Hey everyone! I’m applying to Stanford, UC Berkeley, CMU and UT at Austin (Turings). How’s my college list looking and what are my chances? Should I apply to some more colleges?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Basic Info: Asian male in TX
Major: CS (double honors Business+CS degree for Austin)
GPA: 3.92 UW / 4.72 W / 4.20 (capped) UC GPA
Rank: 20/780
ACT: 35 (36 R, 35 E, 34 M, 34 S, 10 W)
SAT Subject: 800 Math II, 800 Physics
APs: 8 5s, 1 3 (Seminar lol)
General ECs:
Robotics: Senior Programmer (All)
UIL CS (Competition): Team Captain (All)
Science Olympiad: Engineering Lead (All)
Mobile App Development Club: President/Founder (All)
Cricket Club: President/Founder (All)
South Asian Student Society: President (UT)
Quizbowl: Vice President (UT)
National Honor Society(UT)
Mu Alpha Theta (UT)
Sience National Honor Society (UT)
Volunteering:
Personal Tutor for neighborhood kids, 240 hours (All)
Helped teacher with after school CS tutorials, 90 hours (All)
Volunteer for Transcribing Youtube Videos, 40 hours (UT, UC)
Misc, 30 hours (UT, UC)
Work experience:
Software Engineering Intern at HP, paid, summer full time, school part time
Taught about 6 classes throughout last 2 years in Java Fundamentals, Entrepreneurial
Awards:
Robotics State Champ (All)
Robotics Committment to Excellence in Technical Engineering (All)
Science Olympiad - 4th place (All)
Google Code-In Cert (All)
National AP Scholar (UT, Stanford, CMU)
Robotics Rookie Award (UT, UC)
Mu Alpha Theta Medallion (UT)
CS Team Capt Honor (UT)
Need help in structuring my awards!
Essays + SA: 8/10 on avg
Misc:
Made and published 3 websites (CS Competitions, Robotics Club, Java Course)
Took the most challenging classes offered at my school. Will have 18 APs by graduation
Got a couple Bs in Freshman year and 1st sem Soph year but were on an upward track after that
I think you have a good chance at CMU.
I would really be surprised if you got rejected by UT Austin (as long as you apply early).
Stanford and MIT is kind of a reach imo (but I don’t have experience so take it with a grain of salt).
Overall, pretty strong application. The weakest part is the fact that you are an Asian from TX =p.
You are definitely a competitive and qualified applicant. Can your family afford $65K/year at UCB? Little to no FA available for OOS students. Consider it a Reach school but you have a good chance.
Awesome! I love the feedback! I am pretty nervous. I know my numbers are kind of weak for Stanford+UCB but I’m hoping my ECs will improve my chances. Does anyone know about the Texas CSB program? How competetive is it?
I think CMU and UT are legitimate matches. But understand that even applicants with your stats don’t always get in. You need to make your application special and show the adcoms how great you are.
UC Berkeley is a match, but will prove more difficult since you’re out of state. In addition, CS is one of the most sought after majors there.
As for Stanford and MIT – those schools should be considered extreme reaches for ANY APPLICANT. They each accept so few that no one should realistically expect admission. That being said, you’re in the sweet spot of students they take, based upon your stats. Hopefully you emerge from the mass of awesome applicants to be one of the awesomest!