Chance me for Purdue University Computer Science and list of safeties, targets, and reaches

Chance Me / Match Me!
,
1

Fall of 2023
US Citizen
Massachusetts Resident
Public High School
Computer Science

Weighted GPA 4.0

SAT 1460 (720 reading, 740 math)

3 years Spanish
Junior year AP US History
Junior year AP Language and Composition
Junior Year AP World History

Senior year courses
AP Microeconomics
AP Calculus AB
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Statistics
Honors Physics
Honors Accounting 3
Honors English

Activities
JV Cross Country 9, 10
JV Winter Track 9, 10 (Varsity) 11
JV Spring Track 9, 10 (Varsity) 11
Krav Maga Martial Arts training, purple belt 1 year
KP Leo Club - community service club 11
KP Cares- community service club 11
Dunkin Donuts part-time job 11

Any other colleges that you might suggest?

Safety:
U of CF
U of Houston
U of South Carolina
Clemson
Elon

Target:
ASU, FSU, GMU, Iowa State, IU, NC State, Northeastern, Rutgers-NB, Stony Brook, VTech, UF, U Georgia, U Mass, William and Mary

Reach:
Purdue
U of Maryland
UNC-CH

2

What is your uwgpa and class rank/decile?

3

Clemson is not a safety, probably a target.

Iowa State should be a safety….put your grades, # of core courses, and test score into their RAI formula to make sure.

Your probably don’t need so many safeties either. Are all the safeties affordable per their Net price calculators? A safety has to be affordable to be a safety.

4

I don’t know. My transcript only has my weighted gpa.

5

I think some of your targets are reaches for CS and I think overall your list is too long. That’s a lot of applications!

Are you not taking a lab science course as a senior?

Be sure for Purdue and UMD that you get your application in before the EA deadline. They both fill the majority of their classes in EA and for Purdue, honors and merit are only considered for EA applicants.

6

My parents said they should be within our budget with 529 money saved.

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7

Honors Physics is a lab science course, correct?

8

You need to calculate it yourself, using a 4 point scale where any flavor of A = 4, any B =3, and so on, including core courses only. Core = Eng, Sci, SS, FL, Math.

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9

So sorry! Totally missed that!

10

Could you tell me which of my target schools you would call reaches? I know my list is too long and I am trying to narrow it down. Thank you.

11

I’ll do that. Thank you.

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12

Northeastern has gotten crazy competitive and NC State because you are out of state.

13

Calculating an unweighted grade point average is a simple math problem. Add up all of the semester grades in academic* courses, with A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0, then divide that sum by the number of grades.

*English, math, history, social studies (government / civics, economics, psychology, etc.), science, foreign language, art, music. Other academic electives like computer science are generally included. PE, health, and devotional religion are generally not included (but non-devotional religious studies are).

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14

What have your AP scores been? Have you been taking the most rigorous classes offered at your school, or are there some you’ve not taken?

15

AP Language and Composition 3
AP World History 4
AP US History 4

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16

Unweighted GPA 3.7

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17

Do you know your class rank or decile? That would help everyone put the 3.7 into perspective.

18

Thanks for the additional info. Does your school send any students to schools in the top 10 of the USNWR? 20? 50? That can also help provide some context about your high school.

19

I am not in college admissions, and I don’t know for all of these schools whether they have direct admissions to CS (but YOU definitely need to find out). Direct admission will guarantee you the right to that major whereas other times it can be very competitive to get into a CS major if there are requirements after to meet after enrolling. But, depending on the school, getting direct entry to a college’s CS program is significantly more challenging than getting in to a school on the whole (with, for instance, SAT scores 200 points higher than the colleges average). That is generally only true for the most in-demand CS programs, and there are many excellent CS programs that have much more reasonable chances for direct entry.

With that said, this is what I think your chances might be at these schools:

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Arizona State
  • U. of Houston
  • U. of South Carolina
  • Elon
  • George Mason
  • Iowa State
  • Indiana University

Likely (60-79%)

  • U. of Massachusetts
  • Florida State (low end of likely)
  • Rutgers

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • U. of Georgia
  • U. of Central Florida
  • Clemson
  • Stony Brook

Low Probability (20-39%)

  • Virginia Tech
  • William & Mary

Lower Probability (less than 20%)

  • Purdue
  • U. of Maryland
  • UNC – Chapel Hill
  • U. of Florida
  • NC State
  • Northeastern
20

I think the probability of CS at UMass is probably lower, even in-state. The CS major is super competitive to get into and my son has several friends that were stellar students that got deferred or rejected from CS (although accepted to the school).

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