CC, Can my dreams come true?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I'm going to be applying to schools pretty soon, and I was hoping y'all can give me your opinions on whether or not I am aiming too high, and if I have a shot at my dream school.</p>

<p>With that said, here are the schools I am looking at. I want to major in CS.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Stanford - 1st Choice, Dream School, Applying REA.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard University(College) - Why not?</p></li>
<li><p>MIT - Great school.</p></li>
<li><p>Northwestern University</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell University</p></li>
<li><p>University of Illinois (Urbana) - In-state for me, Sort of cheap, Great CS program, Safety</p></li>
<li><p>University of Michigan - Family ties, not too interested, Safety</p></li>
<li><p>Purdue University - Safety</p></li>
<li><p>University of Texas (Austin)</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Now, my stats.</p>

<p>State - IL
Ethnicity - Asian (Indian) => Didn't put on Common App</p>

<p>GPA (Weighted) - 4.48</p>

<p>ACT - 35 (36 M, 36 CR, 36 SCI, 33 ENG, 8 W)</p>

<p>SAT II - 800 Physics, 780 Math, (760 History => Won't submit)</p>

<p>PSAT - 215</p>

<p>AP Scores - AP Gov (5), APUSH (5), AP Lang (5), AP Physics B(4)</p>

<p>Academic Distinctions - AP National Scholar, Possible NMSF?</p>

<p>ECs</p>

<ul>
<li>Band -> Marching Band, Symphonic Band I (State champions 2009)</li>
<li>Academic Team (Captain of JV in 10th, Captain of Varsity in 12th, Won MVP of JV in 9th)</li>
<li>Math Team (Only 9th, should I list?)</li>
<li>National Honor Society</li>
<li>FBLA (9th, 10th... not listing)</li>
<li>Volunteered about 40 hours at local hospital</li>
<li><p>Volunteer for local cultural events</p></li>
<li><p>I am a self taught programmer, and I am both a mobile and web developer</p></li>
<li><p>The summer after sophomore year, I created an Android weather app for pilots that has about 2k downloads and growing</p></li>
<li><p>This summer, I had an unpaid internship with a tech startup in the SF area. I worked from home, and my main project was creating a database manager for them to manage their customers</p></li>
<li><p>I will most likely live in SF for three months next summer interning with a different company</p></li>
<li><p>I will have a letter of recommendation from the CEO of the company I interned with</p></li>
</ul>

<p>That's about it guys, sorry for the long post. Hope you guys can help!</p>

2

<p>Not able to edit post, for some reason forgot to list EC - Tennis. JV in 9th and 10th, Varsity 11th and 12th. Could be a state qualifier next spring.</p>

3

<p>Are you taking the APCS test too? You should if you intend to go into a CS Major.</p>

<p>Also, I’d say it’s pretty tough for Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. It’s great that CS is your passion but for those schools, I feel like you match the “common applicant.” </p>

<p>It’s good though that you’re not putting your ethnicity (It’ll help). I might do that too as I’m Indian as well.</p>

4

<p>1-3: “Lottery Schools”
4-5: Mid-High Match: decent chances but no guarantees
6+: If you don’t do anything stupid on your app, you will get into these colleges</p>

<p>You have good scores and GPA, but your ECs are a bit lacking. Since your internship was in the bay area, but you live in IL, adcoms will probably think that your parents found the internship for you, unless if you explain otherwise.</p>

<p>Also, you should submit your SATII USH score. If you don’t submit it, colleges will know that you didn’t submit a score and assume you scored embarrassingly low on an exam. A 760 is pretty good for USH anyways.</p>

5

<p>“It’s good though that you’re not putting your ethnicity (It’ll help). I might do that too as I’m Indian as well.”</p>

<p>I am also Indian… I’m wondering whether to put my ethnicity or not…</p>

6

<p>I agree with WhaleWhale and Antitypical, I’m just going to leave it blank. Asians are definitely an ORM. I don’t think it’ll get any worse by not putting my ethnicity down.</p>

7

<p>Thanks guys!</p>

<p>@Shubhijain No, I come from a not so great school, so I will not be taking the AP CS class or test.</p>

<p>@WhaleWhale - Thanks for your input! I actually contacted about 10 companies before finding one that was willing to give a high school student a chance. I’ll be sure to talk about that in my essays.</p>

<p>Also, I will be the first member of my family to go to school in the US. </p>

<p>Would love more opinions!</p>

8

<p>Bumping shamelessly</p>

9

<p>Bump…</p>

<p>I also volunteer for SocialCoding4Good, and I will be living in San Francisco for the summer next year doing another internship.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

10

<p>Would really appreciate some more opinions.</p>

11

<p>Yeahhh brown pride!!!</p>

<p>Anyway, you have pretty good stats, but for 1-3 you’re gonna have to pull of something really creative and what not, as they are really competitive. Make sure you can articulate on something you really care about and how it makes you 1 out of 10,000 (idk how many people are applying to stanford). Good luck</p>

12

<p>Anyone have any essay tips?</p>

13

<p>You have a 100% chance of getting into UIUC and Purdue. Probably a decent chance at Harvard and stuff too…</p>

14

<p>I think you need three SAT subject tests for Harvard. A 760 is not something you need to hide. Anyways, I think you can break these colleges into three groups for you. Your top three will be reaches, and require a bit of luck. 4 will be a match. Cornell is an ivy, so it has to be a reach. And then unless you say something offensive to your last four colleges, you will be in to those.</p>

15

<p>Oh and essay wise, just retell a story from your life, and make it interesting. If the admissions committee likes it, they’ll give you more thought.</p>