Chance Me CS @ UC Berkeley, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, UT Austin, Stanford, Ivies, UIUC, & more

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Intended Major: EECS or Computer Science
Applying to UCs, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, UT Austin, Stanford, Ivies, UIUC, Georgia Tech.

BIO:
Indian Female
Income: <$150k
Public school (top 250 in USA)
Resident of California

STATS:
GPA: Unweighted: 3.9/4.0 Weighted: 4.4/4.0 UC: 4.1
ACT: 36
SAT II: Math: 800, Physics: 800, Chemistry: 800
AP Scores: European History (3), US History (5), Calculus AB (5), Computer Science (5), Psychology (5), Seminar (5), Physics 1 (5), Physics 2 (5), Physics C: Mechanics (5), Physics C: E&M (5), English Literature (5)
National AP Scholar

CLASSES:
Freshman Yr:

English: A/A
Alg 2: A/A
Biology: A/A
PE: A/A
World Geography/Health: A/A
Spanish 2: A/A

Sophomore Yr:

English: A/A
Honors PreCalc/Trig: B/B
Honors Physics: A/B
AP European History: B/B
Yoga: A/A
Spanish 3: A/A

Junior Yr:

AP English Literature: A/A
AP Calculus AB: A/A
AP Physics C: Mechanics: A/A
AP US History: A/A
AP Computer Science: A/A
AP Psychology: A/A
AP Seminar: A/A

Other classes taken:
-Summer before Sophomore year: Chemistry
-Summer before Junior year:
-Introduction to Java, Advanced Java at Johns Hopkins CTY
-Introduction to Cybersecurity

Senior year course load:
AP English Language, AP Calculus BC (or AP Statistics), AP Chemistry, AP Gov, AP Econ (Micro and Macro), AP Music Theory, AP Research

EXTRA-CURRICULARS:
-Playing piano since 3rd grade: took MTAC Certificate of Merit test for all levels up till 9, taking level 10 senior year. Planning on receiving senior award for playing piano 3 years in high school, including senior year
-Interned for a non-profit organization and developed a course to teach elementary and middle school students Advanced Java
-Interned for Sandia National Laboratories, teaching elementary school children around the area Science once a week
-Interned for a Stanford professor and shadowed his research
-Interned for NASA
-Interned for Cal Academy of Sciences and taught science to guests
-Created own website to help people with AP classes
-Created another website to teach people various languages of code

VOLUNTEERING/AWARDS:
-PVSA Award (75+ hours)
-California Scholarship Foundation, Life Member, Freshman to Senior Year (80+ hours)
-Teaching programming (100+ hours)
-USA Physics Olympiad semifinalist
-National Merit finalist

CLUBS:
-Physics Club (Sophomore Yr-Senior yr)
-Girls Who Code (Sophomore Yr)
-Technovation (Junior yr-senior yr)
-CSF (Freshman yr - senior yr)

Hopefully I’ll get good recs because I maintain good relationships with my teachers. I’m good at writing so my essays should be pretty good.

Please tell me my realistic chances!! Thank you so much! :slight_smile:

2

Hello! I think you’ve got a very good shot at attending UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, UT Austin, and UIUC. I would be surprised if you didn’t get in! As for HYPSM, it is hard to say because it is really a crapshot. I really hope you get into the college of your dreams because I can tell that you put a great deal of effort. I’m a rising Junior. I am also looking into creating websites. How did you do it? Thanks :slight_smile:

3

Cost constraints?

Many of the schools on your list (many UCs, CMU, UT Austin, UIUC) are significantly more selective for CS majors than the overall admission stats for the schools may indicate.

Be sure to include actual safeties where you will be admitted *to the CS major/i. Of course, safeties must be affordable.

4

@HopkinsBopkins Thank you! and sure, PM me

5

@ucbalumnus I’m an only child, so money won’t be a problem. I’m applying to all UCs, so I have some safeties such as Davis and San Diego. I might also apply to SJSU. May I know what you majored in at UCB?

6

I think you have a great shot! You are certainly on par with (or beyond) people I know who’ve been accepted to study CS at Berkeley and CMU. HYPSM are trickier to predict, of course, but I think it’s definitely worth applying to a few of them. The decisive factor, IMO, will be the creativity and potency of your essays. Best of luck!

7

You self-studied APs? How do you know you are a National Merit Finalist? What else in your biography is speculative?

8

Thank you so much @astroknot !! Really appreciate it :’)

9

@MatzoBall I studied for the AP tests and took them (My school offers almost every AP test). I got a letter from NMSC. Nothing in my biography is speculative.

10

UCSD and UCD are not safeties.

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary indicates that, for 2015, applicants with UC GPA in the 3.80-4.19 range had admission rates of 39% at UCSD and 52% at UCD. But since CS is an impacted major at both campuses (particularly at UCSD), admission to the CS major will be more difficult than admission to the campus overall.

You probably want to include UCSC, UCR, and UCM on your UC application for options that are closer to safeties (though with essays and holistic reading, one cannot be 100% sure). Note that SAT and ACT scores are not weighted as heavily by UCs as at some other schools.

SJSU past admission thresholds are at http://info.sjsu.edu/static/admission/impaction.html . Your CSU eligibility index = 200 * GPA + 10 * ACT = 1180, which exceeds the 2015 threshold for SJSU CS (1021) and SJSU SE (862). Although future thresholds could rise, SJSU appears to be almost a safety.

11

I am confused. What did the letter from NMSC say and when did you receive it? You are not even a senior yet.

12

Hey, can you answer my pm?

13

I think that you have really good chances everywhere except for the ivies and pseudo-ivies (it’s just really hard to say with those). What are the names of your websites? I’d love to use them as resources for my own studies!