Chance/Match Me: TX Resident, 4.0 UW, 1530 SAT, CS Major 💀/ ECE [top 2%, <$60k]

[never_touched_grass]

Demographics

• US domestic - Citizen
• State/Location of residency: Texas
• Type of high school: Public
• Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Asian

Intended Major(s)
Computer Science with ECE as 2nd choice.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

• Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
• Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 5.547 / 5.0
• Class Rank: Top 2%
• ACT/SAT Scores: 1530

Coursework
AP Calculus BC, AP Macroeconomics, AP Art History, AP Lit, AP CSA & CSP, Stats, and others, for a combined total 14 AP courses throughout HS. Earned a 5 on most of the ones I’ve taken, 4 on the others.

Awards
FRC State Finalist and Worlds qualifier
UIL Area Marching Band Finalist and State qualifier
NMSC Commended
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
District Award for maintaining a high GPA throughout HS

Extracurriculars
President of CS Club
FIRST Robotics (Software Dev)
BEST Robotics (Software Dev)
Marching + concert Band (no leadership unfortunately )
Paid Tutor at local Tutoring Center
Independent Study Mentee (AI Project)
Various unpublished Unity personal projects & game mods
~100 hours of volunteering across robotics, NHS, and local buddhist temple

Essays/LORs/Other
Essay - 7/10 (Could’ve been better, never really was a writer)
LOR CS Teacher - 9/10 (He loves me )
LOR Calc Teacher - 5/10 (Doesn’t know me, needed to fulfill LOR requirement )
LOR Mentor - 7/10 (Met this year but we’re on good terms)

Cost Constraints / Budget
< $60k

Schools
Goal - UT Austin Priority/EA [chance me!]

safe - UTD, UH, A&M
match - UT Austin
reach - St. Anford , CMU, GT, UIUC, Umich

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

Congratulations on your accomplishments. You have a strong profile and are competitive for all the schools on your list. Unfortunately, it’s hard to chance you beyond that, because most of your reaches are reaches for everybody.

But I do think you’ll get into UIUC if you’re applying EA. Possibly into GT as well. CMU and UMich are going to be a lot more unpredictable.

Do you qualify for need based aid? If not, some of these schools will be unaffordable, given your $60k budget.

[never_touched_grass]

I’m pretty certain that I won’t qualify for any significant amount of need based aid. I’ll clarify that I’m willing to break the 60k budget if its for a T5 CS school like Stanford or CMU, but stars will have to align or something for that to happen. I’m aiming for UT since the in-state tuition coupled with their CS program makes it the best ROI

[eyemgh]

If you’re capped at $60K and get into CS at UT, I wouldn’t bust your budget for any school, including Stanford or CMU. Your earnings and job opportunities will be similar. The differences in salaries reported in aggregate on places like College Scorecard are due to the fact that a lot of UT grads stay south or in the Midwest. Go to CA and you’ll make the same as a Stanford grad and won’t be saddled servicing debt.

[BKSquared]

If you are top 6% in your school, you should be an autoadmit to UT Austin as a Texas resident. The issue is if you can get in the college/major/honors program of your choice, e.g. getting in as a Turing Scholar. The issue for you is if you do not get accepted as a CS major at UT (not even necessarily as a Turing Scholar) and another program admits you as a CS major (or doesn’t limit admissions by major).

[ucbalumnus]

@never_touched_grass

safe - UTD, UH, A&M

If A&M means Texas A&M College Station, be aware that, if admitted, you would enter as undeclared general engineering, which means needing to earn a 3.75 college GPA to get into the CS major in secondary admission (ETAM).

Getting a 3.75 college GPA is more difficult than getting a 3.75 high school GPA.

[coolguy40]

UT is an excellent school, and A&M is ranked similar in their CS program. You’re a top student, so you should get in to either program. Good luck!