Chance me/suggestions: Male, CA resident, 3.92 UW, CS Major

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

US citizen
CA resident
Public highschool
Low income <40,000 annually
Using Questbridge college match, common app for regular applications, + UC’s
Majoring in CS

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.92 UW
4.18 W
School doesn’t do rank
1440 SAT superscore, 700 eng 740 math

HS coursework
10 APs
1 honor

5’s on AP CSP, AP Calc AB, AP Physics 1
4 on AP Physics 2

Taking Lit, Calc BC, CSA, APES, AP psych, macro,

Awards
community service presidential silver award
FTC robotics 2nd place for outreach
1st place in a local hackathon (~20 teams)

Extracurriculars
Robotics club officer & head of community outreach
Science & technology club co founder
Computer club secretary
Game Development club co founder
Volunteered for ~200 hrs at a nature reserve
Student board member at said nature reserve

Essays
Essays are OK probably, 7-8/10
LOR are probably good 8/10, they are teachers commonly asked so they prob didn’t spend too much time on it.

Ranked these colleges on questbridge

  1. Stanford University
  2. California Institute of Technology
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  4. Princeton University
  5. Rice University
  6. University of Chicago
  7. Cornell University
  8. University of Pennsylvania
  9. Johns Hopkins University

Applying regular app to

Carnegie Mellon University
UC Berkeley
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Purdue University
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Texas at Austin
University of Michigan
UCLA
UC San Diego
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Virginia Tech
Pennsylvania State University

I am trying to cut down on schools I apply to, I might not submit an app to some dream schools like MIT, cal tech, and university of chicago. I am mainly worried about my chancing as a CS major, since it is extremely competitive and different from the regular chancing. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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The out of state public universities on your list are either unaffordable or high reaches for full ride merit scholarships if they have any. Check the net price calculator on each school’s website.

You may want to apply to a larger selection of UCs in order to have some non-reach ones.

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For students applying out of high school to be freshmen students, MIT does not admit by major. Your chances of admissions does not depend upon what you put as your major. If you are accepted and choose to attend then who they assign as your freshman year advisor is likely to depend upon your major. You get to pick any major that you want at the end of your freshman year, and can change major whenever you want (but to graduate you must complete the requirements for whatever major you end up with).

I think that at least in terms of admissions the same is probably true for Stanford and Caltech, and might be true for a few other schools (possibly Princeton??).

740 on the math SAT test is very good, but is low for MIT and Caltech.

I agree with @ucbalumnus about applying to more Universities of California. I am also wondering if you should apply to a few CSUs. Several of them are very good for CS.

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I would lose UIUC, Purdue, UT, Michigan ahd Penn State. Ga Tech has the Stamps so it’s a Hail Mary school. Don’t expect to go even if you get in (likeky can’t afford).

UVA meets need and is a QB partner. UNC also meets need.

I maybe wrong but don’t see a path for you at the other publics financially.

I do think you should apply to some of the less selective QB schools - like Denison, Oberlin, Macalester, Grinnell, Skidmore and a few more. There are other Stamps schools - maybe a U Oregon is worth a try - but the issue is you need to win the scholarship so the odds not good.

I know CA is test blind and has low income grants so maybe that helps. But perhaps adding the local CSU that you can commute to and worst case look at a community college to UC pathway might be other options to consider.

Good luck.

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Below is some CS admit rates and GPA information for the UC’s and some popular CSU’s. This will give you an idea of where you stand in terms of competitiveness just based on your GPA. Since the UC’s use 13 areas of criteria, it is difficult to determine your chances however, overall CS is going to be a tough admit at the majority of the UC’s and some CSU’s.

You need to calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s first. If you have not take any DE/CC courses, then your UC Capped weighted GPA should equal your CSU Capped weighted GPA.

Here is the calculator: UC GPA calculator

Campus CS
UC Berkeley 1.9%/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30
UC Davis 19% Selective Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.19-4.30
UC Irvine 16.8% Impacted Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.12-4.29
UCLA 3.1% Impacted Major/ Capped weighted GPA 4.25-4.32
UC Merced 90%/ UC Capped weighted GPA 3.59-4.15
UC Riverside 32% Impacted major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.03-4.28
UC San Diego 12% Selective Major /UC Capped weighted GPA 4.19-4.31
UC Santa Barbara 10% Impacted Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.23-4.31
UC Santa Cruz 60% Impacted Major/UC Capped weighted GPA 3.96-4.26
Cal Poly SLO 9% Impacted Major / SLO GPA for Engineering College 4.14-4.25
Cal State Long Beach 31% Impacted Major/ CSU GPA Avg. 4.07
San Diego State 28% Impacted Major/ CSU GPA Campus Avg. 4.04
San Jose State 31% Impacted Major/ A CSU of 4.3 needed to meet 2024 Impaction threshold without other factor points.

Good luck to you. Are you UC ELC? UC Merced would be a Very Likely school if you are willing to attend.

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Completely agree with this. You need to add some UCs and CSUs. This is a very reach heavy list and, while you are clearly qualified for many top schools, the unfortunate reality is that every year many qualified students do not get admission offers from these same schools. You must have a back up plan and some of the higher admit UCs and CSUs can provide that. Do not put yourself in a position where you could get shut out entirely and I worry that might be the possible case with your current list.

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OP You should qualify for a fee waiver for 4 UC’s and 4 CSU’s so definitely take a look to add another UC and 4 CSU’s. And check out Harvey Mudd College. They meet 100% of demonstrated need and have a strong CS program.

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Like everybody else saying, all your schools are reach. Based on your WGPA, all the UC you apply are reach for “Normal” major. But for CS, even worse. And for OOS schools, they are all reach for CS major applying OOS, considering your SAT is only on par with stem major.

For CS major, you really need to reconsider your school list. Add more target and Safety. For instate, add SJSU, CPP, SDSU, other UCs, especially UCR and UCSC. For OOS, add TAMU, Oregon State, Ohio State, ASU…Good Luck

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