Hey guys, I’m a rising junior looking into my options for applying to colleges a year early and Carnegie’s been my dream option for a while. I’m planning on applying to SCS and know CMU offers early admissions for juniors, I want to ask based on the courses and gpa I’ve attached below if it’s even worth my time to consider(not asking for a chance, I’m assuming that they’ll consider me just the same as every senior who applies so I want to know if I’m looking at a 0% chance of getting in or if it is worth a shot). If anyone here has done this before I also want to know what to focus on from now till January to buff up my resume and be my best for that application. Any other info I should know about the process would be great as well, thanks guys!
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Why are you interested in early admission? What’s the driver?
CMU SCS is extremely competitive, more so in the RD round, and they take very few juniors - mostly those who have exhausted the course work offered at their high school (which doesn’t seem to be the case for you) and demonstrate exceptional promise. Your GPA is not stellar for CMU early admissions to be very honest, and you haven’t taken your SAT yet (are you planning to apply test optional?). So you’re facing very long odds. Why not wait until your senior year to build up your academic and EC strength and then apply to the right set of schools?
It mostly boils down to just being in a bad community school wise, I’m on of very few who are motivated and aren’t doing the bare minimum to graduate. That’s mainly because the local CC is basically a guaranteed transfer to a good uni and because of that everyone thinks that HS doesn’t matter at all and I feel the longer I stay here the more my motivation and progress will slow as a result of my friend group and connections. When you say I haven’t exhausted my schools coursework I’d disagree since after the end of my Junior year I’ll have every graduation requirement as well as the A-G and basic admissions requirements for most Unis including CMU done, though I didn’t know a 3.86 looked that bad(Weighted it’s around a 4.3-4.4 iirc). I’m taking my SAT in a month and also am in a position where I’m able to stay at my HS for another year if I choose to, so I’d have effectively 2 rounds of college apps before going the transfer route worst case.
To be honest, this looks like a standard profile of an advanced Junior progressing through high school. CMUS very limited program for high school Juniors looking to start at CMU without a Senior year in high school would have a very different look. They are looking for truly extraordinary candidates and accept a few students per year, if any.