Chance an anxious MN senior [MN resident, 3.78/31 for CS]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Indian (Hindu) Male
MN
Large Public High School
Male

Intended Major: CS
4.18 w gpa/ 3.78 uw gpa

ACT: 31 (34 Math/ 30 Science/ 32 English/ 27 Reading)
8 APS + 6 more senior year (this year)
Took many honors/advanced/ accelerated/ AP courses + 1 dual enrollment.

Notable ec’s

  • Founder of a non profit state-wide chapter
    Helps host workshops to help close the gender gap in computer science.
  • Co-Founder of an environmental organization
    I organize events and meetings and oversee all events and aided in website creation.
  • Co-Founder of a test preparation club
    helps all freshman and sophomores and juniors and seniors with ap tests, act, and sat.
  • Student Council Senator
    leadership pos. I help vote and plan for school-wide events.
  • Roblox game developer
    has developed games from middle school to 10th; mastered Lua
  • Computer Science Club member
    Has learned java and python from it. Also helps others who need help around me.
  • Science Olympiad member
    explored the connection of CS to science .
  • Link leader of link crew
    gave thirteen freshman a friend they can always count on; helped me become more confident in speaking.
  • Ambassador for a club that helps middle schoolers choose their courses
    helps middle schoolers choose their courses; focuses on math, science, and tech courses.
  • Volunteering (Volunteer)
    a couple of hours (not a huge commitment though)

Ok LORs — AP Lang and Stats teachers.

not really any cost restraints

Colleges:

University of Minnesota Twin Cities CSE
University of Minnesota Duluth
University of Wisconsin Madison
University of St. Thomas
University of Iowa
Iowa State
University of Michigan
Indiana University (Bloomington)
Purdue University
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Georgia Tech
Cornell (might ED)
MIT
Stanford

2

I see you are back - with some changes. No more KU.

Why are you anxious? You have a fine record. Congrats to you.

Will you be genuinely happy with every school on this list?

Will costs come into play - for example, you get into UMN and CU Boulder (nearly double) - would you really consider Boulder? You might be able to prune some.

No reason for you to be anxious at all. I reclassified by chances in my estimation. You have a lot of admits here. The question is - will you truly be happy at each? If not, why apply - you can cull this list if you want to.

UM Duluth - safety
Iowa State - safety
IU - safety
U of St. Thomas - safety
Iowa - safety
CU Boulder - Safety

UMN - likely

Wisconsin - low reach

Purdue - reach
Michigan - reach
UIUC - reach
Ga Tech - reach
Cornell - reach (even ED)
MIT - reach
Stanford - reach

Obviously, some you’d need to go test optional (you can’t at Purdue, Ga Tech which require scores).

Good luck.

PS - reaches are that and while I don’t expect you’d get in, you never know if you don’t try.

As long as you’re happy with at least one but preferably more of your safeties and they’re affordable and your parents are willing to pay + they excite you, then you’re in good shape.

Best of luck.

3

Run the NPC on UMN TC, U StThomas, CU Boulder with your parents: are they able to pay these different costs out of pocket (from income&savings)? Check because MANY students have parents tell them they shouldn’t worry about costs only for the parents to discover in the Spring that colleges they thought cost 38K or 45K really cost 75-80K and then their kid is stuck.

University of Minnesota Twin Cities CSE = reach (you’re within range for rigor and GPA but below average for test score; most CSE admitted students had scores 32+, with 25% at 35 or 36.) Check with your GC whether you’d be authorized to enter a 2nd choice major (ie., BA CS)
University of Minnesota Duluth => I would replace this with UMN Morris, which is MUCH stronger for CS.

University of Wisconsin Madison => reach (it’s a nationally-known program and your profile puts you in play. it’s very competitive but you have a chance.)

University of St. Thomas => safety but run the NPC bc they don’t meet need.
St Olaf would be much stronger for CS&Math.

University of Iowa => safety
Iowa State => safety
pick one?

University of Michigan Probably out of reach but worth trying just in case. Compare the BS to the BSE to make sure you choose the right one.

Indiana University (Bloomington) => match

Purdue University => reach

University of Colorado Boulder => why? Expensive and you have stronger choices

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Georgia Tech
Cornell (might ED)
MIT
Stanford
All of these are out of reach (you can check out the results’ threads from this Spring for each of these). Apply to one just to see of course but don’t waste time.

I would add more reasonable reaches like Case Western and U Rochester and add 3-5 matches (St Olaf, Lafayette, Union, Marquette, Miami-Ohio, Pitt, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Michigan State Lyman Briggs, ASU Barrett). Run the NPC.
At large public universities, always apply to the Honors College.

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4

Don’t think that’s a safety for CS. I’d classify it as target for the OP

5

Agree. Cu Boulder is not a safety for CS, probably a reach. OP will get in, but likely be in exploratory studies rather than the major he wants.

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6

I would call CU Boulder a high target/low reach. They’ve been particularly hard on OOS applicants. In the last two cycles they’ve been admitting a lot of OOS folks to exploratory studies.

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7

You might disagree with me about CS but the school admits 80% of applicants. I can’t imagine this student not getting in but I set my rank in order of difficulty so it was the ‘hardest’ to get safety. And I do think he gets in CS.

Whether he’s go over a much lower price school - Iowa State, a UMN campus - I don’t know.

8

OP’s ACT is below the median for CU Boulder Engineering.

9

OK - I couldn’t find the info on specific department admissions. Not sure where you did but will be good for OP to know.

I assume it’s not high on OP’s list - do you agree on the safeties I said easier? So OP has a usable list?

UM Duluth - safety
Iowa State - safety
IU - safety
U of St. Thomas - safety
Iowa - safety

CU Boulder - Safety - I had them last for safety but others thing it’s a target or even low reach.

10

College of Engineering & Applied Science

Weighted High School GPA:
3.97 - 4.41

SAT Total:
1350 - 1500
Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite:
31 - 34

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11

That page says that Colorado takes weighted GPA from the high school at face value, so students from high schools that weight heavily have an advantage.

But it does not look like Colorado is a safety for the OP for either engineering majors or arts and science majors.

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12

let’s not forget they accept nearly 80% - overall. So I have to think A&S is a gimme.

If they take the weighted GPA, he’s in the middle for GPA and and at the 25% for test.

We don’t know the acceptance rate for engineering so maybe I should have used target and swapped spots with UMN - but I don’t think it’s a reach.

But OP has enough safeties that it won’t matter.

13

They usually offer different school or exploratory studies instead of rejecting.

OP’s GPA is near 75th percentile for A&S, so a likely. But CS is in their engineering school and very popular.

My kid had a 35 ACT and several people here objected when I classed CU Boulder as a safety for CS for her.

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:100: CU Boulder CS in the college of engineering is a hard admit to predict. During S22’s cycle, I saw so many near 3.75+ 1500+ kids get rejected for BS CS, and offered ES instead. BA CS in A&S is fairly straight forward - I saw some admits to ES requesting a major change to BA CS, and getting an approval fairly quickly.

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