Chance Me for CS Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • International student living in US for 15+ years
  • State/Location of residency: NJ
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Top-rated public school
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Male/Indian
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): N/A

Intended Major(s)
Computer Science, Business, Political Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.96
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.84/5.00 (Practical limit is 4.90)
  • College GPA (for transfers): N/A
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1550

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
AP Classes/Scores: Computer Science A, Computer Science Principles, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, US Government and Politics, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Chemistry, Physics C Electricity & Magnetism (All submitted, all 5)

All other courses are Honors, also dually enrolled @ Princeton CS in senior year

Awards
National and International Level MUN awards
USACO Gold
AIME Qualifier

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Founder, CEO @ 501(c)(3) nonprofit specializing in coding education, featured on statewide news, 300+ tutors, 3000+ students, 60+ school districts, 30% Title 1 schools, 10k+ raised

Facebook MLH Fellow/SWE Intern:
65 fellows selected from 4000+ applications (1.6% AR), paid fellowship/internship program working on a Facebook AI open source project. In process of co-authoring research paper with SWEs I’m working with on new findings relating to aforementioned project and AI in general. Youngest ever accepted, one of two high schoolers in program.

State Treasurer (#2) of HS Republicans, garnering support for the gubernatorial race in NJ, helped raise funds/support for regional and statewide candidates, featured on statewide news

School President of another 501(3)(3) teaching low-income students in Trenton, 2000+ students, 20k+ raised

Senior Officer/Chief of Staff of school Model UN team, ranked in the top 3 nationwide

Student @ Columbia Science Honors Program (10% AR), taking courses in data science, algorithms, biochemistry, ML w/ Python, etc. Accepted in freshman year

Other club officerships:
Treasurer @ CS Club, Director of Technology @ Math Club, PR Coordinator @ Red Cross Club

Internships:
Gubernatorial campaign intern, state senator intern

Sports:
JV Volleyball (Pre-COVID)
Weightlifting

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Essays: Moderately strong, my personal statement is my favorite
LOR: Pretty strong (known one teacher since 9th grade, great relationship)

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
70k/year, ofc anything helps but yeah

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

Assume everything is affordable, I’ll figure out a way to afford them

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability): Rutgers (EA, already admitted)
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable): N/A
  • Match: N/A
  • Reach: UMich (EA), Georgia Tech (EA), UIUC (EA), UC Berkeley EECS (RD), CMU (RD), Rutgers Honors College (EA), Austin CS, Deans (EA)
  • Hard Reach: Caltech (EA), MIT (EA), UPenn M&T (ED), UC Berkeley MET (RD), Harvard (RD), Princeton (RD), Stanford (RD), Yale (RD), Columbia (RD), Cornell (RD), Austin CSB, Turing (EA)
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For context I had one B in freshman year honors spanish.

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Congratulations on your achievements.

I can’t chance you, but as an international student your probability of acceptance is relatively lower as compared to those of your classmates who are citizens/permanent residents. With that said, I wouldn’t be surprise to see an acceptance at one or more of your reach schools.

This is backwards…you need to get a handle on your budget before applying to all these schools. What is your budget and what do the NPCs give as COA estimates for you?

Is Rutgers affordable for you?

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Thanks for the reply @Mwfan1921

I thought many of these schools have admissions processes that consider in context of where the student resides or studies? AKA for UPenn the admissions committee makes its decision off where you live.

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And yes Rutgers is affordable, I can petition for in-state there.

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Basically full pay, my family earns over 200k gross income

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You applied as an international student correct?

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Yes but my permanent address is in NJ and the high school I labeled that I attend is also in NJ.

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Your academics will be evaluated relative to the averages/ranges of your HS…gpa, rigor, etc. but you will still be considered as an international applicant which impacts your likelihood of acceptance. Being full pay will be an advantage…can your parents pay $80k per year for college?

If Rutgers has a pathway for international students who attend a NJ HS to pay in-state tuition rates definitely file that petition ASAP…there’s no reason to wait.

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I guess I was slightly confused by this then – would my international status still be considered at Cornell (neglecting financial aid)?

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Cornell will read applications by your HS, but you are still an international student and they will take relatively fewer international students. It is possible that an international student who attends HS in the US has an advantage over a non-US based international student, but we don’t know that for sure. Another difference is that many of your schools are need aware for international students, so they will see that you are full pay and factor that in to their admission decision.

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Ok, that makes sense, thanks!

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Have you thought about adding a couple more match schools that are less than $70-80k/year? Just to have an option other than Rutgers…unless you’re perfectly happy to attend?

You don’t have to go to a top 10 school for CS undergrad. Our neighbors son went to NC State. Now at Georgia Tech working on PhD.

Maybe NC State, Virginia Tech or Maryland? Penn State or Pitt?

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My D22 has very comparable metrics (4.0, 1580, 3x AIME, 12 AP/5’s, etc.) and most of the buckets line up except CMU, which is absolutely a hard reach for CS.

I’m fairly confident she’ll get into one of the “reach” schools, but an International student has a higher bar. I’d suggest a few schools slightly more match-y: Purdue, Maryland, Wisconsin, for starters. Unless you’re good with Rutgers if none of those listed is an acceptance, which is fine. (She similarly has in-state Penn State as a safety, already accepted).

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