Preparing for applications soon: Please help a STEM student pick/rerank some colleges! [CA resident, 4.0 GPA, 1500 SAT; physics, math, CS, or EE]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • California
  • Public High School
  • Not first gen, but I am Italian - American and my mom was an immigrant.
  • Won’t qualify for need-based aid

Cost Constraints / Budget
No budget, merit aid and scholarships would be great but ultimately cost can be covered.

Intended Major(s)
Physics or Mathematics (Preferably with a Computer Science dual major), could go Electrical Engineering as well

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.7/5.0
  • Class Rank: 6/469
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1500 SAT E770 M730, taking again in August

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: English 9 H, English 10 H, AP Lang, (taking AP Lit this year)
  • Math: Math 1 H, AP Computer Science A, Math 2 H, College Algebra for STEM Studies (dual enrollment), AP Calc BC, taking Multivariable Calculus or Linear Algebra this year through dual enrollment
  • Science: Bio w/ Earth Science Topics H, Chemistry H, AP Physics, (taking AP Chem this year)
  • History and social studies: Dual Enrollment European History, APUSH, taking AP Econ and AP Gov this year
  • Language other than English: Italian 3, Italian 4 H (tested out of 1 and 2)
  • Visual or performing arts: Intro to Rock and Roll Dual Enrollment
  • Other academic courses: CTE Robotics, CTE Robotics Honors, Intro to Social and Political Philosophy (Dual Enrollment elective), CTE Independent Study (Only 3 students in the school, worked on cybersecurity club stuff)

AP Scores

  • AP Computer Science Principles - 5
  • AP Computer Science A - 5
  • AP Lang - 5
  • APUSH - 5
  • AP Physics 1 - 4
  • AP Calculus BC - 5

Awards

  • AP Scholar with Distinction
  • Comp Sci Certifications
  • Won 4th place out of 504 entries to the Github Game Off Jam - Game development competition
  • Potentially a NMSTQ Semifinalist (I think I will make the cutoff)

Don’t have much in this department unfortunately, didn’t compete in many competitions other than cybersecurity and robotics.

Extracurriculars

  • Intern at Tax Software company, Summer 2022 - Only high school student out of 3 interns at company, worked with machine learning and computer vision to implement tax form scanning into an Android app.

  • President of Cybersecurity Club for the past 2 years, founded it with the Computer Science teacher at school. Club competes in multiple national level cybersecurity competitions, two Platinum ranked teams in CyberPatriot competition (competed on one, top 3% of teams), and one team getting 16th place out of 647 high school teams in the nation in the National Cyber League Team game.

  • Programming Lead of First Robotics team, manage a team of programmers in order to create functionality for a robot that we design and build every year.

  • Member of my school’s Mock Trial team for past two years, only at the county level but it’s super interesting to me.

  • Game Development Youtube channel, instructional content with top video getting 25k views.

  • Did XC/track at a JV level for past 3 years, this year not doing it

Essays/LORs/Other
Not sure yet how my essays will go, feel pretty confident about my writing ability but will definitely need to spend some time on them.

  • One letter of rec is from computer science teacher/club advisor. She’s worked in the industry as well as a teacher, is also the head of STEM and CTE programs at school. She’s written recs for me before for other things and has always written very highly of me - and uses evidence as well.
  • Another from AP Lang teacher from previous year, I did well in the class and I think she liked me, she can maybe attest to my writing skills a bit more.

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): If nothing else works out I’m good to go the community transfer route as well.
  • Extremely Likely: Cal Poly Pomona
  • Likely: UCSC, Cal Poly SLO
  • Toss-up: UCLA, UCSB
  • Lower Probability: UC Berkeley
  • Low Probability: Harvey Mudd, Caltech, MIT, Columbia

Probably not balanced with the safeties and reaches, but I may plan to go the graduate route so potentially going for a WUE school to save money if I don’t make it into my top choices might be the move.

These are the schools I have right now but I need to do more research, mainly want to stay in West Coast area but would move for a great school/opportunity.

Would love some recommendations!

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Also not sure why this was tagged first generation or transfer - I’m neither of those.

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AP CS principles would not count as a visual or performing arts course for UC and CSU purposes (and probably not for any other college that wants to see a visual or performing arts course in your high school record). For UC and CSU, it counts as a science, according to University of California A-G Course List

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Ok thanks for the info. Not sure where I heard this. Somehow I forgot that I’m currently taking a Dual Enrollment “History of Rock and Roll” class that I believe fulfills this requirement.

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Note that your likelihood of admission depends on the major at many of the schools on your list. Where it matters, typically admission selectivity is highest for CS, then EE, then physics and math, for the California publics on your list. Changing major to a more competitive admission major after enrolling would involve another admission process based on college courses and grades.

Note that University of Washington is highly competitive for direct admission to the CS major, and neither it nor University of Oregon offer WUE tuition rates, according to https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/wue-savings-finder/?state=Oregon%2CWashington .

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University of California A-G Course List lists such courses at California high schools (but does not list any at any California community colleges). Most appear to be in the F category (visual and performing arts), but those at some schools are in the G category (college prep elective; does not count as an arts course). Check the course at your specific high school to be sure.

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Ok, so in that case I should be looking at schools like Washington State and Oregon State that offer the WUE tuitions and higher acceptance rates for my safety schools?

Also, does major impaction affect the availability of minors? If I was to take computer science as a minor would it be subject to the same selectivity?

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Will do. Thank you for all this help!

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Yes, some of those can be considered as likely (or safety if assured admission for your stats) schools.

You can also look at other in-state schools like UCM and UCR as likely to very likely schools, and non-impacted CSUs where your majors are not impacted as safety schools.

Minors, when offered, are typically added after you are in college. Course work volume for minors does vary considerably. But students in a major typically have higher priority for courses, so non-major students, whether or not in an official minor, can only take what is left over. Since majors are selective due to capacity limitations, at those schools where CS is highly selective, there is likely to be little or no space for non-CS majors to take upper level CS courses.

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Congratulations on being a very qualified and competitive applicant.

Cal Poly SLO will allow double majors in Math or Physics if you are admitted into the Computer Science major as your 1st choice however, trying to double major in CS as a Math or Physics admit will may not be possible due to the impaction of the CS major.

Physics and Math have around a 34% admit rate but CS has a 9% admit rate so SLO is Target to a Lower Possibility depending upon which major you select as your 1st choice.

UCLA should go into the Lower Possibility category since UCLA’s admit rates are comparable to UC Berkeley’s for these majors.

UCSB if applying to CCS, then it would be a lower probability (10% admit rate) while if applying to Physics or Math in the College of Letters and Sciences could be a Target (32% admit rate.)

If you plan to double major in CS at the UC’s, you may find it difficult if not admitted into CS as your primary major. Adding on the Math or Physics major later is more realistic with a CS direct admit. A CS Minor might be more feasible if available at some of the campuses.

Best of luck.

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Reading your post, my first thought was that you sounded like someone who belonged at Harvey Mudd. While the demanding STEM core is a deterrent for some, it seems as if you already want to study virtually everything the core curriculum includes, and you could move seamlessly into a major with whatever balance of math/physics/CS/engineering you decide you want. You might consider applying to Pomona as well - it is very strong in math/physics/CS in its own right, plus you could cross-register freely at HMC.

Have you considered the CS+X majors at UIUC? The curriculum maps for CS+Physics, in the first two years, is essentially the same as the CS+Math curriculum plus additional physics classes, so you could veer from physics to math any time before junior year and potentially even later. You could also veer out of CS after completing a CS minor, and have plenty of time for a physics/math double major. (What you could not do is add the CS piece later - getting the CS+X admission from the beginning would be important if you want CS at all. Aspiring CS minors do not have priority to get into CS classes.) Physics/math/CS are all very highly-regarded programs here.

The UCSB College of Creative Studies was already mentioned above - with majors available in math, physics, and computation, this program is well worth looking at if you haven’t already.

Rice could be another school potentially worth going out of state for. The open door policy re: majors would give you a lot of flexibility, and there’s a lot to be said for the undergrad-focused experience, as with Harvey Mudd. Travel to Houston from CA is straightforward, too - many direct flights.

Georgia Tech might be worth considering also.

Reed is an additional west coast school that is a top-10 PhD feeder for both math and physics. It’s CS program is newer and has had some impaction problems, but is high quality also. It has a distinctive vibe that either fits or doesn’t - could be worth a visit to assess, if you would consider it.

If you would prefer even more focus on your desired major(s) and fewer distribution requirements, another west coast option would be UBC, which has strong physics+math and physics+CS honors programs that could be of interest. Canadian admissions are more predictable and stats-based, so I believe UBC could be considered a likely or extremely-likely even though it’s a top-tier university.

You’re a strong applicant and I’m sure you will have good options!

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Oh, come East. If size is not a factor, Wesleyan University would definitely give you a second look> It’s small (3000 students + a few hundred graduate students), does not admit according to major, but has a deep commitment to Physics and Math as one of the few LACs that award doctoral degrees in STEM. Ironically, it is a multi-year winner and finalist in the Apker Prize - but in the university division. So, it’s main competitors for the prize were students from HMC, Caltech and MIT.

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If you get into UC Berkeley, or some of the other UCs, and if you are accepted into your desired major, then it is not obvious to me whether or not it is worth being full pay at your reaches.

MIT at least does not admit by major. You might as well apply for the major that you want because your chances will be the same whatever major you put down. However, you might want to note that MIT has a combined major 18C “Mathematics with Computer Science”. I am pretty sure that this leads to one bachelor’s degree that covers both areas. At MIT you can choose whatever major you want, and typically make the choice at the end of your freshman year (this will impact what advisor you get starting sophomore year). You can change your major later, but depending upon what classes you have already taken this might or might not make it harder to graduate on time.

My limited experience as a graduate student at Stanford was that the various students in the same program had come from a very wide range of undergraduate programs. This is compatible with the experience of several people who I know who have attended other well ranked graduate programs. For graduate admissions, what you do as an undergraduate student seems to matter more than where you do it. For students who get some work experience after getting a bachelor’s degree but before applying to graduate programs that work experience seems to matter quite a bit also.

I do wonder whether you should add San Jose State to your list, and perhaps a couple more U. of California’s.

And it looks like you are doing very well.

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Congratulations on making yourself such a strong applicant!

Since the California publics are their own special beast, I will leave chancing on them to @ucbalumnus and @gumbymom.

In looking at the schools you classified as low probability, they seem awfully different from the rest of your list. They’re much smaller and, mostly, far more focused on STEM (apart from Columbia). Are schools like those your preference?

Also, you indicated a preference for the west coast, but willing to go elsewhere. Is it for cost (i.e. WUE savings), or nearness to home, or the politics of those states, or…?

Lastly, out of curiosity, is there a reason why Stanford and/or U. of Southern California didn’t make your list?

Below are some schools that you may want to think about that seem as though they may be a bit closer to what your low probability schools are like than the other likely schools on your list. They all offer through a doctorate in some form of CS, electrical engineering, math, and physics, so they should have sufficient depth for your interests (except U. of Tulsa only goes through a Master’s in EE). They all offer merit aid as well and are sorted by my guesses as to what your chances might be.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Missouri Science & Technology: About 5500 undergrads

  • U. of Idaho: About 8800 undergrads

  • U. of Wyoming: About 8500 undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

  • Colorado School of Mines: About 5700 undergrads

  • New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology: About 1200 undergrads

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic (NY): About 5900 undergrads

  • Southern Methodist (TX): About 7100 undergrads

  • U. of Tulsa: About 2600 undergrads

Toss-Up (40-59%)

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

Other options that offer a doctorate in all four fields that you’ve expressed an interest in that you may want to consider depending on what your geographic preference meant are:

  • Arizona State (About 65k undergrads)

  • Colorado State (About 26 undergrads)

  • Iowa State (About 25k undergrads)

  • Montana State (About 15k undergrads)

  • Oregon State (About 29k undergrads)

  • U. of Arizona (About 39k undergrads)

  • U. of Kansas (About 19k undergrads)

  • U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities (About 39k undergrads)

  • U. of Nebraska – Lincoln (About 19k undergrads)

  • U. of Nevada – Reno (About 17k undergrads)

  • U. of New Mexico (About 16k undergrads)

  • U. of Texas – Dallas (About 22k undergrads)

  • U. of Utah (About 26k undergrads)

  • U. of Wisconsin (About 36k undergrads)

  • Washington State (About 23k undergrads)

If any of these options appeal more than other options on your list (like community college), then they could well be worth an application. You’d likely receive merit aid at almost every school on this list.

ETA: @ucbalumnus and/or @gumbymom, would this be an appropriate interpretation of your comments on the California publics?

Extremely Likely
Cal Poly Pomona

Likely
UCSC

Toss-Up

Lower Probability
UCSB (College of Letters & Sciences)
Cal Poly - SLO (math or physics)

Low Probability
UCSB-CCS
UCLA
UC - Berkeley
Cal Poly - SLO (CS)

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Here is a thread describing the schools that provide big merit (often full rides) for NMSFs/NMFs, if any are of interest:

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For UCs, please recalculate your three UC GPAs using this calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

For CSUs, recalculate using the same calculator, but double count college courses (i.e. a semester of college course counts as two semesters of courses and two semester grades) and use the weighted-capped result.

For CPSLO, recalculate like for other CSUs, but also include courses and grades from 9th grade (as well as 10th-11th grade).

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Research (and visit if possible) UCSD, UCI, UCDavis and USC (Viterbi)

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In all honesty, the focus on STEM is really what interests me about those schools, haven’t really took size into account that much. I’ve visited both UCSB and Caltech, and those have drastic size differences but I liked them both in their own merit, though I do lean towards the greater opportunity that a smaller school presents - I like research and it seems like there’s far more to be done at schools like Caltech or HMC.

Primarily nearness to home, just because it would be easier to see family. Obviously would move for a good opportunity, but if it’s a decision between very similar programs would probably pick the one closer.

I know of both but just haven’t done enough research on their programs to put them on the list. Also, felt like I was a bit reach heavy to be honest.

Thank you everybody for all the recommendations!

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It’s a bit early to think about grad school but if you are budgeting, makes sense.

So some of the WUE schools aren’t the highest pedigree.

Really you can go for anywhere from $20K a year (with merit) at an Alabama/UAH/Ms State - but it seems like you want out west - to probably $40s at ASU.

I can’t imagine you won’t get to in state schools but I wouldn’t say SLO is likely. Might you add others?

You needn’t be balanced in your list - you just need two assured admits that you’d like and can afford - which sounds like you have down.

How about a Colorado School of Mines for a great school - not quite to the leve of these. Or Oregon State (which is WUE for some applicants) - just as safety nets - in case a UCLA/UCB doesn’t happen, etc.

If you are willing to go East (Columbia/MIT) - how about an RPI, WPI or Rose Hulman - which all will give you merit - and all are well reputed.

Best of luck.

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If you are a National Merit Finalist and are accepted to USC, you will receive a half-tuition scholarship. Half-tuition at USC is more expensive than the UCs, but wouldn’t be as high as some of the other schools on your list.

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