Which of these schools are "safety" or "match" for me?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m a junior right now, so when asking this question I’m assuming/(hoping) my GPA and EC’s will remain about the same from now through senior year, and that my essays will be at least decent (I don’t have a hook unless you count switching high schools)

stats:
10-12 grade GPA: 4.21/3.63
9-12 grade GPA: 4.05/3.67
ACT: 33

non academic: piano (12 years); youth group worship team (~2 years); playing piano for senior residence (<1 yr so far)

thinking to applying to:

  • UC Davis
  • UC Irvine
  • UC Riverside
  • UC San Diego
  • UC Santa Cruz
  • Cal Poly SLO
  • San Jose State University
  • San Diego State University
  • University of Washington
  • UT Austin
  • Rutgers - New Brunswick
2

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html may help you with the UCs.

http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/ may help you with SJSU.

UT Austin should be considered a reach for all non-Texas residents, since Texas residents with top 6% class rank take up about three quarters of the spots.

Washington should be considered a reach for direct admission to the CS major.

Intended major? Have you checked the net price calculator on each college’s web site?

3

UC GPA capped weighted and Fully weighted UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Intended major can make a difference especially for the UC’s and the Cal States. Cal States admit by major and eligibility index (exception is SLO which uses MCA points).

Eligibility index= (CSU/UC capped weighted GPA x200) + (ACT composite x10)

HS course Rigor?

Senior year grades are considered in admission decisions for the UC’s and Cal States, but doing well Senior year will maintain your provisional admission.

All the UC’s and Cal states except Cal Poly SLO will look at you Capped Weighted UC GPA. Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in the a-g courses with a cap of 8 semesters of honors points like the capped weighted UC GPA.

4

Definetly depens on intended major. Some of the UC’s you may have a decent chance. UT Austin and Rutgers are definite reaches with that unweighted GPA regardless of major. I would do what you can to increase your GPA, you have a high ACT so some colleges would want to know why it doesn’t match your GPA.

5

What state do you live in? Can you afford OOS tuition if you get into UW, for example? I don’t think UT Austin is very realistic, but Rutgers seems more reasonable.

6

Thanks for the responses and sorry about all the info I forgot to put…here’s some stuff I should’ve written earlier:

  • I live in California, so price wise (and weather wise), I would rather go to a CA school.
  • My parents can afford OOS public tuition but they'd prefer paying for a private school
  • My intended major is (likely) biology or psychology.
  • I just checked my UC weighted/capped GPA and it's 3.89.
  • my u/w GPA is low partially b/c of the curriculum of my 9-10th grade
  • (tough private school w/ mandatory honors & AP's)
  • I've taken 5 AP's. (U.S. Gov. (3), Chinese (5), European History (4), Biology (4), Statistics (3))
  • The AP's I'm taking this year are Psych, Calc AB and Spanish Language & Culture
  • senior yr classes will probably be AP Physics I, AP CS, (maybe AP Calc BC or APES), an Art class, English 4 and a CC class (bio, psych, or anthropology)
7

Have you run the online net price calculators for some private schools that interest you?
If so, have you and your parents discussed whether they are able and willing to cover the Expected Family Contributions? Net prices may or may not be close to the COA for some OOS public schools. Private schools may cost much more (if your income is much > $150K) … or may be cheaper (if your income is much < $100K… depending on your circumstances.

8

Run the noc on Clark (very good for psychology), Lewis and Clark, UPuget sound, Whitman. Bring the results to your parents.
Other than that your list looks well-balanced.

9

*NPC

10

This data is based just on UC GPA capped weighted and not major specific. Biology and Psychology can be impacted and very competitive at many of the UC campuses.

Freshman admit 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%

Your solid ACT score puts at above the 50th and even the 75th percentile for the majority of the UC’s and Cal states but your UC GPA is below the 25th percentile for all but UCSC/UCR/UCM and UC’s are very GPA focused. You have good HS course rigor so it will come down to your essays and EC’s and these are very subjective on how they are evaluated.

  • UC Davis: High Match (50/50)
  • UC Irvine: High Match (50/50)
  • UC Riverside: Low Match
  • UC San Diego: Low Reach
  • UC Santa Cruz: Match
  • Cal Poly SLO: High Match (50/50) Under 20% acceptance rate for your majors
  • San Jose State University: Safety
  • San Diego State University: Match

Best of luck.

11

Congratulations on your hard work and success! It definitely makes sense to apply to the UCs on your list. It seems to me like the above ^^^ breakdown of your odds is very reasonable.

As noted, UT-Austin is very tough OOS because the school only has a very small % of OOS students. You’d be a great candidate for UW if you lived in Washington or were applying from a smaller or faraway state. The school gets lots of CA applications though. Admissions is not something where you can look at the numbers generally. Applicants effectively are in different pools. Sometimes that will work to your advantage and sometimes against. For example, a female applicant would tend to have an advantage at a STEM school like Case Western and a disadvantage at an LAC where the student body is 60% or more female and the school is seeking a degree of gender balance. Not to say you shouldn’t apply to any of the schools on your list if you love them–you’d be a serious candidate–but just understand there’s a lot of demand for a relatively limited number of spots. It seems like you could certainly succeed at any of these schools.

I’d think you’d have a good chance at Rutgers, though I wouldn’t consider it a safety.

Your list mostly includes large, urban schools. Some others where you might have a reasonable chance include University of Minnesota–Twin Cities (state flagship) and Macalester College in Minneapolis. Macalester is a much smaller LAC, one of the relatively small number of urban LACs. It’s excellent. But you might be looking for a larger school. Obviously Minnesota is going to be very, very cold.

You might also look at the University of Richmond. Excellent school, beautiful campus. Vibe is generally southern preppy, if that’s a positive or negative. It’s basically a cross between a mid-size national university and a large LAC. Richmond (RVA) has really transformed into a very fun city for college students/young adults.

I agree about Clark University, and you might also look at WPI, which is also in Worcester. It’s a science/engineering school with a unique hands-on, project-oriented program, if that appeals. It has a beautiful campus in a nice part of Worcester. It would be better for bio than psych, I believe.

I also agree with Lewis & Clark. I love Whitman, but it’s fairly small town and remote if you are favoring urban schools.

Rhodes College is a terrific LAC in Memphis. Check out the website, it’s very compelling.

If any of these look interesting, run the NPC and get an estimate of what it might cost you.

12

So your parents have said that they’ll pay $70k per year for a private school?

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