My son has finished his junior year with a 3.83, SAT English 610 and math 640 and wants to stay in state (California) for school. He attends a large public high school in the bay area, and has been a semi professional musician for 9 years, with a long list of high profile performances to his credit and I think he would be competitive as a music major almost anywhere. However, this year he announced that after seeing how hard it is for most musicians, cobbling together several jobs and always teaching, he wants to keep music as a hobby and apply as a science or engineering major.
While I completely support this, wow the numbers you need to get into engineering school are staggering! I am convinced he has seen enough of music to be confident in his decision not to go in that direction, but I don’t know where engineering came from. He did get an A+ in honors physics and enjoys science but this was still a surprise. He says science didn’t phase him because music has taught him that if you work hard at something you get better at it, enjoy it because you see your improvement, and are then motivated to work harder. Great! But I’m worried about a competitive music applicant being a widely rejected engineering applicant.
We toured all over and he preferred UCI, UCR, SDSU, and to a lesser extent UCSC and SJSU. He is at Epic Cal Poly camp to try to narrow down what kind of engineering. (MCIA 4240 so Cal Poly is probably out).
Given how difficult admission is everywhere as an engineer, should I encourage him to apply as a physics major? or undeclared? Maybe a double major with music to maybe get him in the door? How should he address his new direction in his personal statement?
Thanks for any suggestions!
He should apply as the major he really wants. Note that if his desired major is more competitive for frosh admission, it will be more difficult to change into later.
What are his UC-recalculated GPAs (see https://rogerhub.com/uc-undergraduate-admissions-calculator/ ; most UC web sites use the weighted-capped version, and CSUs other than CPSLO use the weighted-capped version, while CPSLO uses a 9th-11th instead of 10th-11th GPA)?
CSU eligibility index (for other than CPSLO) = GPA * 800 + SATRW + SATM.
Some CSUs publish past admission thresholds: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-state-university-general/2150136-csus-that-publish-past-admission-thresholds.html .
UC admission rates by GPA can be found at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-general/2127392-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa-2018.html . However, engineering majors should be considered more difficult than overall campus stats.
For SDSU, he is looking at an Eligibility index of 4300+ to be competitive. For SJSU, it depends upon which Engineering and can look at these 2019 EI thresholds: http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/
For the UC’s, he will want to target schools where is UC capped weighted GPA and SAT scores especially SAT Math are at or above the 50th percentiles. If Engineering is his top choice, then he really needs to apply for Engineering. Changing majors later can be problematic with the impacted CSU’s and the UC’s.
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
UCLA: 9%
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71
2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
UCB: 1360-1540
UCLA: 1340-1540
UCSD: 1300-1520
UCSB: 1270-1500
UCD: 1220-1480
UCI: 1230-1490
UCSC: 1210-1450
UCR: 1130-1380
UCM: 1020-1280
Other than the top Cal states such as SLO, CSU Long Beach, SDSU, Cal Poly Pomona and some majors at SJSU, the rest of the CSU’s would be very good options. UCM and maybe UCR are also possible. He needs to apply widely and school name is not as important as long as the Engineering major is ABET accredited.
I agree - he should apply to the major he plans to pursue. But, go in knowing that most students change majors at least once. If he really doesn’t know, undeclared is OK for most schools. With his stats, SDSU, CPP UCR and UCSC are maybes. CPSLO, UCB, LA, SD, SB, I and D are pretty unlikely. UCM as well as the rest of the CSUs are likely to admit him. (if he’s interested in SJSU, study the threshold list by major linked above).
I’d look at Chico and Sac - as well as UNR,
Enjoy the ride and good luck to your son.