You could apply to Missouri S&T as a safety with a quick response.
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These are all reaches.
I am looking at your desire to be away from Missouri?
With the UCâs, you need to understand that a plethora, or list of activities, is not going to impress the admissions committees. These universities do a holistic review and they formulate classes according to the applications that have come in, and the PIQ responses.
I think what people are trying to tell you is to streamline your laundry lists because your common app will have limited space.
I donât know why every kid thinks he has to start a nonprofit.
The UC application is a beast in itself. It wonât open till November 1 and closes November 30.
The UCâs are publicly supported universities. The taxpayers fund these schools so the priority for admission goes to residents. Youâre competing against other non-residents who have laundry lists, like you, in an impacted major.
Also, for the UCâs, instate residents have had practice in writing their PIQâs, in their English classes, for at least 2 years.
Our sonâs activities were similar but they were unintentional. He didnât strive to gain awards, they were just given to him. He only submitted however, information on his sports teams, Boy Scouts and part-time work. I donât think he had any leadership roles other than directing the construction of a storage building for his school (Eagle).
He was in a very large high school and yet every staff member spoke highly of him and often sought him out to help new students.
He got into every school where he applied and ended up at Caltech. He didnât get into Stanford but we figured thatâs because he sent in his application late.
So itâs not how long you can make your list, itâs how you handle a few of the activities that make you who you are
(He is now a computer software engineer.)
You mentioned âno budget or cost constraintsâ but I just wanted to clarify that your parents are on board to pay $320k for you to attend a UC when you can get a very excellent CS degree at most of your other top 8 options for much less $?
Congratulations on your strong high school record. You have prepared yourself well to successfully attend any college.
Below are my guesses as to what your chances for admission might be. I will leave UCSD, UCI, and UCSB chancing up to @gumbymom and/or @ucbalumnus.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
- IU (rarely is IUB used, except when multiple IU campuses are being referenced)
Likely (60-79%)
-
TAMU (the abbreviation for Texas A&M)
-
U. of Wisconsin
Toss-Up (40-59%)
- Virginia Tech
Lower Probability (20-39%)
- Purdue
Low Probability (less than 20%)
-
Brown
-
Caltech
-
CMU
-
Cornell
-
Georgia Tech
-
Harvard
-
MIT
-
Princeton
-
Stanford
-
U. of Chicago
-
U. of Michigan
-
U. of Southern California
-
U. of Washington (it has a 2-3% acceptance rate for out-of-state CS majors)
-
UC-Berkeley
-
UCLA
-
UIUC
-
UT (UTA refers to U. of Texas-Arlington; if you are referring to the flagship in Austin, you just use UT)
-
Yale
Note that low probability does not mean impossibility. It just means that these schools receive far more applications from strong candidates than they can accept, so the odds of acceptance of even the strongest candidates are quite low.
I would strongly urge you to limit the number of schools in the lower probability category and only apply to those that you are truly interested in, as you can then do a better job on the applications.
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I donât think TAMU should be considered a safety given that there is a secondary admission process to get into CS unless the poster is fine doing another degree such as the Applied Math with CS emphasis though in some schools, if one is not a CS major, it can be hard to get into CS courses. If the poster wants the CS degree, then TAMU isnât a safety.
Note that Virginia Tech and I believe U Wisconsin Madison also have secondary admissions to CS. Perhaps itâs a reason to consider dropping these schools given the long list of schools.
A replacement for Virginia Tech could be U Maryland, which wouldnât be a safety, especially for CS but would be easier than many others on the list. For TAMU perhaps UT Dallas would be an alternative and this likely would be a safety. For U Wisconsin, perhaps Iowa State which should also be a safety.
The original list has a huge number of schools which should be scaled back and I think the poster is planning to do so but as long as Berkeley is on the list, then there is no need to remove any of the UCâs since the work is basically the same with the exception of paying $80 for each additional UC school.
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As long as IU-Bloomington and Ohio St (another school which is not direct admit to CS) are ârealâ safeties that OP is willing to enroll he can remove all schools which are not direct admit to CS. Given the strong academic profile he is unlikely to need them, unless he does not mind secondary admission.
How would Ohio State be a real safety if it too has a secondary admit process to CS? Thanks for adding that to the list of secondary admit schools which seems to now be TAMU, Virginia Tech, U Wisconsin and Ohio State.
Seems the only real safety might be IU - Bloomington on the list unless, as you state, he doesnât mind the secondary admit process.
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Depends on the level of secondary restriction - some schools you just need to obtain minimums and you are in.
Frankly those schools may be doing kids a favor as many jobs have minimum gpa requirements.
I think only CIS/CSE-Pre Majors can apply to CS in secondary admission at Ohio St, so there is lesser competition I believe. You can read it below. Again it just an opinion based on relative scale with respect to TAMU and others.
https://advising.engineering.osu.edu/current-students/applying-your-major
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The most common employer preference GPA is 3.0. Secondary admission criteria for CS from engineering undeclared do vary:
- VT: 3.0 assured (3.5 if not engineering undeclared), otherwise competitive.
- Minnesota: 3.2 assured, otherwise competitive.
- Texas A&M: 3.75 assured, otherwise competitive (CS has little or no space for <3.75).
- NCSU: competitive.
- Ohio State: competitive.
- Wisconsin: 2.25 with BC (2.5) grade in intro CS assured (CS is not in engineering).
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As a parent I agree that secondary admission keeps the student motivated and on paper looks like a good option.
But in reality, some students take longer to adjust to college and hence may not prefer secondary admission.
Either option is ok. Looking at OPâs profile it does not look like secondary admission is not going to be an issue for him. But again his choice.
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I remember when my son was a first year. He was in an honors section of Calc III. In order to be in the class the student had to have a 5 on the BC AP exam. On their first test, without a curve, there were scores in the 30s.
Iâm not a fan of secondary admissions criteria, because high performing students in HS sometimes donât adapt immediately to the pace and rigor of engineering at the collegiate level. Itâs an unnecessary risk.
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While certainly still a reach, Georgia Tech seems to really like FIRST kids. Weâve been watching robotics kidsâ admissions for 8 years now and itâs much more reliable for our team than most of the other reach schools. UT for CS is as tough as MIT and Stanford. Good luck to you.
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However, if secondary admission is highly competitive, or requires a very high GPA in competitively graded (on a curve) courses, then it could create incentive for cutthroat competitive behavior or avoiding taking grade risks by taking interesting but potentially difficult courses.
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Thereâs also the potential for personal matters to cause a GPA issue such as depression, illness, bereavement etc, even in the schools with safer requirements. Unless there is a good reason or the student is fine with another major, why take the risk?
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