StackOverflow and Google has existed for the last two decades. Generating code snippets is really not the reason companies hire CS grads. Coding is a commodity skill but solving hard CS problems isn’t and no company is going to rely on AI generated code to build their trade secrets/IP/core products. I’ll wager that AI will create a lot more jobs on the high end while destroying a ton of jobs in the low end. The quality and rigor of the CS program will matter a lot.
A lot of this is a function of the high interest rates, and the dearth of cheap interest rate fueled venture dollars 2020-2022. It has nothing to do with AI, and based on local hiring trends (I live near Palo Alto, and know plenty of people in this space) things are actually picking up quite a bit.
Students shouldn’t blindly expect CS to pay top $$$ automatically but at the same time, the macro reasons aren’t why people should reconsider CS as a career. If anything, AI will be a big focus for consulting firms and a lot of them will start hiring more CS grads than ever before.
Carnegie Mellon’s linguistics major is in its Philosophy department. Several of CMU’s philosophy majors are extremely CS oriented.
I am guessing that you already know that CMU is a reach for anyone for CS. I spit my soda when I saw @rightofreag suggest it as a safety. The average range for SATs is just under 1600 — 800 for math and just under for EWR. So your scores really just clear one bar.
That said, if you can do some research on CMU’s linguistics major and show how your interests are married in a way that reflects CMU’s own approach, you will naturally differentiate yourself in a highly competitive pool.
@Generic10101 , Great work on all of your accomplishments! You have a chance at the top CS programs in the world - that includes Georgia Tech. But create options and opportunities for yourself.
I suggest you add a few options that will provide either guaranteed or highly likely merit opportunities just to give you additional options in case the financial realities of some of your reaches are not within your family’s reach if you get in. This will give you some choice beyond Georgia Tech if you decide you would like to be elsewhere. Maybe Rice or Vanderbilt.
The Georgia Tech route along with other colleges that will take your AP, IB, and DE classes for credit may allow you to double major to explore your interests or graduate early. Keeping undergrad costs down and possibly graduating early from Georgia Tech would then allow you to move onto grad school at some of your reaches. And research focused grad school typically includes pay and covered tuition.
As you are a rising senior, I don’t see USACO making much of an impact given the timeline. Likewise, the timing of math competitions means that you won’t get back AIME scores until sometime in March, again likely too late to matter (and AIME by itself means relatively little).
Despite not having time for those contests, you are a strong applicant. I agree with others on their recommendations on applying early to public colleges. But what is your plan regarding applying early to private colleges? For example, I think that ED to CMU CS is a viable strategy, but EA to HYPSM less so.
The OP has the potential to look like a comp lit person, in addition to CS. That is a good way to improve odds for HYPS, and also probably M. If they could show credible interest.
The trick is not to mess it up and say that you are interested in computational linguistics. CS and Linguistics is also fine, as distinct from computational linguistics.
If you are applying to a top private school, don’t come across as a pre-professional or vocational person.
The student should check the numbers from last year to see if the trend has continued, but in prior years, CMU gave almost no advantage for ED applicants in general. I am not sure if it is true for CS, but overall CMU is one of the rare schools where there isn’t an obvious spike for ED.
Why would saying that I’m interested in computational linguistics mess it up? I am interested in many aspects of linguistics, including syntax, language acquisition, and computational linguistics. Plus I have secured a computational linguistics research opportunity. Why would I not want to include this? Is a computational linguistics interest too common?
My understanding is that ED to CMU SCS still provides a significant boost to the same applicant. However, because the strongest SCS applicants tend to prefer to have more options, they’re more likely to apply early to another non-binding program. They likely feel that they can always apply to CMU SCS later (either ED2 or RD). As a result, CMU SCS probably prefers to keep more seats open (at least until the ED2 round).
I dunno. As a parent, if my kid managed to get into Harvard or MIT and really wanted to go there, I would make it happen, one way or the other. MIT may not be great for financial aid, but Stanford, Harvard etc. have free tuition on incomes below a certain level. There is no harm in applying. With the schools already being a reach, he’s already getting hopes up. So why not try?
For anyone suggesting UIUC as a back-up, UIUC had a 6% acceptance rate for the CS major last year and their financial aid is awful – even for in-state students. UMich, which isn’t great for OOS students either, actually offered my son a better package than UIUC and we are residents of Illinois. Yes, compared to MIT or Harvard, Illinois is a “back-up” but not a lock. And Tufts syndrome may play a role with someone as qualified as he is.
Good luck kid, as for the “stuff your parents don’t know,” I hope everything is OK. IDK your parents but I would hope you would be able to share stuff with them.
I am just saying that if you present your secondary interest as also an adjunct to your main interest in CS, then you may be perceived as mostly a tech kid.
If you present a strong independent humanities interest, that application would likely be found to be more interesting, especially at top private schools that consider themselves to be liberal arts schools. They like to think that they take kids that have a genuine interest in enquiry, and have broad intellectual interests, rather than kids that are pre-professionally inclined.
Even if you are focused on linguistics, my personal opinion is you will benefit more if you underplay the computational aspects of your interest.