Currently a junior from Washington in the IB program at a public school, please chance me!
Schools I REALLY want to attend: Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, UC Berkeley (don’t worry I have safety schools)
GPA: 4.0 UW
ACT: 32 (33 superscore)
EC’s: Violinist in Philharmonic Orchestra (best orchestra in our district, went to WMEA state this year), volunteer at NHS, ASB officer since freshman year, Chinese language Club President, President of school’s FBLA chapter, Founder and tutor of Chinese resource website (also designed it), Volunteer at local hospital
Awards: 2017 CTE Leadership & Achievement Award (Student of the Year); Member of National Honor Society; Microsoft Office Master; Microsoft Office SpecialistChampionship: Excel (3rd in State); FBLA Word Processing & Computer
Applications (3rd); FBLA Help Desk Event (5th)
Internship: Page for Washington state’s Senate during legislative session, history research assistant at local community college
Interest/Intended Major: Computer Science & History
What can I do to improve my chances at these schools (Stanford is my DREAM school)
You are a competitive candidate but CS is a super hard major. It seems ridiculous to even say this but you may want to get your ACT up a bit higher as it will be on the lower end of the range for the reach schools.
The only thing that stands out to me that might lower your chances is your ACT score. I would recommend to keep retaking it until you reach at least a 34, at best 35/36. Your extracurricular and awards seem really good though, those could possibly compensate for the lower ACT score (lower for Stanford and other ivies- extremely well for anywhere else)
Thank you! I have taken my ACT three times and have gotten a 31, 32, 32. Do I need take subject tests for these schools even though it’s “highly recommended”?
What major should I apply to that would raise my chances to get into these schools?
I don’t recommend trying to change your intended major to try to up your chances. It can be very hard at some schools to transfer into the CS major if you declared something else on your application (colleges are wise to that). If a school says “highly recommended” that means do it 
What if I don’t do well on my SAT Subject tests? Will I be frowned upon?
You are a competitive applicant. Your ACT score is a little low but your ECs are great. You don’t need to take SAT subject tests if you take the ACT, I think, for all of these schools, but double check on that. I would focus on raising the ACT more than taking the subject tests. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools
Honestly, Stanford is a very low chance. In your case, probably a 1% at this point. You have 3 strikes against you already - Asian, male, tech. Add to it that you have nothing all that unique in your resume plus you have a relatively speaking low ACT score. Stanford really looks for unique or quirky things in your resume that no one else has. If you were a star athlete or NMF or Intel Scholar that would bring the odds up.
UW is a really good school, its CS program is close to being in that Holy Grail of CS schools (Stanford, UCB, CMU, MIT). You also raise your odds of getting in UCB via L&S CS rather than EECS. Yes surely someone will chime in soon stating that CS is not a direct admit for L&S, but the name of the game is getting in.
Thanks for the advice. Btw I’m a girl so will that raise my chances because people want women in tech?