Chance me for ED at SCS?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

Hey guys I’m a rising senior and am in love with CMU, both the school and it’s CS program. I understand how difficult it is to get into SCS and know I don’t have the best chance and it definitely won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get in.

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2300 ( 730CR / 770M / 800W / 11E )
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 800 Math, 800 Chem, took Physics and USH in June
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97
Weighted GPA: 4.52
AP (place score in parenthesis): CS (5), Stats (5), Physics 1, Physics 2, USH, Chemistry, Calc BC
Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Lang, AP Bio, Spanish 4H, AP Euro, Multivariable Calc at community college
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AIME qualifier, USACO Silver Medalist, several piano awards
Subjective:
Extracurriculars: Cross Country and Track (Captain for both), Piano (playing since age 6), President of Helping Hands (school’s peer tutoring club), Treasurer of ICAC (biggest club on campus, organizes the annual Indian dance show w/ >1100 people showing up and 100 performers, donate proceeds to charity), Treasurer of UNICEF (fundraising club),

Volunteer/Community service: Helping Hands (Tutored mainly APCS and some math, about 100 hours), Lead programming classes at the library/local middle school through non-profit organizations MathandCoding (about 150 hours) and CodeforFun (about 50 hours).

Work Experience: Paid internship at CSU’s HCI Lab during summer of 2015 (paper published), Paid internship with the Navy through a program called SEAP this summer (likely to get paper published), Worked at Kumon summer of 2014

Here’s the rest of my college list if you are kind enough to be willing to chance me at these other schools (or suggest ways to fix my list):

UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
UC Davis
UCSB
UCI
Georgia Tech
UIUC
USC
Purdue
UT Austin
UMich
UWash
Caltech
Duke
University of Wisconsin Madison
Northwestern
Rice
UNC Chapel Hill

2

which state are you in? and what is your race?

3

Asian male from California

4

Stats look competitive to me, but with how extremely selective SCS is, nobody can know for sure. Check out the stats of the accepted SCS students in the past couple years’ admission threads, and if you really are in love with CMU, I’d recommend applying ED. And, not intending this to be racist or anything, but your race/location aren’t doing you any favors (I’m an Asian from California too so I get the struggle).

5

I’m impressed with your selection of schools. It looks like you’ve considered up and down and across the spectrum, considering your interests. And I don’t necessarily think it’s too many schools because most of the schools are not essay heavy. It’s exactly the same number of schools my S applied to.

6

Thank you both so much! @kaukana do you think I should add some more safeties/reaches and take out some matches, or do you think it’s fine?

7

Maybe MIT as a reach. Nothing against you specifically in saying MIT is a reach. As you know MIT is a reach for everyone.

I think you’ve got a good number of safeties and matches. I think your only reaches are Caltech, Duke, and CMU SCS. Maybe Northwestern. But as with MIT these are reaches for everyone.

8

UC Berkeley is a reach also if you are applying to EE and CS. Same logic. Adding MIT would take you to 6 reaches if you include MIT and CMU SCS, which might improve your chances of hitting your adcom on the right day. But don’t add MIT if it waters your attention to your apps. For the schools you are applying to, good applications are a must, except Cal Berkeley which pretty much goes on numbers. Another hard choice will be using your ED/EA/SCEA card. It may be best played at Duke? Best of luck to you. You’ve generated an amazing HS record so far. Keep going!

9

Thanks so much for your insightful input; I’ll look into MIT. I’m not planning to apply to EECS, just regular CS. I also debated ED between Duke and CMU; I loved both but preferred CMU a little more. I’m also probably applying EA to all the schools on my list that offer it (there is no limit to the amount you can apply to, right?). Again, thanks so much for your helpful response.

10

Since you are in California, I think you have an excellent chance of getting into Berkeley, so I would try to get into that school. It also cheap since you pay in state. In terms of the other California public schools, I would actually be surprised if you didn’t get into UCLA, UCSD (given that you write a decent essay). Caltech has a big research culture. Since you already have papers published, I think that you have a decent chance at Caltech. Of course, MIT is a reach for everyone. I don’t know how competitive CMU is in California, but to me, you look like a well qualified candidate.

11

Also, given your stats, I would recommend on not applying any ED. It really limits your choices. Do you need any financial aid for college? How much are you expecting to pay? ED with CMU is good because CMU has an excellent CS program. However, CMU is bit troublesome in terms of the price. Also, I really don’t think it would be a good idea to restrict your choice to Duke. Duke is a great school, but it doesn’t have the reputation CMU, MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley has in the field of CS and Engineering. I also noticed that Stanford is not on your list. In my opinion, Stanford (at least for undergraduate) is better than MIT. It is also easier to get in than MIT, especially if you are California citizen. You should definitely apply there!

12

@comploadite Read up on the policies of all schools you intend to apply ED/EA to. If one of these schools is single-choice, then you can only apply to that school alone during the ED/EA period.

From the Collegeboard website:
“Approximately 450 colleges have early decision or early action plans, and some have both. Some colleges offer a nonbinding option called single-choice early action, under which applicants may not apply ED or EA to any other college.”

Careful where you dip your toe in.