Chance an Asian Bay Area CS Junior for top schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics: Asain Male in the Bay Area, pretty competitive private high school. No hooks.

Intended Major(s): Computer Science, looking for either a minor in Business/Econ or in Applied/Theoretical Physics, applied math, or Bio depending if in college I prefer research or entrepreneurship.

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1520, will retake again just to see if I can get better (realistically could probably get 1550+)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.94 UW, 4.39 W

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

Took 1 AP in soph year and 1 self-study AP (was in honors class). Got a 4 on both (World History and Chem).
Taking 4 this year + 1 self-study. (US History, Lit, Calc AB, Bio, and )
Taking 5 next year + 1 self-study (maybe). (Physics C Mech, Physics C Elec + Mag, Calc BC, Stats, Gov, Macro or Micro)

Pretty much the most rigorous possible courses, probably around 11-12 APs by the time I graduate.

Awards:

Math League - Qualified to Nationals in Freshman Year.

Math Kangaroo - Nationals Winner, ranked 10th nationally in 2019 competition.

FRC Robotics - Finaled in the FRC World Championships(2019).
Side Note – I did FRC in 9th grade but quit at the end of the year, should I put this in EC’s?

Policy Debate - Won 2 local tournaments. Placed as 9th alternative at State Qualifiers.

Congressional Debate - Placed 2nd at 3 local tournaments. Semifinalist at a big tournament. Qualified to CA State Championship.

Won a few awards at a bunch of hackathons as well

I would love to hear recommendations for competitions or awards to try for!

Extracurriculars:

App Development: By far my most meaningful activity to me although it’s not too impressive. I built and run two iOS apps from scratch, and I consistently roll out updates. They have a cumulative 1000 downloads but I am certainly looking into relaunching one and growing it a lot more.

Software Engineering Intern at a pretty big VC-backed software startup in San Francisco. I contribute a lot and have directly pushed a lot of features to production. Leading a customer service re-invention project.

CTO of a startup a few friends and I are starting. It’s a unique marketing platform, and we have validated it with several businesses and have started the development process. MVP should be done by the end of April, and we will try to get some VC this summer.

Investment: I lead the Investment Club at my school and grew it from 30 members to the biggest club on campus with over 200. CTO of an investing organization with over 500 members.

Speech and Debate all 4 years. Compete in Policy Debate, Congressional Debate, and Original Interpretation Speech. This is a big commitment and my school is pretty successful at speech and debate.

Youtube: I run a small tech channel where I review tech products and talk about tech news. It has been growing faster recently, and I just hit 10k views. Also has a blog/website.

Writing: I really enjoy this in my free time. I write articles about cool stem (mostly space) concepts. I dive deep into research, watch lectures, and talk about and explain these super complex concepts in a way that anyone can understand. (Check out the Feynman Technique!)

President of iOS Dev Club – building an app that we hope to publish by the end of the year.

Leader of the ML Club – I specialize in NLP and Computer Vision. However, overall we work a lot on Kaggle competitions and learning/teaching ML algorithms in general.

Technology Director at an advocacy organization/club at my school. I maintain the website, but mostly I just act like a normal leader. I have led 3 webinars about education inequity and police reform. One featured a congresswoman, one featured police, and one is this Tuesday featuring a bunch of people fighting and experiencing education inequity. Recognized by the United Nations Youth Convoy for raising money for COVID masks.

I am trying to get some research experience this summer, either via a research program, internship, or independent project. Please let me know if you have any recommendations on what I should focus on for this summer!

Essays/LORs/Other:

Essays and LORs should be ok, I am a good student and I am also looking to working with my AP Calc teacher on an independent astrophysics research project and my bio teacher for bio research at a local school (hopefully). Plan on spending a ton of time on essays.

Schools:
These are all mega reaches btw, I have targets and safeties. I would love to hear recommendations on any other schools you think would be a good fit!

Stanford
MIT
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
Princeton
Caltech
UPenn
Northwestern
CMU
UC Berkeley
UCLA

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I have slightly better academic stats but a worse EC profile, and so far I was accepted to UCLA and University of Washington (in-state) for computer science as an Asian male (other acceptances were all the other UC’s except Berkeley and a bunch of safeties). I believe you have a stronger application than me.

If I got in, I’m pretty confident that the UC’s are a low reach, maybe high target because you are in state as well.

Didn’t read through your entire post, but here are some matches and safety ideas (roughly in order of program strength)

University of Washington
UIUC
Georgia Tech
Duke
UT Austin
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
Purdue University
Boston University
The Ohio State University

As for chances, you have a strong profile and will be a competitive application. However, I’m sure you already know that your chances are still slim because of the sheer competition. I would put every college on your list as a reach, high reach for schools like Stanford and MIT, with the UC’s being a low reach/high target.

Hope this helped!

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Thank you! That makes a lot of sense – I am definitely applying to UW and probably GeorgiaTech +UIUC. Congrats on UCLA and good luck with the rest of your decisions!

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Hey dude! You definitely have a really good chance at these schools. Your ECs are top notch, your test scores are amazing, and your GPA is pretty good too. I would even go ahead and say you don’t really need to retake the SAT - 1520 is in the middle 50 for I think pretty much most of the schools on your list, and if this year’s admissions are any indication, the SATs will probably have less weight in applications.

You are definitely doing great, though, and you’re a great candidate for all these schools! Here are some other schools you can look into:

Harvey Mudd (reach)
Northeastern (high match)
Rochester Institute of Tech (safety)
Emory University (high match)

I second the person above who recommend GT, Purdue, and UW

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Thank you for the kind words! I just signed up for the SAT cause I kinda didn’t do well on the essay section last time but I know that the essay section is no longer a thing. I’ll probably retake it anyway since I already paid my school but I won’t spend too long studying. And great school recommendations, I have been looking closely at Harvey Mudd and Emory, so I’ll have to see if I can make space for those.

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Just an FYI: UC’s are test blind through the 2024 admission cycle, so you great SAT score will not be considered.

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That’s a lot of essays. Many of the schools on this list will require multiple essays. I’d consider dropping Columbia, Yale, UPenn and Northwestern from your list. You would likely get a better education in CS from SJSU.

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I agree, but I am willing to put in as much work as necessary for essays, and I plan to spend a lot of time writing and editing my essays. Also, UPenn is a really good CS school and they are currently investing a ton into CS + they have Wharton and M&T and great research, which is why this is actually one of my top choices that I am thinking of EDing to (IMO this makes them top 3 at CS in the ivy league). I agree Yale and Northwestern are not noteworthy in terms of CS (both are still top 30), but Northwestern has an entrepreneurship degree and Yale has great research. Thanks for your feedback! I am aiming for 13 applications total, so hopefully, I don’t die while taking Physics C and writing essays.

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For sure, I know retaking the SAT won’t help much, but I won’t have to spent too much time prepping and I am mostly retaking it because now you can submit SAT scores to national merit(I got a 1470 on the PSAT, and the cutoff last year was 1480) + it can’t hurt!

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I think he will be fine. I applied to 26 schools, and it really is diminishing work after applying to around 8 because you can reuse almost every essay.

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Your stats are great! You already have some good recommendations from others.

So I’ll share this post as a cautionary tale. Read it in its entirety. You might find some good tips on what -not- to do! With high stats like yours, it’s all about being authentic, creating a unique and compelling narrative, and showcasing your genuine passion. It’s a delicate balance. Good luck!

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Thank you so much! I agree – this is something I have been struggling with recently. I am extremely passionate about CS – I get super excited thinking about cool theoretical concepts like quantum computing, AI, and astrophysical modeling. Do you think this shows in my EC’s? I think the only EC’s that don’t tie directly to CS (they are more for entrepreneurship) are Speech and Debate, Investment Club, and the advocacy org (although I do handle all the tech). Would you recommend I develop more of a spike, or should I just focus on showing my passion through my essays?

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Cornell is in the middle of nowhere if that matters. Northwestern and Yale aren’t known for CS. I’m thinking Caltech would focus on math based Econ if that’s your interest.

It looks like you have several interests outside CS but if that’s your main focus I’d stick to strong CS shools. UT, GT, UIUC are also good suggestions.

Might not be a bad idea to share your safeties/matches with us just to validate. Every year there are disappointed kids who thought they had enough “safeties” on their list.

Good luck

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Someone here with more experience might be able to help you with crafting a compelling narrative. I haven’t seen enough to give you advice. You still have several months to tweak your resume, so now’s a good time to strategize and avoid common resume mistakes.

Essays are a whole another beast. There are dos and don’ts there as well. It’s more than sharing your passion, as you probably already know. Being vulnerable, showcasing your personality, your curiosity, how you think, what makes you tick, etc etc.

There isn’t a single formula that works for everyone, and that’s what makes this admissions process confounding and challenging. You just have to put your most sincere and authentic self forward.

Oh, and have solid safeties and love those schools too.

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That makes sense – the reason I put Northwestern is its entrepreneurship degree + good research. Cornell’s campus is great but I agree, not sure if the location would be my first choice. I put Yale because of their research, they are trying to buff CS recently, and its culture. I didn’t put UT because OOS is like a 10% AR, but still thinking about it. Caltech is a dream – I have been writing about Planet 9 recently (research is headed by Caltech), and the overall culture at Caltech and MIT just seems so fun and passionate if that makes sense.

I am super passionate about CS – I haven’t been able to get my hands on real research but I’m trying to do that this summer. I am really into AI, Quantum Computing, Astrophysics, etc but the root of everything I do is the tech/CS aspect of it.

Matches:
UIUC
Georgia Tech - reach?
UCSD
USC - either super high target or a reach (probably a reach)

Here are a few safeties:
UW - is this even a safety? I know the acceptance rate is 50% but their CS program is amazing and I would love to attend.
SCU - great connections to Apple and Google, but probably can’t do too much research if I go here.

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Are you a WA resident ? If so, your chances are higher at UW. But it’s not a safety school.Last year admit rate for CS is <30%.

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CS at UCSD is not a Match, more like a Reach.
Many high stat applicants were not directly admitted into CS or were waitlisted or rejected. Below is one example one of many students that was waitlisted with great stats.

Decision: Waitlisted
Major: CS
ELC - unknown
UC Weighted GPA: 4.4
UC capped: 4.16-4.2
UW GPA: 3.75
ACT: 34
Good essays and ECs, good leadership
Instate: Yes
High school: Public

UCSD admits into the University first then into the major and will accept many high stat applicants into their alternate or Undeclared major.

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I think your matches are probably reaches. OOS acceptance at GT is less than 20% and probably lower for CS. I imagine UIUC is the same or worse for CS. Same with UW.

CS is super competitive everywhere. A school might have a 50% acceptance overall but usually much lower for competitive majors like CS and engineering.

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I see, I was thinking of Georgiatech EA which is a significant boost from RD (21%), which is why I put it at target. UIUC is also is not as competitive as GT, and my school has really good ties with them and sends a ton of people there. UW makes sense, but I have undeclared to fall back on, so wouldn’t the overall acceptance rate of 50% be accurate since I don’t need to get into CS to go?

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Thats interesting, I would have thought UCSD was a high target but not a reach. I know UC’s are unpredictable, but I will probably also apply to UCD, UCI, and UCSB as well.

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