Chance an asian female for comp sci

Background:

-really competitive selective hs in new jersey( 2nd best stem school in the country)

-income bracket is abt 150k?

-indian

Grades and Stats:

-36 act(34 in english and 36 in everything else) 9 on essay

-GPA: 3.8ish and 4.2 weighted (our school offers like 2 ap classes and honors classes are weighted same as reg ones).

didnt take subject tests yet

Took all possible AP Classes in school, all honors classes(except like gym and stuff)

APs: Calc BC(self studied)-5(last year), took Physics 1 class(prolly 4), physics c em self studied(4?), AP stats(took class- 5 most likely) and AP Comp sci(self studied)-4?

-Dual enrollment in country college(took multivariable calc and diff eqs and taking psychology next year)

-Taking AP Bio next year prolly(didnt decide yet u guys should give me advice on what online class to take)

Extracurriculars:

  • classical dance for 12 years, got diploma from big indian conservatory, did arangetram, teaches for my dance teacher and spent basically all of last summer doing that stuff
  • parttime job in Kumon since 2018
  • Remote Internship of designing a website for a startup in philadelphia
  • research internship over the summer(if corona doesnt take over)
  • Remote research internship(my interview is tomorrow so fingers crosseddd)
  • Head of department of science in tutoring nonprofit
  • co-founder of band club in school(we dont have a real band lol)
  • JSA peer mentor
  • Presidential gold award in community service with an organization, i was also a camp counselor for the same one
  • tryna make an app this summer so lets j see how that goes
  • top 10% in AMC 10 if that even counts for anything

-Qualified for nationals for two years in TSA

  • Submitted and presented a DNA Clone to NCBI with Waksmans Student Scholars Program (research over course of half a year)

i have no idea what colleges to apply to help me build a list please thank you :)))

rutgers is my safety tho

guys i also qualified for FBLA nats (4th in state) for e-business in new jersey (which is super hard)

I got into junior achievement leadership committee coding division

I’m an operations team member at Reinvented magazine - the first STEM magazine for girls in the country and serve as the main point of communication between marketing and operations as well as making partnerships

Start by talking to your parents about your college budget. Will you need merit money to make school affordable? That will change the advice that will be given. Also, do expect to be a NMF? If so, that will open up a lot of big merit opportunities at some of the big S and SW state schools.

No I will not be an NMF. My parents are okay with paying and taking out student loans for top name universities. For me it’s either going to be like a T20 (in cs) like Carnegie Mellon and Washington University or Rutgers (it’s mUCH more affordable and basically guaranteed admission/ pretty good school)

Wash U is not known for CS. Rutgers is ranked higher.

Carnegie Mellon CS is very competitive to get into. You have a decent shot though.

Do you want to stay on the east coast or would you like to go somewhere else?

Wash U is actually very well known for CS. It’s location makes it easy to get amazing internships and job opportunities. I actually don’t mind where the college is, as long as it’s not in the south (gtech is the exception).

Hey, just created an account because I saw this. I’m a WashU CS student, feel free to DM me I would be happy to give you some WashU-specific information if you’re interested!

From what you’ve listed WashU (and most schools for that matter) would be super lucky to have you but as I’m sure you know even the most qualified people aren’t guaranteed to get in because weird stuff happens.

The main piece of advice I would give is if you really want to go to a top 20 school, apply to a lot of schools because things can be really random and it’s just super competitive especially for CS. I had a pretty similar profile to you in terms of tests and grades and I think I applied to 10 schools and only got into three (one of which was my safety). If I were to do it over again I would apply to more like 15-20 so that I maybe had a couple more schools to choose from… as long as you start on essays this summer it’s easily doable. Some people might disagree, that’s just my two cents.

But yeah once again shoot me a message if you have any other questions, especially about WashU, it looks like you’d be a great fit!

I’m sure you’re aware of the best CS programs which everyone applies to, so no need to repeat those here. In addition to Rutgers and the usual suspects, I’d look at some schools that have a thriving art/music/dance scene, either within the School of Music or in an affiliated school (where you can cross-register).

At these schools, your strong background in classical dance might set you apart from other applicants and give you a (pun intended) leg up in admissions. As you know, it’s insanely competitive for CS these days so you should probably apply to at least 10 schools.

Those which meet the above criteria for the dance scene, meet your criterion for being located outside the South, and also have very good or excellent CS programs would include:

  • Michigan
  • Columbia
  • USC

Others with a good dance scene and decent CS (also excellent Math departments) that are worth a look include:

  • NYU
  • U. Texas-Austin (Austin is a nation unto itself)
  • Ohio State
  • Indiana U.

Are you talking about Wash U in St. Louis or U of Washington in Seattle?