Chance me for UVA, VT, UMD, UT Austin, Georgia Tech, CMU, VCU, GMU, and University of Alabama

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a rising senior in a competitive HS in Virginia and many students from my school apply to a lot of the instate colleges on my list. I plan on applying to the engineering school for all the colleges above and plan on majoring in Computer Science.
-I was dual enrolled in a Governors School during my Junior year.
-My GPA is a 4.31 weighted after junior year and I am trying to boost my gpa a little before applying to colleges with the first quarter grades of my senior year.
-AP Classes taken: AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP World, AP Lang, AP US history
-AP Classes will take senior year: AP Comp Sci, AP Physics, AP Lit, AP Government, AP Calculus BC, AP Psych, AP Calc BC
-My sat score is a 1460 (750 Math and 710 reading). Im planning on taking the SAT again in August. (What score should I aim for to be comfortable about my chances to the schools I have listed above?)
I’m also taking the Physics and Math 2 subject tests in October.
Extra Curriculars:
-I have been involved in many engineering focused activities over the duration of my high school including participating in Technology Student Association and VEX Robotics. I have also competed with an advanced Robotics team as a key member in its drive team and also as the team’s head engineer. Due to combined efforts we were able to consistently place in the top tier in our competitions. I am also the founder and president of the National Technical Honors society at my school and bring various technical opportunities to the club’s members and have taught various lessons ranging from programming to hands on robotics engineering tasks.
-I have also been an active member in the community as I have been a member of Key Club, UNICEF, and Red Cross through my school. I also started a tutoring program with my friends to help underprivileged students and students looking to improve their skills and gain the extra edge in their classes. In total, I should have around 200+ hours of volunteering hours throughout my high school career.

  • I am also a member of National Honors Society, Math Honors Society, Science National Honors Society.
    -Over the summer I also had an internship at a tech company where I was able to gain industry experience and help the company with smaller tasks.
    -Varsity Basketball athlete
    -Have worked at kumon as a tutor

Appreciate any advice and input given. Specifically interested in any advice that would improve my chances at both UVA and VT for engineering.

Thanks in advance

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bump

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You will be an out-of-state applicant for Georgia Tech & for the Univ. of Texas-Austin which makes admission to this highly selective major (CS) even more difficult. Plus, your username might not be well received in the state that worships the Eagles rival = the Dallas Cowboys. That aside, I think that you need to break 1520 in order to have a reasonable chance for admission to either of these universities’ CS major. Same for Carnegie Mellon University.

For the others, my best guess is that you will need to break 1500 on the SAT for a CS major–although unfamiliar with Virginia Commonwealth University.

4

As you know UVA is competitive, especially in Engineering, but you are an in-state applicant, which is better than OOS. If your school uses Naviance, you should check that and talk to your GC to see what he/she thinks based on last year’s e-school applicants from your hs. I think VT and UMD are good match schools for you. My nephew is CS at VT (from NoVa) and he was a high stats student like you–although all schools weight grades differently so it’s hard to tell what a wgpa means. I think you should be accepted at GMU, VCU and Alabama (with merit). Best of luck!

5

If you’re majoring in CS, it makes virtually no difference where you graduate. Don’t worry about the prestige, it’s completely meaningless. Don’t ever let a school tell you what to major in. If there are no CS slots in the school you want to go to, there are other schools that will be happy to let you in. Tech jobs are in high demand.

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Thank you for all the advice! If anyone else has anymore advice to add on, I’d really appreciate it.

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bump