<p>I'm a Junior at a public HS in Long Island, NY and here's my stats:</p>
<p>Ethnicity: South Korean (Permanent US Resident, came here in 2005)</p>
<p>Weighted GPA: (100 point system) 99.43 Weighted Rank: 32/537
School doesn't do unweighted but my counselor guessed my UGPA to be around 3.8.</p>
<p>SAT I - 2220 one-seating (760M, 700CR, 760W, 10 Essay)</p>
<p>High Course Rigor
*Enrolled in AOIT - Academy of Information Technology
*Would have taken 7 APs and 4 IBs by end of Senior year (Rest Honors)
So far only have one AP score - AP Euro - 4</p>
<p>ECs
*NHS (got accepted this year)
*Tech Honor Society (accepted this year)
*Mathletes Team (9 ~ current)
*Chess Club
*Computer Club (9 ~ current)
*Science Olympiad
*I would assume about 300 Volunteering hours at church as leading altar server, at local Nursing Homes, and at KAYO (won President Volunteer Service Silver award in 9th grade)
*Soccer Youth Center Team
*Basketball Youth Center (9~10)
*Have been running an online business with 2012 profits hitting 5 figures (9~current)
*Started up other sites as well and sold them
*Annual County Math Fair (9~ Current) - so far won all Bronze medals
*Paid internship right now at local First Lego League team as like an assistant coach (11) </p>
<p>I'm hearing SCS is like one of the hardest colleges to get in :/ So what are my chances at either one of these schools? Looking to major in either Computer Science or Business or even both. (Maybe CS major / Business minor)</p>
<p>With your business EC’s, I’d say Tepper is a high match for you. The acceptance to Tepper is pretty low however (around 11-13%) so you still have to write strong essays. As for SCS, if you spend your upcoming summer doing development work (including work with your online business) or CS research, SCS would be a high match for you IMO. If you do something else over the summer, SCS would be a very low reach.</p>
<p>You should also keep in mind that CMU highly values demonstrated interest. If you want to be competitive for Tepper and SCS, you should definitely visit campus and do an interview. If you show demonstrated interest and write good essays, you can definitely get into one or both of these CMU colleges. Your app is really strong (especially your online business) so good job so far.</p>
<p>Thanks. I’m definitely planning to visit campus but not sure about interview yet. I also forgot to mention that I’ve been working as a customer support agent for another popular ecommerce site since Sophomore year (paid monthly) and over the next Summer, I should be getting another IT(CS)-related internship. Also what do you mean by a CS research? Not sure how you can research programming :P</p>
<p>From what I know, SCS has like a 7% acceptance rate right? :/</p>
<p>If you really want to get into SCS, you should definitely have an interview (unless its logistically impossible). You need every advantage possible to get into a school as competitive as SCS. </p>
<p>Also, Computer Science != Programming. There are numerous research areas within CS (see this link for more details: [SCHOOL</a> OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, Carnegie Mellon](<a href=“http://www.cs.cmu.edu/research/areas/index.html]SCHOOL”>http://www.cs.cmu.edu/research/areas/index.html)). Furthermore, when you apply to SCS, you DON’T want to sound like you think CS = programming. SCS wants students who enjoy both the theoretical and practical aspects of CS. Trust me, you’ll look really shallow if you tell them you’re studying CS to become a programmer. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Haha I knew that. (It’s weird though because my AP Computer Science course is solely about java. Anyways a research in Cloud Computing, AI, etc. sounds interesting. How do I even get started? Would I have to do the research 100% independently? (I know with Science, students get placed with professors, etc.)</p>
<p>P.S. Forgot to mention that I’m currently the Secretary of AOIT.</p>
<p>If you live near government labs (NIST, NIH, etc.) check the websites for these labs to see if you can find structured research programs (like SEAP). Otherwise, just contact researchers at these labs to see if they’d like to hire you. You can also contact professors at a local university, but they prefer working with current undergrads/grad students. Anyway, keep reaching out to people until you find a good opportunity (that’s what I did for all my internships).</p>
<p>Doubt that there’s any government labs around here… I will try to find some people and should my CS teachers know about these things? And you said this is something that’s done over the Summer? If so, and if I had to choose between a CS-related paid intern / Research, which one should I pick?</p>
<p>CS paid intern > Research. On the common app, you have to list whether your internships were paid and paid looks better than unpaid for IT. I think CS-paid intern would be better overall because you could sell the experience to business and engineering colleges. Research, by comparison, would be less useful if you apply to a business school.</p>
(It’s weird though because my AP Computer Science course is solely about java. Anyways a research in Cloud Computing, AI, etc. sounds interesting. How do I even get started? Would I have to do the research 100% independently? (I know with Science, students get placed with professors, etc.)</p>