Chance me for Stanford, UChicago, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Harvard

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I am an Asian-American male living in an affluent community and I attend a public school with a class size of around 900

Family: Dad went to OSU for graduate school, Mom went to a school in Arizona; brother goes to MIT and studying bio/chem

GPA: Unweighed – 4.98; Weighted – 5.95

Standardized Tests: SAT: 1540; highest subscores (Math: 800, Reading: 750), ACT: 35; highest subscores (E: 36 M: 36 R: 35 S: 36)

Subject Tests: Chemistry - 780; Math Level 2 - 800

AP Scores: Calculus BC - 5, Physics 1 - 5, US Gov - 5, Lang & Comp - 5, Chinese Lang – 5, Comp Sci – 5, Biology: 5, US History – 4, World History – 4, planning on taking Phys C, English Lit, Stats, Microeconomics, Spanish Lang, US Gov

Leadership Roles: Varsity Gymnastics Captain, Secretary of Executive Board (elected position from whole school)

EC’s:
Eagle Scout

  • Eagle project of hosting a microscope workshop for 5th graders to build their own handheld microscopes to use with their school issued iPads
    Research internship at UChicago in the chemistry/material science department
  • I worked for two summers, developed novel material and am writing a first author paper, applying for patent
    Hosted Cooking Competition fundraiser
  • Raise money to support the Vote Yes group for the referendum to improve our school as the first one failed, talked with local businesses for donations and sponsorships, raised over $6000 and had 300 participants

Awards: Illinois Association of Teachers of English Prose winner, Continental Mathematics League Calculus League School First Place, AP National Scholar

Common app topic: Cooking (ties in with the fundraiser and has connection with my research)

I am planning on majoring in computer science or economics if I get into UChicago. I am wondering how strong my EC’s are and if they make me stand out more from the rest of the applicants.

2

if you’re going into CS, UChicago wouldn’t be a super choice.
Obviously, for Econ, all 5 are good.
But you probably know this.

3

Your ECs are strong but so are those of thousands of other applicants to these schools. If your novel material is a headlines-grabbing one this may set you apart.

4

You have a very competitive app. I think the EC’ are well above avg even for strong applicants. They are interestingly eclectic portraying real accomplishments in sports, academics, and service. Definitely pick your favorite and apply EA/SCEA/ED but also have some match/safety schools in your back pocket, and apply to any one or more of those rolling admissions or EA if allowed by your number 1 EA/ED school. Perhaps one or more of the honors programs at the Univ Illinois would be a good match/safety for you to apply to EA (which would be allowed by the schools on your list if you apply early to one of those).

5

@BKSquared I’m planning on REA to Stanford which leaves me only public institutions to apply to. I’m planning to apply CS to Champaign, Michigan, and some UC schools. Do you think these are safe enough or should I throw in something like IU for buiness into the mix?

6

CS is the most competitive major at UIUC and is not a safety. If you are from IL, the oos publics similarly are not safeties.

7

Although you have a competitive profile, UIUC and U Mich are not safeties for CS. Some UIUC CS/COE data:
https://cs.illinois.edu/about-us/statistics
https://admissions.illinois.edu/Apply/Freshman/profile

A few UCs could be safeties, you need to calculate your UC GPA, and you will pay full COA at UCs as an OOS student. Once you have the UC GPA @gumbymom can help you https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

IU Kelley direct admit is not be a safety either. It is becoming difficult to find true CS safeties for students like you, who may not consider schools such as UMBC or IIT. Look at UIC, Iowa State, U Iowa, U Alabama both Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, and U Mass Amherst…those would probably be highly likely CS schools for you.

8

I am assuming you are targeting UCB and UCLA. If you are OOS, here are the admit rates (not major specific) for these schools.

Admission Rates for Out-of-State Applicants (Domestic):
UCLA: 16.5%
UC Berkeley: 17.1%

They are slightly higher than in-state applicants, but due to the costs (approx $65K/year with little to no financial aid), the UC’s accept far more OOS applicants than actually matriculate. You are a very competitive applicant and have an excellent chance at an acceptance but these schools should still be considered Reach schools. With your qualifications, you should have a few top school wllling to give you some merit aid and even some need-based aid (if you qualify) to help defray costs.

Regarding the UC GPA calculation, OOS applicants can only get the extra honors weighting for AP/IB classes taken 10-11th grades. DE or HS Honors courses are not weighted for OOS applicants.

Best of luck.

9

I concur that CS is perhaps the most competitive, and certainly the most crowded, major in these schools you mentioned, so acceptances aren’t assured by any means. I also want to point out that you don’t have any CS-related ECs, which may put you at a disadvantage relative to other CS applicants for some of these schools.

10

@1NJParent Would it be worth trying to try to apply with another major other than CS and switch my major when I get it. Would undecided be better than going in as a CS major?

11

Agree that CS at the schools you named may be a bit reachy. “Undecided” is also not optimal. If the goal is to secure some place before the end of the year, I’d indicate Econ at some of these schools, especially if they don’t admit by specific majors where it might be easier to switch or an alternative major if the school admits by sub-college to the college that houses the CS department. I’d still indicate CS at the schools that admit by major, but understand they will be reachy, but less so than Stanford.

12

You need to research this school by school. CS is impacted at many schools, so many schools limit or don’t allow transfers at all because there just isn’t the room for growth. Schools can’t find enough CS profs or adjuncts to expand offerings even though I am sure they would like to.

13

Yes, you can apply as “undecided” or some other major, for the private colleges on your list (For Cornell, you must apply to either the Engineering or the A&S school). However, you do run some risk that even these colleges may impose additional barriers for declaring CS major down the road after enrollment. Because of the popularity of CS on many campuses, a number of colleges, including some on your list, are actively contemplating restrictions of various kinds.

14

Disagree, DD boyfriend was just hired by Amazon, graduating in CS from UChicago, beating out a MIT and. Stanford grad for the position.

15

One specific example doesn’t make a school good. I also know plenty of DePaul and San Jose State CS grads who also work as programmers for Amazon as well. I know you’ll come back with the usual crap of “school doesn’t matter” but it does, for the top jobs.

16

Another question: Is it worth submitting both my SAT and ACT scores? I feel like the 35 composite looks better than the 1540 composite. I know for Stanford you need to submit all your scores, but what about the other schools.

17

According to the latest concordance table, these two scores are more or less equivalent. However, highly selective colleges focus much more on your subscores than your overall score. Your ACT subscores seem to be slightly better, unless you’ve taken the test more than twice to reach those subscores.

18

The scores concord the same. It looks like Stanford now superscores the SAT, will look at individual subscores for the ACT and consider the highest ACT composite score. Stanford is allowing self reporting and may not require all test scores of both tests like they explicitly required in the past. With respect to the other schools, I’d read the instructions to see if they want just one or will allow both. For schools that allow superscoring of the ACT subscores, go with that since that yields a 36 composite. If they allow both, don’t see it hurting you, but test scores will not be the issue with your app.

19

If CS is a more competitive major for frosh admission, then changing into it after enrolling as an undeclared student will need a high GPA and/or competitive admission. For example, at UIUC, changing into CS after enrolling requires a minimum of 3.76 college GPA, two CS courses with minimum A- grade in each, and a portfolio, just to apply to a competitive admission process (meeting these requirements does not guarantee admission to the CS major): https://cs.illinois.edu/admissions/undergraduate/transfer-students

20

@ProfessorPlum168 that is my point, the school does matter, as you can see the three finalists were from UChicago, Stanford and MIT, even though UChicago isn’t known for CS. The point being that they all came from tippy top schools, and this was no ordinary programmer job at Amazon. This was for there top problem solving team, entry level pay being well north of $100K. Min GPA to apply was 3.8