Chane me for CS , Math CS or Data Science major : Rising Senior, 3.95 UW, 4.55 W, 1570 SAT [CA resident, 3.95/4.24/4.55 GPA for UC]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Guidelines

I am rising HS senior, My stats are : SAT 1570, GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.55 W, In-State CA Male ,

8 - APs ( APCS A 5, AP CalcAB/BC 5, AP Stat-5, AP English Lang-5, AP Psychology-5, AP Physics C Mechanics -5 , AP Euro -5 and AP US History-5) , IB Business HL)

Dual enrollment: MATH: Multi Variable Calc, Linear Algebra and CS courses like Python, C++ from CC. I got 2-Bs, in Regular Chemistry and AP English Lang.

Extracurriculars

Average ECs, UCLA COSMOS, Unpaid research Internship with Univ professor. AI club President, USACO Bronze medalist.

My interests are CS or CE or Data Science, any chance for any top UCs or UIUC or Georgia Tech or UT Austin or UW

Demographics

US Citizen
Average rated public high school

Cost Constraints / Budget

None

Intended Major(s)

CS or CE or Data Science or CS+x or Math -CS

  • ACT/SAT Scores:

List your HS coursework

8 - APs ( APCS A 5, AP CalcAB/BC 5, AP Stat-5, AP English Lang-5, AP Psychology-5, AP Physics C Mechanics -5 , AP Euro -5 and AP US History-5) , IB Business HL1)

Dual enrollment: Multi Variable Calc, Linear Algebra and 6 CS courses - Python, C++ , Data Structures, SQL etc, Total 40 UC Transferrable Quarter Credits

Planning : AP Bio, AP Lang, AP Econ, AP Spanish, IB Business HL2, AP Env Sc

Please chance me for T20 CS schools.

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It would be helpful to determine your three UC GPAs. You can calculate them here: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

Your SAT is very strong, but the UCs won’t see it, and UW Seattle only looks at the SAT score in rare borderline cases. It should help with the other OOS schools, though.

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Frankly, reading your stats and ECs the first thing that comes to mind is that you might (or might not) also want to apply to Stanford. It would of course be a reach. The thing that makes me wonder is that there are several UCs that are excellent for your preferred majors, and it might be dubious whether Stanford would be worth the additional cost (particularly versus UCB in-state). You could apply, see what offers come in, and then decide.

The second thing that comes to mind is that you are competitive for any UCs, or for any university in the US (and any university elsewhere if they teach in a language that you can speak). I doubt that the top UCs (particularly UCB) would be anything other than a low reach.

For UW I am assuming that you mean Washington. There are of course at least two other UWs that are excellent for CS and for math (Wisconsin and Waterloo).

And you definitely need to apply to safeties. Others will need to chime in regarding which of the UCs and/or CSUs might be safeties.

4

Define top 20…are you using Brown’s rankings below ?

Your rigor is great. Your ECs may not be average - hard to know without better description. It does seem though like you’re a serious student vs a well rounded one.

You could get into any school - too hard to tell.

I imagine UMD, Wisconsin and Purdue most certainly. And #22 UMass too.

Frankly, I’d take my shots. And use an RPI type as my fallback. It delivers very well vs other heavyweights career wise.

Maybe most reachy is UW and a 2% acceptance rate.

Good luck.

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Thanks for your response, appreciate it!! . Yes I mean to University of Washington. I will apply for Stanford but not sure my ECs are good enough for Stanford or even for other Ivys. DO I have any chance for any other Ivys? Thanks for letting me know about Wisconsin and Waterloo.

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Why Ivy - other than Cornell, they’re not necessarily known for CS/engineering. They have - just not usually considered top flight.

Hence I put the rank as you noted top 20 CS, not top 20.

You can find other rankings of course. That’s one I used.

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Admit rate for the CS major at various UCs (from UC Freshman Admission by Discipline):

UCB: 4%
UCD: 19%
UCI: 17%
UCLA: 3%
UCR: 49%
UCSD: 12%
UCSB: 10%
UCSC: 59%

You’re a competitive applicant, but this major is popular and many other applicants will also have high GPAs and impressive course rigor. For the best chance at the most selective UCs, be sure to devote adequate time to developing strong PIQs and strong descriptions of your ECs on the activities list.

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Thank you for the information. I am looking for other alternative majors like Data Science or CE or Math CS, not sure if they have any edge or all are same.

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Edge in what?

What is it you want to study?

You can’t predict the future - many grads today in these areas can’t find jobs.

You should study what you want. This is life - not a game.

You’re better at Chico State studying what interests you than Berkeley, studying something that doesn’t.

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Stanford of course is not in the Ivy League. It is however in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which might be even stranger.

You do not need a long list of ECs. This is definitely NOT a case where a longer list is better. Instead a short list of things that you wanted to do and that you did well is much better. Depending upon what you did, an internship with a professor could be important. Depending upon what the AI club did, being AI club president can be a very good EC. You might want to make sure that you listen to good ideas from other members of the club. “Leadership” does not mean getting your way. Listening to others and making the activity better is the point. I will confess that I do not know what USACO is (presumably university admissions staff will know). Regardless, admissions to Stanford is hard to predict.

Math plus CS is pretty close to what I did, and is IMHO a very good combination.

Some schools (MIT, Stanford, and Harvard come to mind) do not admit by major. Whether you get in will not depend upon your major. Some other schools (UCB being an obvious example, I think that UW might be another, or perhaps three other examples) do consider your major, and CS is typically a relatively difficult one for admissions. However, your stats are excellent, at least in my opinion your ECs are very good, and there are a lot of universities that are very good for both math and CS.

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True, but statistically twice as likely as UWash (which will be the reachiest school on OP’s list).

I agree these are likely. They all have great CS and Math programs, so I’d definitely suggest checking these schools and adding a couple to your list. Then you can take your shot at all your reaches.

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DS, CE, and Math-CS are all good majors if that is what you really want to study, but they are all somewhat different from CS. If you are truly undecided between these majors, look at the curriculum for each one at some of the universities you’re interested in, and think about what you prefer.

If your preferred major is CS, it’s best to apply directly to CS. Don’t try to game the system by applying to a major that seems like an easier admit, because at many universities it is very difficult or impossible to switch into the CS major if you aren’t directly admitted.

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Hard agree- and worth spending a bit of time exploring in order to authentically articulate your interests/goals in essays or interviews etc.

Also, I may have missed it, but how does class rank look? Some big CA schools have 100 kids with 4.0UW and similar rigor and they don’t all get into UCB for CS. You said it’s an average rated public, so maybe not an issue but if there are dozens of classmates with same or slightly higher rank who are also applying CS at top UCs, might make a difference in chances.

Edited to add- if that is your real name, you should change your username for confidentiality

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Thank you. My school gives Decile rank, mine is 1.

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UCs and CSUs do not use high-school-provided class rank in admission.

There is some use of correlates of rank at UC, such as ELC status and obviously the UC-recalculated GPAs (unweighted, weighted-capped, fully weighted). CSU admission is primarily based on CSU-recalculated GPA compared to other applicants for the same major.

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Thank you. My weighted capped GPA would be 4.24, Fully weighed is 4.55 and UW-3.95. I got the ELC letter to submit, hope I will get the ELC status.

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Based on Freshman admission by discipline | University of California , only UC Merced would be considered highly likely for CS (presumably under engineering as computer science and engineering), with 75th percentile weighted-capped GPA below your 4.24 and 90% admit rate.

UCSC and UCR are probably match level, since your weighted-capped GPA is in the upper part of the 25th-75th percentile and their admit rates are reasonably high. The other UCs would likely be in the low reach to high reach range.

Which CSUs would you be interested in? Please don’t say only CPSLO and SJSU…

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OP’s request was for this - not CSUs/all UCs etc

“Please chance me for T20 CS schools.”