Race: White (European)
Gender: Male
State: Ohio
School: Non-competitive HS which sends >60% of graduates to a local community college
GPA: 3.36UW, 3.57W (upward trend and increase in course rigor)
Rank: 24/209 (as I said, I come from a low-resource area of my state)
SAT: 1500 (790M)
SAT II: 800 math 2, 740 physics, 600 us history
ACT: 33 (35M, 35R, 31E, 32S)
AP’s:
Junior Year: Calculus AB (4), US History (3), Stats (4), Physics 1 (4)
Senior Year: AP Physics C: Both Parts, AP English Lit, AP Comp Sci A, Calculus BC, European History, Dual-enrollment Chem, US Government, and Biology (with the possibility of AP Env Sci and AP French, next semester)
ECs:
Tennis (3 yrs)
NHS - Couldn’t join last year due to my transferring to this school (1yr)
Robotics/Engineering team - (2 years)
Volunteer at local library - started a class on programming and taught Python and ML during seminars, weekly (40+ hours, could not start until age 16 and began one week after reaching said age)
Student mentorship program
Internship program (starting two internships at NASA and a private contracting firm in 1-2 months)
Leadership Academy
YouTube channel with videos on machine learning, programming, game development, etcetera with nearly 1,000 subscribers
Experience: know C#, Java, JS/Unityscript, HTML, CSS, Python, Lua, and C
LORs: guidance counselor, stats teacher, and physics teacher (honestly, physics is the only notable one)
---- Have no sophomore year because I skipped that grade ----
@Knowsstuff We don’t use Naviance. As I said, they have very few resources and send most people to community colleges; hence, getting something like Naviance wouldn’t even be very useful.
I would put it as a reach. GPA is obviously the issue.
If I were in your position I would apply to Ohio State and at least two other public schools in-state. Your school would know a lot better than me what your chances are at Ohio State.
Why did you skip sophomore year with a 3.36 GPA? what was your junior year GPA?
Right now, my issue is that OSU seems like the better choice, but UMich has an, objectively, superior CS program. Should I apply? If so, what are my chances?
Another factor is that OSU decides housing by date of fee payment, so time is of, to some degree, the essence.
You can pay your OSU deposit and then if you get into Michigan you can tell them you’ve decided to go elsewhere. You will likely lose the deposit. And I would say Michigan is a reach.
Congrats on OSU. I’d probably deposit there so you will be in good shape for housing. If you get into UM (I believe it is a reach for you) and it is affordable and preferable them you can withdraw from OSU and deposit at UM @suzy100 described.
Again, thanks! When people say reach, do they mean <20%, <50%, <10%, etcetera?
Is UMich going to be significantly better for me, in the long run, or will I be okay at OSU? (leaning towards it due to my growing up in Columbus and moving away, later)
Both schools are big ten schools and you should be fine with just about any major. People can argue one is better then the other. I would go with which one ends up more affordable.
@knowstuff OSU will likely cost me less due to my being in-state. (~$15,000 EFC)
I want to go to graduate school at something of the same caliber as CMU, though, so that changes some aspects of things. Given my desire to study AI, is OSU going to be better/worse/inferior to UMich?
@scrubstudent not sure. My son’s in engineering at Michigan and is envolved with augmented reality there and the school has backed him with grants, research and alumni. Not saying you can’t get that at OSU. I am not familiar with their program there. All I know at Michigan is that if you want to make it happen they will back you to accomplish it is my experience with my son.
The cost differential just might not be worth it for you.
I am leaning towards it, a bit.