Cost Constraints / Budget
Parent would afford all costs for the entire college education. No budgets constraints.
Intended Major(s)
HCI/HCD, AI, Engineering(Excluding Aerospace, Mechanical, Civil, Bioengineering, NO CS/CE.). I understand that this is a wide range. I will finalize intended major for each college throughout the summer.
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.92/4.00 (I do have a bad semester in S1 of Junior Year, though without particularly extenuating circumstances; all As in all other semesters)
Weighted HS GPA: School does not do Weighted. Self-calculated (+1 for AP): 4.61/5.00
UC GPA: 4.3
Class Rank: N/A
ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (M790+RW750)
List your HS coursework
Four years of English, Math, Science, World Language, and Social Studies.
12 APs (17 by end of senior year) including Calculus, Physics C, Chemistry, History, CS Principles, Economics. Five Exams with 5s as of 6/29/2025 (as Junior Year AP Exams have yet to be released)
Highest Math Class: Multivariable Calculus in Senior Year.
Awards
This would be, arguably, the weakest aspect of my Application.
Speech and Debate State Finalists
Several (~10) regional Speech and Debate medals/trophies.
PVSA Gold
National Merit Commended.
AP Scholar with Distinction.
Extracurriculars
Speech and Debate(3 years)
Research on HCI; Resulted in first-authorship on research paper that would be published in industry-renowned rigorous peer-reviewed Conference Proceeding this December and presentation of the research in the said conference (completed).
Another analysis/report style paper to be published online.
Director of Organizational Strategies at a local small company (big title, modest impact).
School District Strategic Plan Coalition - Student Representative.
Washington Aerospace Scholars - online program with UW College Credit.
Voluntarism.
Certifications/Credentials from Coursera and other online learning platforms. IBM AI Foundations.
Personal Initiative; no real significant impact.
Essays/LORs/Other
I had yet to ask the teachers as they prefer students to inquire such matter in fall.
Schools (Initial list)
University of Washington
University of California: Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Davis, Santa Barbara, Irvine.
University of Pennsylvania
Harvard University
Yale University
Stanford University
Boston University
Boston College
I do understand that this list does not have a good balance of Safety schools and Reach Schools. As I continue to refine this list, I would add more target schools and adjust existing ones. This is some preliminary list that is subject to adjustment. I would sincerely appreciate any recommendations for safety and target schools. However, I do have Guaranteed Admission program to UW-Tacoma, along with five other public in-state institutions. Thus, I would like to have some target schools that are more selective than these institutions.
If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): UW-Tacoma; Washington State University, West Washington University, etc.
Extremely Likely:
Likely:
Toss-up: University of Washington (In-state)
Lower Probability: UC-Irvine, UC Santa Barbara
Low Probability: All the rest.
I sincerely appreciate any feedback, criticism, and recommendations on anything related to college admissions. Thank you in advance for your time and help.
OK - don’t self weight your GPA. If a school, like UF for example, says you get +.5 for an Honors and +1 for AP, then it’s ok.
So only weight if a school does and tells you to do but otherwise stick with what’s on your transcript.
Your SAT is great - but it won’t help at the first two lines (UW/UCs) - so they are anyone’s guesses but you have better odds at UW no doubt. Others will answer on UC.
Awareds - ehhh - they are not wake. Most don’t have or have ones that really aren’t. It’s not the award per se - but what did you do to get it - so you are a Speech and Debate Finalist - what did you do to get it? Win 7 rounds, etc?
As for safety, you don’t need a good balance. You need 1-2 that YOU CAN GET EXCITED ABOUT. Would you be excited about UW Tacoma, WASU, or WWU?? If not, add one you would. That is the most IMPORTANT school on your list?
Maybe it’s Oregon State through WUE? Or a Rose Hulman or U Colorado? Maybe you should add some non-hail Mary that are strong like UMN and Pitt (on the top HCI global list). Or since it seems like you want to be out West - an Arizona/Arizona State. But since you have the Ivies, Umass and UMD (on the top HCI global list) are very good too - those last two would be targets.
Here’s the important thing - work on your safeties unless as they sit now, you’d be giddy. To me and maybe I’m incorrect, they didn’t have as much thought as the rest of the list - whereas one could argue they need more.
There are three UC GPAs: unweighted (10-11), weighted capped, and weighted uncapped. The UCs use all three. The calculator listed will give you all three.
Sorry if my post was misleading since I just said “UC GPA.”
Thank you very much for your insightful response. Regarding safety schools, I think your suggestions are valuable and I would consider UMass and UMD, along with several similar universities in the Northeast. I would take a deeper look into those.
As for the weighted GPA, they are suggest depicted in the forum for the convenience of evaluation of the Coursework in College Confidential only. I would not report any of these unless requested by college.
I might be wrong, but I had heard from UW admission faculties that they do consider SAT if the score is high enough to have a positive impact. Could you please kindly clarify on this? Thank you very much.
The UCs do not have any way to report your SAT at all. (The UC application is separate from the common app.)
UW allows you to report your score, but they say that the admissions officer doesn’t look at it except in rare borderline cases. They are more interested in other parts of your application such as GPA, course rigor, ECs, essays etc.
It seems they upgraded their wording - this is what they currently say - sounds like if you are a borderline admit, they can help but not for the far far far majority - at least is how I read this current guidance.
Back to UMASS and UMD - they are not safe for you. They are targets. Safe and in the same realm as strong would be Pitt and UMN. Pitt, in fact, shows up on the HCI leader list. You could easily get rejected for CS as Umass and UMD. THey are not (IMHO) reaches but they are not safe either.
What UW now says:
“when reading your application, the reviewers will not see your test scores, if provided. However, test scores that fall above our middle 50% (see the freshman profile for more information) may be considered for a handful of students who may not otherwise be admitted.”
“Test-optional can mean different things at different schools. At the UW, you will not be disadvantaged for sending low scores or for not sending scores. In fact, when reading your application, the reviewers will not see your test scores, if provided. However, high test scores (1400 SAT/31 ACT or above) may be considered for a handful of students who may not otherwise be admitted.”
So obviously Washington would be a great choice for you, and I am thinking if that works out, that could be more or less the end if you wanted.
But HCI is also a huge deal at Carnegie Mellon, and then Pitt is a sort of backdoor into that world as well because in addition to having a strong department of their own, there is also a lot of collaboration between Pitt and CMU. In fact you can take CMU courses as a Pitt student–there are some rules and limits but basically you can take a course a term if it actually makes sense for you.
