You were rejected from 12 high quality schools with 300 spots on average for your desired major CS/Econ. That’s 3600 freshmen slots. ~7200 admissions offers.
Overall that’s like getting rejected from a theoretical single high quality school that’s is half the size of Berkeley and received 40k applications… 18% admit rate. Berkeley offers around 15k incoming freshmen.
The result is not surprising.
I assume your in state status is what helped with your admission to UCSB; an out of state applicant with those stats would not have a good chance there. Many, perhaps most applicants pursuing a quantitative major would have AP calculus and a score in the top 25% of the Sat 2 Math 2 subject test; you had neither.
Everyone is kinda being brutal. Can we all just at least admit that a 1540 SAT is a top 1% score, and a 4.42 GPA is probably a top 1%-4% GPA?
University of California at Santa Barbara as a Regent’s Scholar & direct admission to CS (computer science) major means two things:
You won !
You applied to the exact right number of schools.
Also, waitlist at the University of Chicago for a prospective economics major is an outstanding opportunity to be accepted to one of the best economics programs in the world !
@Ktjordan78, the OP stats are fine, but not extraordinary. Even the top 1 % is more than 30k kids, and admission to highly selective colleges requires more than that. That schedule would not get most rigorous designation at our school-It is amazing how many kids take more rigorous courses and do very well in them. Admission to top schools is very brutal.
Yes, but the point is, the most sought-after schools are getting MORE applications from people with similar stats to the OPs than they have room for. In fact, they’re getting enough of them to be able to fill their freshman classes several times over. All that those stats get you is a place in the “possible” pile.
It may feel brutal, but it’s important that future applicants face up to reality.
With this stats, unless you have the hook, such as first generation college student/low income/URM/Legacy, you wouldn’t get in those schools, especially you applied to the most competitive CS major.
My D is the valedictorian in her school (which means perfect score), got rejected from H, S, Y, C, wait listed at UPENN, Pomona, CMC. Accepted by Georgetown, Wellesley, UVA, USC and 5 top UCs with Regents (except Berkeley).with that, I don’t think UCs talk to each other. They are the few top schools put the stats highly weighted. Also I like UC essay prompts, you have more room to present your personality and interests.
A lot of people have pointed out that CS major is especially hard, and OP didn’t have a lot of strength in math relative to the pool for that major. Somebody even said that OP is “lacking in diversity.” But I think as a white female CS applicant, OP actually does have some diversity and her application to CS programs would have been taken more seriously than if it were an Asian male’s or white male’s. This may have something to do with why she was accepted into UCSB’s CS program with Regent’s.
When my daughter was a junior, I reviewed the admit rates for males vs females at STEM schools like Harvey Mudd and MIT. My conclusion was that female applicants do receive a significant bump relative to males at these places, and this is consistent with what I’ve seen anecdotally. As I related all this to my daughter, I added the caveat: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Best of luck to OP at Santa Barbara. May your hard work take you a long way!