Chance my son for Comp Sci: CA resident, strong academics (4.7 GPA, 1560 SAT), medium extracurriculars, no major awards/competition wins [4.0 unweighted GPA, 4.0/4.33/4.83 for UC, <$70k]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Looking for some guidance for my son:
US citizen (Asian origin), CA resident, Male

Currently going to public high school (ranking unknown out of 800+ seniors)

Major: Computer Science
GPA – 4.0 UW, 4.72 Weighted (overall); 4.33 UC Weighted Capped; 4.83 UC Weighted uncapped
SAT: 1560 (770 Reading; 790 Math)

Courses:

English: H English 1, Honors English 2, AP Lang, AP Lit
Math: Honors Alg 2, Precalc, AP Calc BC, AP Stats, H Multi-Variable and Differential equations, AP Comp Science A
Science: Biology, AP Bio, AP Physics 1, AP Envt Science, AP chemistry

Social Studies: AP World History, AP US History, AP Gov & Macro Econ
Languages: 3 Years of Spanish

AP Test Scores:
5 – Bio, Physics, Envt Sci, Physics 1, World History, US History, Lang
4 – Comp Sci

Awards:

  • Principal’s Honor Roll and Superintendent’s Honor Roll (all 6 Semesters so far)
  • President’s volunteer service award
  • Python PCEP certification

Extracurriculars/Activities:
President – School AI/ML club (2 years)

President – School Quiz Bowl club (2 years)

Tennis player – 10 years, 4 years varsity, 2 years MVP, Team manager

Passion projects: Built ML models; algorithms

Summer Internship @SW company worked on stock prediction model

Guitar player/singer 10 years – volunteer at local senior centers with band (300+ hours)

Mentor for math and computer science for financially challenged students (100+ hours)

Essay and LORs are generally strong

No budget constraints

Colleges Applying To:

  • Super reach: Stanford (REA), CMU (RD)
  • Reach: Georgia Tech, UIUC, U Michigan, Purdue, UT, UW-Madison, UWashington (all EA)
  • Target?: UMD (EA), ASU, Penn State, Ohio state, TAMU (all RD)
  • UCs - UCB, UCI, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UCR (all RD)
  • Some Cal-states (San Jose State, Cal Poly and few more) – (all RD)

Pls let us know what you think. Should we add more safeties into the mix? Thanks in advance!

2

Wow you’re impressive.

Sure, Stanford and CMU are super reaches - but why not. U Washington is also a super reach - and you could argue Michigan, UT and G Tech are too.

I suspect you have a shot at UIUC, WIsconsin (certainly) and Purdue.

ASU and Penn State are safeties as is TAMU. If OSU is Oregon State, it’s safe with WUE. If it’s Ohio State, it’s a likely.

If you’re ok with ASU, Penn State or Ohio State, no need to add anything.

Your SAT will not be seen in California or Washington.

Any budget issues?

3

Thank you for your inputs. And you are right - it is Ohio State (not Oregon state). No budget constraints.

4

what do you think of RPI and Virginia Tech? Will they be in the likely category or will it be reach as well? Thanks

5

RPI safety - and Va Tech Match but likely.

You have too many names - and these schools are very different.

What do you want in a school - and what can you afford? Or what do you want to afford?

6

Primarily looking for a college with research and internship opportunities ( interested primarily in the biomedical area).

(Moderator edits for clarity)
Per the OP’s student:
“My top college choices (if I could get it :frowning: ) are UCB, Stanford, and from OOS it is CMU, GT, Purdue, UIUC, U Mich. If not, then I would go to UCs considering the investment. But I wanted to apply to some addl OOS colleges in case I dont make it to any of the UCs or get into some UCs, but can compare at that point to make a decision.”

Hope that helps. Thanks

7

Let’s see - research - everywhere

Internships - everywhere - but much of it will be on you.

My kid went to Alabama and the first internship was hard to get (that’s normal), the 2nd one easy, and he interviewed with 19 companies and had 5 offers by Christmas.

So while those are great names, they’re not the only names.

I’ll ask again - do you have budget concerns - because I can find you schools at $20K or $90K - and some would argue, the $90K schools wouldn’t be worth it from an ROI basis.

There’s 170 or so ABET accredited bioengineering schools.

Here’s the ranking issue - US NEws. There’s zero behind it. They ask deans who do you respect? So when my kid turned down Purdue for Bama, I thought he was nuts - and he told me I was - that’s for selling magazines, not real life - and sure enough he works with Michigan and Purdue kids as well as W Michigan kids.

All those kids had intern opportunities and I think all schools have research - but you need to be able to afford the school - hence I keep asking you your budget.

If you have budget concerns, add Merced - which has ABET Bioengineering and look at Reno, Oregon State, and Utah - all fine schools - with ABET accreditation in the major.

But go back to what you want in a campus - it’s not internships and research.

It’s do I want small - like Rose Hulman or huge like Arizona State.

Do I want rural like Rose Hulman or urban like Pitt.

Do I want sports or greek life? Cold or warm weather, etc.

The things you brought up are everywhere.

8

Thank you for the detailed response (sorry I had stepped out). Here are the info.
Budget constraint - no. I probably would cap at $70K per year tho.
As far as college preference goes- large size, urban/semi urban, warm weather.
And one clarification - he is looking only for comp sci major (sorry for the confusion - I mentioned biomedical in relation to research - he wants to research Machine learning applications in advancing medical diagnosis/prevention etc) - that’s his area of passion projects and he wants to pursue that.
Hope this gives some addl info. Thank you

9

TAMU and PSU have secondary admission to CS. TAMU effectively needs 3.75 GPA in college to get into the CS major.

Arizona State University lists assured admission criteria for the campus and its various majors, and it looks like the student meets them for the CS major.

10

Thank you

11

Are you the mom or the student?

Do you qualify for need based financial aid?
If not, then Stanford and CMU will be above your budget.

1 Like
14

Closing temporarily for review.

16

Re-opening thread. This is the parent account.

17

Your son has an excellent profile and will have many options come Spring.

SJSU would be a Safety based on his capped weighted GPA. For 2024 CS admits, a 4.30 GPA was needed to meet the major admission threshold without additional factor points. The impaction major thresholds do change, but he looks extremely competitive.

Below are the CS admit rates that I have compiled along with the GPA admit ranges (25-75th percentile).

Campus CS
UC Berkeley 1.9%/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30 Campus UC unweighted 3.89-4.00 Campus weighted uncapped 4.31-4.65
UC Davis 19% Selective Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.19-4.30 Campus UC unweighted 3.80-4.00
UC Irvine 16.8% Impacted Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.12-4.29 Campus UC unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA 3.1% Impacted Major/ Capped weighted GPA 4.25-4.32 Campus UC unweighted 3.90-4.00 CS Weighted Uncapped 4.62-4.87
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 Campus UC unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara 10% Impacted Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.23-4.31 Campus Average UC Unweighted 3.91
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 GPA of 4.3 needed to meet 2024 Impaction threshold without other factor points.
18

Thank you!

1 Like
19

UMD is probably a reach. Apply EA.

I don’t see your targets like PSU or Ohio State as upgrades over the UC’s or CSU’s. Not sure they’re necessary.

I think your son will have a few good options to choose from in April. Good luck.

20

thank you. does he have to add any other colleges to the mix or is he ok as is. Thanks

21

Do you qualify for need based financial aid?
If not, then Stanford and CMU will be above your budget.