Chance Me for Top Computer Science Schools

Schools (obviously shotgunning since ASU is a literal auto admit)

Reach: Harvard (SCEA), Stanford (RD), MIT (RD), Princeton (RD), Cornell (RD), Carnegie Mellon (RD), UIUC (In-State, EA), Georgia Tech (RD), CalTech (RD)

Match: Purdue (Rolling)

Safety: ASU (Rolling, auto admit)

Demographics: Male, Indian, Illinois, decent public school

Academics:

SAT: 1540/1600, 800 Math, 740 CR+W

SAT II: Math Level 2: 800, Physics: 770

Class rank: School does not give specific ranks, but I am in the highest bracket (top 5%)

UW/W GPA: 3.82/4.0 (UW), 4.5 (W, all honors and APs are +1)

Coursework: Mostly A’s (B in freshman semester 1 English 9 Honors, sophomore semester 2 Pre-Calculus Honors, junior AP Physics 1 both semesters, and junior Calculus BC both semesters). Nearly all Honors and APs. Here are all the AP exams I’ve taken (all 4s and 5s):

Freshman Year: AP Human Geography, AP Psychology (self study), AP Environmental Science (self study)

Sophomore: Comparative Gov (self study), Microeconomics (self study), European History, Computer Science A, Macroeconomics (self study)

Junior: English Language, US History, Calculus BC, Statistics, Physics 1, Physics C: Mechanics (Self-Study), French Language (Self Study)

Senior: US Government, Calculus III (through UIUC), World History, English Literature

Awards: National AP Scholar, school award for making a positive impact in the school body (nominated by pre-calculus teacher, award is by nomination only), slew of mock trial awards, no stem awards :((((

Extracurriculars:

Worked as a CS Intern at a $500k+ international non-profit academic organization (3 years)

Mock Trial (4 Years) Placed Top 5 twice at prestigious international tournament * Consistently placed high in state competitions (Basically one of the two best teams in the state) *Won state twice back-to-back for first time in school history and competed at nationals * *Am individually ranked as one of the top mock trial competitors in the world *Competing at the most prestigious mock trial tournament this summer Secretary 1 Year, Captain 2 Years

Developed a mobile game published through a California company with ~4,000 downloads

Worked in IT at a local law firm (3 years)

Working as the Director of a media division of a local high schooler’s tech company, developing test prep videos and integrating them into his app (2 Years)

Computer Science Club (3 Years, Executive Board 1 year) Helped develop and design an app for the school district and promote CS contests and activities in order to boost enrollment into CS classes and promote STEM to the school

Math National Honors Society (2 Years, 1 Year Exec Board) - tutoring and stuff, nothing really special

Winter Madrigals (2 Years) - served as Prince of the madrigal during the other year

Spring Musical (1 Year) - Served as principal role in one year of the musical

~100 hours volunteering at a Hindu temple over 2 years

Essays and Letters of Rec: Essays are a solid 8/10, Counselor Rec is 6/10, Rec #1 (AP Physics 1 teacher) is 8/10, Rec #2 (APUSH teacher) is 9/10, Rec #3 (Founder of the non-profit I intern at) is 9/10

Questions: I’m mainly worried that my UW GPA and my SAT will stop me from even having a chance of making my reaches, given that I’m an ORM. Am I that screwed?

ASU is easily affordable?

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

Purdue is no longer rolling admit.

Your work experience and SAT scores can make up for the grades. I think you still have a real shot at a school like MIT.