Are ivies good for compsci? I don’t know which ivies to apply for. I am only a junior in orange county california. Here’s my stats;
UW gpa: 3.92, B’s in calculus, french 3, AP human geo and AP chem
fully W: 4.49
UC W: 4.15
SAT: 1530 (790 reading/writing and 740 math)
SAT 2: math- 710, physics- 750, writing- 780
AP- calc AB- 3, AP physics- 5, ap chem- 5, lang-5, french- 3, aphug- 4, ap CS A- 4, ap CS principles- 5
taking AP LIt, AP calc BC, AP pyshcology this year
ECs: CSF, NHS, Red Cross, Interact, Rotary club, key club, computer science club (treasurer), speech and debate (president), FBLA (vice prez), writing club (vice prezident)
started program near my area to help poor students code- YouthCodeAmerica (YCA- founder and leader in my area)
summer program- YCA, local volunteering, NYLF- engineering, UCSD triton stem academy
awards- ap scholar, national merit commended (1460), Ap physics student of year (highest grade), highest score in my school for physics olympiad (not next level tho), speech and debate- state 3rd place for impromptu, many certificates and trophies in impromptu, congress, parli debate, won district wide Essay competition, as well as one for poetry
Income- 75k
schools to apply to:
MIT
Ga Tech
Ca Tech
CMU
Cornell
Harvard
UPenn
Columbia
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
UCSC
UCSB
UCI
UCD
Cal Poly SLO
St. Olaf’s College
Rutgers
Alabama
Northwestern
Northeastern
Johns Hopkins
DUKE
WUSTL
Harvey Mudd
Pomona
Tufts
Swarthmore
Occidental
UMiami
UT Austin
Rice
Stanford
USC
U Chicago
UIUC
UNC- chapel hill
UVA
UPitt
all for compsci
i definetly need to narrow my list
what are my reaches/safeties/matches
thx
To narrow your list, start by finding out how much your parents can pay/year and if you are going to need financial aid either need-based if applicable or merit based. Run the Net price calculators for all the schools and I am sure you can probably drop about 1/2 of your list.
You look competitive for USC and the UC’s, but CS is ultra competitive so there are no guarantees not even with the Mid-tier UC’s so make sure you have at least 1-2 safeties: UCR/UCSC/SDSU/CSULB or CPP?
Cal Poly SLO has about a 7% acceptance rate for Computer Science. Definitely not a safety school even with competitive stats. I would add UCSC as a possible safety school instead.
You may not care about costs, but what about your parents? They do not care either??
Safety school criteria:
Affordable
High chance for an acceptance
Willing to attend no matter what
I’m doing computer science at Cornell. Stats-wise, I would say you are just about middle of the pack. Then again, Ivies are a crap shoot for anyone, so who knows. BTW, will you be applying as an Arts and Sciences CS or an Engineering CS?
That said, Ivies and their equivalents take up an extremely large portion of your list. Cutting it down to only a few would definitely boost the quality of your applications, which matters a lot.
@AL are chances for schools in general for CS if you apply to Arts and Science vs engineering school? Why do they even offer the same major in different schools?
Well, the reason why CS is split between two colleges at Cornell is because CS is a very diverse field. The core classes for the major are the same between the two, but specializations and other requirements are different. You should see which one suits you best and then apply to it.
Overall, if you have more engineering/applied science experience, your application will do better at the Engineering school. If you demonstrate interest in humanities or interdisciplinary exploration, Arts and Sciences would be better for you.
Just an anecdote, but on a visit to CMU, the CS department said that a minimum level of math qualification was a 5 on the AP Calc BC test; they were very clear that that was a definite application screen. After that, they go by AIME scores. You will need your junior year results to decide what reaches to include. Focus for now on finding 2-3 good matches or safeties.