanks for the rec!

13

@aquapt this was very helpful I checked out the colleges that you mentioned and will definitely take them into consideration. Looking forward, I will definitely try to narrow down to more specifics in terms of what environment and program I want colleges to offer. Thanks a lot for the advice!

14

@Gumbymom I’ve never really looked too much into the Cal State colleges, so huge thanks to you for introducing me to them, those will for sure be in my considerations when I apply now, given that my eligibility index shows a possibility of getting into some of their CS programs. Thanks again!

15

@my2caligirls hopefully my transcript does round up haha but thanks for letting me know about that I wasn’t aware about the Presidential at Bama

16

@momocarly wow I wasn’t aware that Kansas State had so much to offer! To be completely honest, as a student from a big city like your son, I didn’t really look into the Midwest colleges, but more people have opened me up to the great programs they have there in colleges such as Kansas State, so it is definitely something I will consider. Thanks!

17

Also just as a general question to anyone that sees this thread, the only other place I have family other than California is in Indiana, so it would be nice to go to college there. Because of this, I’ve recently researched colleges in Indiana and two colleges there that have caught my eye are Indiana State University and Purdue University because of the environment and programs both of them offer. Based on my academic stats above, do I have a reasonable chance at either of those colleges, or are they reaches? Thanks everyone again this thread has helped me a lot!

18

Purdue is a terrific STEM national university, comparable to Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas State, and Iowa State. It looks like the average UW GPA is 3.68, but your SAT would be higher than average. So hard to say. It would be a reach, but it would be reasonable for you to take a crack at it. It would be particularly helpful to have that strong fall semester. I think it would probably be the most competitive school OOS mentioned on this thread, primarily because STEM schools have seen a real avalanche of applications in recent years. Also, run the NPC for it. Aid would probably be tough and cost might be over your budget. But I’m not sure. Indiana State attracts fewer OOS applicants, and I’d think it would be a safety for you.

Yes, Manhattan, Kansas, where KSU is located, is supposed to be, like Lawrence, a great college town. I’ve been to Lawrence but not Manhattan.

University of Nevada at Reno was mentioned specifically as a WUE school above. Reno is a very cool place–Tahoe and the Sierra are right next door–and I know they have some impressive environmental programs too. I know someone studying western freshwater lakes/rivers at UNR. Zeb Hogan of Nat Geo’s Monster Fish is a professor there,

https://www.unr.edu/science/zeb-hogan

19

Purdue is excellent for CS but has gotten very competitive and will run about $44K for OOS in CS or Data Science. (It’s also quite internally competitive and weeder-ish.) IU Bloomington is over $48K for OOS. There’s also the joint IU/Purdue campus in Indianapolis - if you were from a midwestern state, you could get a great reciprocity discount there, the way you can at the WUE schools being from CA. But without that discount, even IUPUI would be over $40K.

Rose-Hulman and Earlham are private U’s in Indiana that might work admissions-wise, but not financially.
But Indiana State, as mentioned above, would work. (About $33K/year OOS, and has a CS program.)

What might be a really good Indiana-adjacent option is U of Cincinnati, which is only ~20 miles from the Indiana/Ohio border. They have an excellent and long-standing co-op program (they claim to have invented co-op education), similar to what you’d get (for a LOT more money) at Northeastern or Drexel. The OOS “sticker price” is around $43K, but you’d be eligible for $6K off the top just for being from CA https://financialaid.uc.edu/cincinnatusprogram/nationaloutreach.html You would graduate with a real head start on work experience as well as a solid CS education. https://ceas.uc.edu/current_students/curriculum_information/computer_science.html (There are also math and statistics majors as well as business analytics and information systems type majors in the business school.) Cincinnati has a lot to offer as a small city, and UC has a lot of good stuff going on, including a lot of culture on campus on account of the strong music conservatory and top musical theater program. Could be a fun place to go to school, with the added benefits of co-op.

20

“Purdue is a terrific STEM national university, comparable to Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas State, and Iowa State”

No. Purdue is not like GaTech.

GT is 78% STEM, 15k undergrads downtown in a large city (Atlanta). Avg SAT 1480. 22% admit rate.

Purdue is 35% STEM, 32k undergrads in a rural town (West Lafayette). Avg SAT 1300. 60% admit rate.

Purdue, Texas AM, Iowa State are the same schools.