Hello everyone - could you please weigh in regarding my chances of acceptance for the list of schools below?
CMU
Stanford
UIUC
Duke
NYU (Math+CS Major in Courant School)
GTech
Info - I am an American citizen living in India. I have done all my schooling in India.
Stats -
ACT 34,
SAT Math Level 2 800
SAT Chem 800
SAT Physics 780
TOEFL 105
I have managed to consistently get A’s in all my 12th-grade classes although I got B’s in the 11th. I have rest all A’s in the 9th and 10th.
ECs -
I have published a Research Paper on Acta Astonautica Journal of Elsevier on GAGAN and future airports
2 projects on Data Science to be used in my school from the next academic year(LORs mention the same)
Zonal Level Table Tennis Player - best player for my age category in my club
I also train a few students twice a week
Finished within top 50 ranks in General AI Challenge, Solving the AI Race Round
Competed in News-Wiz Quiz till pre-televised rounds
Finished 4th in the western round of JAIBC India Competition
Participated in NASA’s Cassini Scientist for a Day Competition
Certified Scuba Diver
Working on creating an 8-bit computer using breadboards
Designed a Journal to enhance productivity for high-school students - working on releasing and selling copies on Amazon
Helped initiate Storytelling sessions for underprivileged students to teach elementary English with AASHA Foundation
Completed various online courses on Data Science and Mathematics
Part of an online Data Science invite-only community
Active medium (another website for blogging) writer - post weekly regarding algorithms, and general AI, ML news - basically whatever I find interesting
My Common App essay talks about how I dealt with depression and have changed since.
I got rejected from Cornell and am waiting for a decision from UMich, UWash, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UC Davis
The depression is a very sensitive topic, in my opinion. Since it is a sensitive topic, I think that some of the colleges will look at this differently (in either negative or positive sense). It’s really hard to tell, but hope you will get into some of your favorite schools
@Kmath17 I have tried my best to make the CA essay as positive as possible - I intertwined the story along with my first experience of diving(I was initially had aquaphobia) so that the depression is not actually the central idea of the essay; rather is the journey out of the situation which is.
Update: I finished in the top 5% of a national level data science competition held by Analytics Vidhya. Over 6000 statisticians, data scientists competed. The results came out today morning.
Definitely a good shot, you seem to be very focused in CS and i’m sure colleges will see that. just to be safe though maybe add some safety schools to this list?
I agree about the depression thing since colleges TBH like to keep their graduation rates high and suicidal rates low, and a lot of people write about how they have overcome depression but colleges sometimes see it as “oh they’re at risk for commiting suicide and i don’t want our college to be associated w that”. It’s the sad reality of the situattiom but only for SOME colleges again. also i have not read your essay so I would never know for sure
Neither UC Davis or San Diego are safeties for CS majors. You are definitely a highly competitive applicant but safeties are almost 100% guaranteed admission and neither school fits that description.
I would have suggested UC Santa Cruz and Riverside, but since that application period is closed. If private schools are within budget, Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco, Chapman University and University of San Diego might be some options in California. Although not a Safety but an excellent school for both your interests would be USC (University of Southern California).
Also, I got rejected by Cornell ED - so my parents are tentative about letting me apply to more top schools. Could someone weigh in regarding why I got rejected and should I apply to more top schools eg - Stanford, CMU
