Chance International Student for Comp Sci

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

International Student with US Citizenship

10th: 90 % (But Rank was Very Low)

11th: 85.98 %

Course Load:

Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Information Technology, Environmental Science, Physical Education

Rank (11th): Top 5 percent among 800+ students

SAT: 1370 (Will Retake, but settling with this for now)

ECs: 150+ hrs of Volunteering, Member of Programming and Speech and Debate Club, Librarian Assistant at School, Tutor for kids under the age of 12 at my Apartment Complex

LOR’s: From Vice Principal and Math Teacher

Extra Stuff: Played the Piano for 6 years, won multiple tournaments as the Basketball team captain, proficient at Python and Java

Essays: Planning on writing how I was a special kid when I was in the 6th grade, and that I was forced to repeat the 6th grade due to my scores which forced me to mature and improve myself, and understand that I needed to take a new path towards success and start working hard, and how this has shaped me into the person I’am today

Applying to:

Please recommend some more places to apply I’d really appreciate it. Kinda confused to be honest:

UT Dallas for Comp Sci

Arizona State University for Comp Sci

UC Santa Cruz for Comp Sci

San Jose State for Comp Sci/ Software Engineering

Texas A&M Station for Comp Sci

Rutgers for Comp Sci

Money isn’t really an issue

2

Just a notebook some schools with see you as an American applicant. What’s your other nationality? Seems you have a great shot with all the schools listed. Have you considered Penn State or Michigan State?

3

@airway1 I’m Indian. I really want to attend the UC’s such as UC Davis and UC Irvine as I have several family members who live near both Universities. What are your thoughts on my chances for those Universities? As for Penn State, I do intend on applying there. I don’t want to keep my expectations too high, I know my stats aren’t super impressive or anything lol. As for the SAT score and my application overall, what would you suggest me to improve upon? My dream school is UC San Diego btw. Thanks for the input! Really appreciate it.

4

Indian is a tough tough bucket so it will help having a US citizenship . I’d start by picking early action schools, which will be your ED school? Widen your pool to all UCs, Penn state and Michigan state (could be your backup)… apply early and make sure to retake your SAT to see if you can improve.
As an American your in a Better pool than international students as that’s my experience with both my kids (one American and the other not)

5

I haven’t officially decided my ED school yet, but I’m thinking of Rice University at the moment. Pretty sure Purdue doesn’t have Early Action so that get’s cancelled. I’ll definitely apply to all the Universities you listed. Thanks!

6

By having US citizenship, it just means that you are eligible to apply for federal aid, but that won’t cover the publics where you are not instate like the public UC’s.

Will your parents pay the non-resident fees of $65K per year for UC’s?

7

@“aunt bea” plus better acceptance… penn state is at 50% but for international 20 to 25%. State schools usually target 10% international so it gets difficult. Also, being in the Indian bucket is more difficult and you will need a higher SAT score because of the pool with high SATs

8

@“aunt bea” I forgot to add my family’s income, my bad. It is 200k(dollars), and my parents are willing to pay the fees as long as I’m determined to study and work hard. However, they would prefer me to go to CalPoly or San Jose State because of the relatively lower tuition.
@airway1 Wouldn’t I be considered an Out of State student because of my U.S Citizenship? I’m not completely aware of the process, but I was told that I’d be judged in comparison to other Internationals, but given admission with the acceptance rates of an Out of State student. Not entirely sure if this is right, just wanted to clarify. I have been getting scores of around 1480 in my latest practice tests (not an entirely accurate assumption of my SAT, but it’s the closest I suppose). Would this be enough for Mid Tier and Mid High Tier UC’s?

9

Money IS an issue.

10

Look at the University of Utah. As a US citizen you can get instate tuition rates after the first year if you establish residency (by staying instate for all but 29 days out of 365 consecutive days) so it is relatively inexpensive. It’s a great campus, especially if you like the outdoors, with a decent CS program.

11

@Sybylla My bad, that was stupid of me for adding that. Money is a bit of an issue for the UC’s.

12

So define your budget? Your stats will make merit unlikely. If you are retesting, it needs to be soon if it is an international sitting, right? No SAT2?

13

The nearest testing date is October, unfortunately. I think I’ve run out of time for Subject Tests, but if possible I do wish to take the Math 2 Subject Test. I was also told by UC students that the Subject Tests are not used during admission purposes, but rather for getting advanced Math Classes? Is this true?Our budget is around 50k. If it goes beyond that, we can still pay for it but we would prefer it be around the 50k margin.

14

50K a year? so >200K? Are you sure?

What are your sub scores on your SAT?

15

I’ll have to clarify our Income Level once again. My Subscores are:
Math: 710
English: 660
I’ll definitely retake it, the International SAT curves are absolutely horrendous…