Chance + match a SF Bay Area rising senior [4.0 UW, 1560 SAT, 1520 PSAT, for CS]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics
rising senior, female, us citizen, sf bay area, pretty academically strong(?) but not terribly competitive public school

Cost Constraints / Budget
likely not getting insane amounts of aid but hoping for some merit

Intended Major(s)
computer science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.45 as of jr yr (so far took 9 weighted out of ~20 offered total, weighted aren’t allowed freshman yr, will take 5 more next yr)
  • Class Rank: not reported
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1560 sat, 1520 psat

List your HS coursework

  • English: 9/10th eng, honors eng, about to take ap lit
  • Math: integrated 2/3, honors precalc, ap calc bc (highest level at school), honors stats, about to take multivar and linalg w dual enroll
  • Science: 9th bio, honors chem, ap bio, about to take ap physics and apes
  • History and social studies: 10th history, apush
  • Language other than English: about to take ap mandarin
  • Visual or performing arts: orchestra, art
  • Other academic courses: both apcs classes

Awards
couple of local debate awards/placing
10+ regional and international level divisional awards for frc robotics team while i was on the team
dean’s list semifinalist (frc specific award)
went to ncs (level before states) for badminton

Extracurriculars
frc robotics (9-12) - vice cpt, software lead
volunteered at several fll/ftc tournaments, mentored 2 middle school ftc teams last yr, last yr led summer camp for middle schoolers that my team runs
debate (9-12) - vice president
volunteered at middle school debate practices, tournaments
varsity badminton - did ok, went to the equivalent of regionals a few times
art club - incoming president
ive been told i lack diversity in my ecs and notably do not have much in the way of research

Essays/LORs/Other
essays:
ill probably come up with something and my writing isnt bad, but i dont expect this to be anything standout : ( perhaps a 7/10?
lors:
math teacher: not super personally close but have been in his class two years and ive gotten on with him v well, think this has a good chance of talking abt more academic strengths, 7-8/10
english: very personally close, confident that this will reflect my character well, 8-9/10?

Schools
really not v sure of anything rn, ill apply to ucs and csu but not sure beyond that. one of my struggles so far w a school list has been realistically assessing where i land, bc i really just dont know what a target vs reach looks like for me (which i know sounds like a humblebrag… i rlly dont mean it as such! i just watched a lot of my co25 friends get decisions ALL over the place so im not too sure rn)

im hoping for a bigger school in a mid to large city, liberal, nonreligious, but these arent absolute dealbreakers and at this point im just hoping to get as much as i can and then hopefully filter a bit more later lol

ive been reticent with the info im giving out just for privacy but please do ask if i should include more! im not especially familiar w the way things are formatted around here, but i rlly want to get an accurate picture of where im at so do let me know what else i can elaborate or clarify. thank you all in advance sm!!

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Welcome to College Confidential! Since you mentioned this, you should be aware that most of the posters here are adults, with years of experience and knowledge about the college admissions process. It would be preferred by most of us if you could write correctly with capitalization and correct punctuation.

A few first questions:

What is your annual budget? This is an important question as it doesn’t make sense for posters to suggest schools that you can not afford.

Second question: is Mandarin a heritage language for you? I’m asking because you mention taking AP Mandarin, but don’t list how many years of foreign language you’ve completed. Many schools have recommendations or requirements for high school foreign language. How many years of Mandarin have you taken?

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How much can you and you parents pay without loans?

For UC and CSU, have you recalculated your GPA by their methods?

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For UC and CSU, there is such a requirement, but it is effectively the highest level completed (AP level is considered 4+). But other schools may differ.

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As a statistical approach to this question, this site provides a Student Selectivity Rank column through which you can compare schools nationally:

As an opinion based on your profile, your high matches generally will begin to appear somewhere outside of the top two dozen schools by this measure.

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As others noted, what does this mean? You could go to school for as low as $20K.

But do you want large, midsize, or small?

Urban, suburban, rural?

Weather - warm, cold, windy?

Greek life - does it matter?

Sports - does it matter?

Diversity - both gender and racial ?

Colleges can be $20K - like an Alabama which gives you a ton of automerit to in the $40s a year in state to $90K+ a year at small / mid size privates?

We really need to know your desires - but if you stick to CSUs and UCs, you likely won’t need Letters of Recommendation…there is a chance a UC could ask for one but not for most.

Tell us more of what you seek - the UCs don’t fill all buckets so if you want a tiny, liberal arts school, as an example…that’s not a UC.

Start with asking your parents what they can afford. UCs are a great deal but not necessarily the lowest cost schools.

PS - you’ll fit into a ton of places - with your stats, there are many, many schools that will want you - a ton, in fact, but we have to figure out who you’d want.

Thanks

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Cost Constraints / Budget
likely not getting insane amounts of aid but hoping for some merit

Have you tried running a Net Price calculator on some of the UC’s and Cal states to get estimates of costs?

Here are the UC and CSU GPA calculators so can you recalculate your GPA and post those results.

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Alabama would even be less because OP has a PSAT of 1520 so is certain to become NMSF and highly likely to become NMF.

OP, you might look at this thread for schools that give large merit awards for NMFs. Big merit NMF/NMSF schools and their specialties

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I saw but wasn’t sure because I know CA has a high index. Thanks for saying that.

In that case, 5 years free tuition, four years housing, and $4k a year…for National Merit Finalist.

Tulsa, a small school, would be a full ride.

No idea of ethnicity desires but UT Dallas has a large Asian population - tuition for four years, and I think housing and food for one year although it’s hard to tell.

To stay out West, Wash State is free tuition.

And other opportunities like you showed - so that’d be great too!!

OP will definitely not be short of opportunities should she decide to pursue them.

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As an fyi, 1520 is the maximum possible score on the PSAT/NMSQT.

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Yes, CA does have a high NMF selection index cutoff. OP can confirm, but the PSAT max is 1520 which is what OP reported as their score, so their index should be 228.

Here are the expected cutoffs for Class of 2026: National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs Class of 2026

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OP post college graduation do you have a sense of where you would want to live and pursue a career?

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I agree the more information you can provide the better, but I thought I might frame a few big picture considerations for you.

OK, so first, California has a truly wonderful public university system. So, so many great options, and at least pretty reasonable costs in-state. So honestly you could just apply broadly within the California system, then pick your favorite offer, and that would very likely be a very good result.

Given that, I think it is useful to ask why you would even consider doing anything else. And it doesn’t have to be a definitive answer, like you could want some different options without knowing for sure what you will pick in the end. But for any other colleges to which you are considering applying, I would suggest you should have some idea of why that would be giving you a different option to consider other than what you could get from your California applications.

So one answer some kids have is they would like to consider smaller colleges. But that doesn’t sound like you, which is fine.

Another answer some kids have is they would like to consider colleges in other states. Obviously there is an immediate problem with competing on cost, but it turns out there are various ways around that. You could consider colleges that are part of the WUE system. Some colleges would offer you merit, including colleges that offer merit for National Merit, but also others. Some just are not that expensive OOS.

I note most privates may be a little small for you, but not necessarily all. You could check out the Net Price Calculators and also look into merit at some. But you could also stick to publics.

There may be other reasons you would want to at least consider options outside the California public system–you tell us! But I do think it would help to think in those terms. Because again, if ends up you just take your favorite California public offer, I am quite sure that will already be setting a high bar for a combination of quality and affordability.

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Non-academic/financial preferences that the OP listed are the following:

So it looks like size will not screen out UCs and CSUs that have CS as a major (although how big “bigger” is can matter relative to some campuses with relatively “smaller” enrollments like 5k to 10k students). Nor are they likely to be screened out by “liberal” if what is meant by both campus and state government policies. Same for “nonreligious”. Location in “mid to large city” may reduce desirability of some of the smaller town or rural campuses like Humboldt and Merced.

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Dang - totally missed that one - ok - so depending on budget, a U of O, UW in addition to some of the in-state schools. One could argue Arizona too (Tucson is liberal) - and then others like Minnesota, and on the East Coast, etc.

Thanks for pointing that out.

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Thank you all for the quick responses!!

It’s currently hard for me to get this info, but perhaps 40-60k max? Privates are an option. If there does happen to be somewhere especially standout (as an extreme example, something HYPSM-tier) that’s outside of this range that someone thinks is worth mentioning, it would still be helpful for me to hear it! There’s possibility for flexibility here, so I don’t want to rule out any options too soon.

I’ll have taken the equivalent of all the levels (my school doesn’t technically have a level 1) including AP.

I believe I have a 4.32, if I’m correct in my understanding that you get 4 points for each semester of an A-G course and then add the 8 points for weighted.

Environment - midsize to large and urban would be ideal.
Weather, Greek life, sports - not very important
Diversity (gender and racial) - strong nice to have, especially gender wise for STEM if possible

Hopefully an urban environment. I’m definitely aware that the bay area has long been the place to be for CS/tech careers (which is what I hope to go into), but I’d be more than happy to be somewhere else for a while.

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$40-60K is a large delta, of course - hopefully you can narrow that down.

One thing your family can do is a Net Price Calculator. It will show if you’d get aid. For example, the Ivies may not be great for your major. Cornell would be - but it’s not the urban type environment you’d want. But Carnegie Mellon is. Have them fill out the NPC - would you get aid? Same with MIT.

Close to your budget would be UWash - but it has a 2% OOS acceptance rate.

Georgia Tech is in Atlanta - a red state but very blue and diverse city.

UMD is another that could work - but - it’s pushing the budget - if your budget really goes up to $60K. There’s a small chance of merit.

A school like UMN is strong - and would be a home run for you. And you’d easily get in I think. Pitt is another that’s strong - really - in many majors.

Those are top schools - but you might look at Arizona, U Oregon, and then you have some in states of course - a few UCs and maybe an SDSU.

If you find out money is an issue, I noted other schools above because - you likely have the NM golden ticket.

Tulsa is in the outskirts of a city - and assuming NMSF, you’d go for free. It doesn’t hit your midsize to large and it’s not liberal - but it is free - and if you find out that matters to your family. UTD is on the outskirts of Dallas - which has liberal parts - is extremely diverse and has a great NMF plan. It’s a safety for you.

And there’s more.

But you’ll certainly have many great options. You’d need to make sure that your list is diverse enough.

You could look at a Brown or Columbia for example - but again, have your parents run the Net Price Calculator - because if your budget is $60K and they’re $90K+, that doesn’t work, etc.

Many schools mentioned are high reaches but at the same time, you could, in theory, get into any school.

Best of luck.

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Just to make sure I understand correctly, do you mean you actually have a preference for going to college outside of California? Or are equally fine either way depending on the other factors involved? Either is a fine attitude but it may help us to know which reflects your current thinking.

In terms of urban schools with interesting CS options, I agree CMU is a possibility. Very much a fit school but it is right in the heart of Pittsburgh, and also right next to Pitt, where you can actually take some classes if you like. Obviously you would need to check their NPC.

And you could consider Pitt itself, including because it is a larger college, but also sometimes it is less expensive including because it has OOS merit. I note it is easy to arrange to visit both Pitt and CMU if you are interested, and Case is not far. Speaking of which . . . .

In my circles, Case Western is often described as the CMU of Cleveland in terms of there being a somewhat similar academic mix. It has a great location and also merit.

WashU is not necessarily the first school people think of for CS, but it has been investing a lot in the area and has some interesting initiatives that lean into its strengths for multidisciplinary studies. It has a very good location in St Louis. Not much merit, though, so check the NPC.

Minnesota is a great suggestion for an urban school with strong CS that would probably make your budget.

Finally, Boston University has an interesting CS program, including an integrated BA/MS if you might be interested in something like that, and it is a significantly larger than usual private. Like all the notable Boston schools it gets a lot of applications these days and is not necessarily the most generous with aid, but you might look into it just because it seems like a good fit to me.

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This will be more of a tiebreaker factor for me around decisions time. I’ll 100% be applying to UCs, so I’m mostly looking for possible OOS options at this time.

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Some likelies for non-religious schools with CS in large urban areas and with fairly liberal student bodies within your budget to look at would be PItt, Ohio State and University of Minnesota.

University of Washington is reachy for everyone applying for CS, but you have great stats.

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