Chance me, please, for these colleges

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I want to major in CS to do video game design. I don't want to go to a tech school or vocational school, though; I want a real university, a decently prestigious one, that is well-rounded and has a good (though stellar isn't necessary) foreign language program.</p>

<p>The schools I'm planning to apply to include:
UPenn
Brown
Dartmouth
(I know that those three are probably reaches for me, and know that I'm not banking on getting in, but having looked into them, I really think I would like them far beyond just them being Ivies)
Cornell (interestingly, Naviance shows that, among admits from my high school, I'm noticeably above average in GPA, ACT, and SAT; this surprises me)
Michigan Ann Arbor
Texas Austin
Rice
Johns Hopkins</p>

<p>I have two or three more schools that are basically safeties. Among these, though, please give estimates of my chances, but more importantly than that, tell me how I can improve. Thanks!</p>

<p>Basic Info</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Race: White/None - I'm considering not leaving a race; my reasons for this are personal and not limited to, "woe is me; blacks and Hispanics get into college so easily"</p>

<p>Academics</p>

<p>GPA: 3.73 - If I get straight A's this coming term, I'll have roughly a 3.8
GPA (weighted): 4.4 - I'll have roughly a 4.6
Rank: ~110/870 - lackluster, I know, but my school is highly competitive and sends many kids to top universities; many people have 4.0s here. However, my rank will likely enter the top 10% as my grades improve and students fall victim to senioritis
Classes: honors/AP options whenever available
Senior Schedule: AP English Lit; AP Physics; AP Gov; AP Comp Sci; either AP Calc BC or Calc III honors (depending on how I do on a placement test); fourth-year Japanese honors; being a teacher's assistant for Video Game Development class (isn't it cool that my school has that?)</p>

<p>Standardized Tests</p>

<p>ACT 1: 34 composite; 35 E; 36 M; 32 R; 31 S; 10 W
ACT 2: 34 composite; 35 E; 34 M; 32 R; 35 S
SAT: 2230; 710 M; 740 CR; 780 W - I'll probably retake this so that I can do better in math.
PSAT: 219; 80 M; 69 CR; 70 W
APs: took 4 this past year but have no results yet (I'm too nervous and poor to spend the $8 and call for them); taking about 6 next year if that matters at all
SAT Subject Tests: will be taking Math II, Japanese, and Physics, with the possible addition of Literature</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (Formal)</p>

<p>Vegetarian Club - 4 years by application time; no official position though I help out a lot; contrary to what you might expect, we actually do stuff rather than just basking in our own self-satisfaction
Psychology Club - 3 years b.a.t.; Co-President
Video Game Development Club - 2 years b.a.t.; President and founded the club; will be leading school to inter-school game design competitions this coming year
Gay-Straight Alliance - 2 years b.a.t.; may not end up mentioning this
Enviro/Biology Club - 1 year; probably won't mention this
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Club - 3 years b.a.t.; probably won't mention this
Cross-Country - 2 years; started as a total beginner at running and ended up one of the top few on my team at State (I still run, just not formally)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (Informal)</p>

<p>Have been developing games since I was 11 and attended camp at Northwestern University; have given them out to friends via email and CD-ROMs
Am developing a game for the iPhone; it should be out within a couple of months; I need to get around to forming my own company
Have been in two bands; will release an EP before too long with current band
Have taken guitar lessons since 8th grade; while this might otherwise not be notable, I've played recitals at a fairly famous local nightclub
Have studied Japanese apart from school; took AP test as a junior whereas few even take it as seniors
Am also teaching myself Czech; I can relate this to my application by saying that I want to continue my studies in the language at college, which is true. Hell, I'd start a Czech club at my high school if I thought anyone would actually join
Have also been active in the Lojban community (an obscure constructed language); yes, it's weird, but I've helped coin new words and translated short stories and children's books
Have taken CS 101 at local community college</p>

<p>Jobs</p>

<p>Paperboy - only for 3 months; being laid off wasn't my fault, though
Taught Google SketchUp to elementary school kids during a summer architecture camp
Tutored one student in Japanese for money over about 7 months; will probably get more students this coming year; may also start tutoring in math</p>

<p>Awards</p>

<p>Some BS for international leadership, blah blah blah, because I'm going to Japan; the award was a big deal, though
National Merit Finalist, if my PSAT score ends up being good enough (it probably will)
Japanese Honor Society
Continuous Dean's List awardee since I started high school (basically just the Honor Roll)</p>

<p>Recs</p>

<p>They'll be really good; trust me.</p>

<p>Essays</p>

<p>I think they'll also be quite good. I've started outlining topics.</p>

2

<p>Bump… 10char</p>

3

<p>You’ll do more than fine. Its all about the numbers with those top schools, and with the looks of it, you have the numbers. High SATs, high GPA, and well balanced. Those top schools like Dartmouth and Brown might be a challenge, but have faith. Texas Austin, Michigan Ann arbor, and Rice will be a most likely acceptance. Keep it up. Do me a favor and post on my thread— Boston College Transfer-
-lmk if u need more info</p>

4

<p>Hey, by the way, thanks for the info. I don’t know if I “have the numbers” for Penn and such, but at least someone thinks I have a shot.</p>

5

<p>Chancing back as requested :)</p>

<p>K first off your gpa looks fine, rank is certainly dubious but in light of the fact that your school is highly compettive hopefully adcoms look favourably upon that! Especially if your school is super famous for producing top students :slight_smile: Unweighted 3.8 would definitely be good so make sure you work hard for senior year :D</p>

<p>ACT score composite is good, although it might be questionable why your math score dropped from 1st try to 2nd, no idea if that affects adversely though! Might want to get a second opinion on this one :slight_smile: Retake the SAT definitely :slight_smile: Higher scores never hurt, but don’t sacrifice homework time or anything, you need a higher gpa more than you do a higher SAT score since you already have a 34 ACT.</p>

<p>Ironically your informal ECs seem much better for an application than your formal ECs. Play those up especially since they’re related to CS!! But include a couple from your school to show that you aren’t a loner who holes up in front of a computer all the time yeah? Your ec’s look in really good shape, avoid the whole laundry list of clubs thing though!</p>

<p>You’ve got a good shot :slight_smile: Make sure you have safeties though :D</p>

6

<p>Thanks for replying. :slight_smile: I hadn’t thought it would be a good idea for me to include more than three or four clubs on my application, but I’d thought it might be a good idea to list the less important ones here anyway in case someone were to see some value in one of them.</p>

<p>I know my Math score dropped, but I’m not upset about it since one can’t raise a 36. Also, it’s compensated for, I think, by the fact that my Science score went up by four.</p>

<p>I’m not sure if my school is “super famous” for it, but it’s considered one of the top few in the state - maybe even third or fourth - and it’s likely that adcoms will have heard of it as such. My rank disappoints me because, as I’d estimate, about 7-10% of the school has 4.0s, though many of them are relatively unaccomplished otherwise since they spend so much time hitting the books.</p>

<p>Sigh… I really wish I had more awards. :confused: However, my school is fairly well oriented towards English (and, to a lesser extent, art), and it tends to give many more awards for work in that subject than in others. I think I write well, but it’s hard to compete when so many people at my school are aspiring professional writers/journalists.</p>

<p>To xoxoviviann, to what extent do you think I should play up the Japanese part of my application? If it matters, I’m probably the best Japanese student at the school who isn’t a native, semi-fluent speaker (and still better than all but a few who are), out of a pool of one or two hundred students enrolled in the language. Some of it I can chalk up to natural talent with languages (my parents each speak at least a couple apart from English), but most of it only to dedicated self-study involving exploring the outer reaches of the language. I know several kanji (Japanese characters) that even my teacher doesn’t know, and I’ve even taught a few words to high school students in Japan. My teacher will write me a great recommendation (she already has, though for a purpose unrelated to college). If it’s as notable as I seem to think, how would I go about kneading it into my application?</p>

7

<p>you def need those numbers (GPA/SAT) to go up. Put some work into studying for your SAT/ACT this summer and you would be a great applicant for some of those schools. Your ECs don’t stand out to me very much. Kind of looks like you threw yourself into meaningless clubs. However, it all depends on how you present your application. GL!</p>

<p>Chance back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1367233-chance-top-20-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1367233-chance-top-20-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>With GPA, I agree with you. With SAT - and especially ACT - I think there are more important things, though I’ll still retake the former. I think the reason my ECs don’t stand out is that I listed a lot of them rather than retaining the focus on video game design/Japanese. That said, I don’t mean to tell you how to chance; I’m only trying to clarify my intentions.</p>

<p>What do you mean by “some of those schools,” though? Are there some on my list that you think are beyond my reach no matter what I do?</p>

9

<p>Regarding your question, I didn’t direct it at just the Japanese language thing actually! I was more referring to your so-called informal ECs (although I really don’t think there is such a thing!) as a whole. I noticed that most of them were about either CS or languages. CS is of course the most important subject which you should emphasise, don’t make the languages sound more personal to you than CS does!</p>

<p>But I do think that being multilingual is definitely worth working into your app, I’m doing the same for myself actually, I love studying languages too! Perhaps it can be mentioned simply as a channel for your passion to understand other languages and cultures, or since you mentioned having a natural aptitude for languages, perhaps it can be evidence if you mention in your essay that you are a quick-minded, self-motivated learner, for being able to pick languages up so fast and even indepedently. Language is related to culture, if you choose to mention culture in your essays, it would be fairly easy to involve this :slight_smile: I do think it varies from person to person though! What you gained most out of learning the languages would make a much more substantive topic than something that sounds cliche, and naturally learning takeaways vary from person to person, so some self-reflection might be in order here :)</p>

<p>Best of luck! :slight_smile: Hope that helped heh :)</p>

10

<p>I’m hesitant to go ahead and put the language thing in an essay UNLESS the whole essay is about it. Of course I don’t mean to patronize you by saying this, but many parents don’t seem to know, and I can scarcely be too sure: essays are typically supposed to be about single experiences that have changed who the applicant is as a person, not thinly veiled lists of qualifications. If you think I’m understanding what I’ve heard about essays wrongly, though, please tell me.</p>

<p>CS is personal to me, but it’s more that video game design specifically is and that CS is the obvious medium for me to pursue that. The main reason I don’t want a career in linguistics - at least not until I have a serious “day job” - is that it’s hard to make money with it. Video game design is still probably more important to me, especially in the context in which I’ll probably be portraying myself in my application, but I don’t want to oppress the language factor too much.</p>

<p>That said, I wouldn’t have included my list of informal ECs here if I didn’t think SOMETHING could be taken away from them. Game development: CS. Japanese self-study: Languages. Czech: Languages (though I’d rather not risk losing the focus on Japanese if it comes down to that). Lojban: Languages/CS (it was engineered mainly to be easily parsed and its meaning easily understood, with no context, by computers and people with computer-like objectivity, though it isn’t a programming language). CS 101: CS. With ECs such as these, the issue, I think, is one of presenting them the right way.</p>

11

<p>I think you’re good for those schools. Of course, the Ivy League schools are always random sometimes, but your stats are very impressive. It’s great that your weighted GPA is quite high, despite your unweighted GPA. Work hard to get those straight A’s next year; you can do it!</p>

<p>Your ec’s are good as well. I think you’re in a good spot. :)</p>

12

<p>Your colleges will see that you have taken a rigorous course load, and your GPA shows success therein. Just make sure that you do well your senior year to get your rank/GPA a bit higher, for the sake of improving what you can. Your scores are excellent, by the way. I wish you the best of luck!</p>

<p>(Chance back would be appreciated, but whatever. )</p>

13

<p>Thanks, guys! If it matters, I’ll have an upward trend in grades; I got a 4.0 this past semester and had been slightly improving beforehand, plus, if all goes as planned, I’ll have another 4.0 this coming semester. By the way, JordanSaidWhat, I just chanced you back.</p>

14

<p>chancing back.
your gpa is low for the ivies but your act is good
the ivies are always reaches.
johns hopkins is a low reach
michigan and texas i feel you have good shots.
if your essays and recs are good who knows.
good luck</p>

15

<p>Creds are solid. You’ve got a great chance at all your schools, even the Ivies, as long as your recs and essay are good. The only forseeable problem I can see is the GPA, but those points are becoming worth less and less to top colleges. </p>

<p>Oh, and don’t bother retaking the SAT, your ACT scores are good enough.</p>

16

<p>WZ1995, I’m relieved at your advice, but why do you think GPA is becoming less and less important? I mean, I don’t mean to say that I’m necessarily right, but it seems to me that standardized tests are becoming less important and GPAs are about the same to slightly more important than they used to be.</p>

17

<p>I think you will definitely get into Rice, Michigan, and Texas, the Ivies are always up in the air. However, I think you have a good base of extra-curricular activities, that being said, why would you not tell colleges some of the clubs that you have been in, it shows that you aren’t single minded and that you are well rounded. If you leave off all of the clubs that you said you did then you basically have computer skill, and not a wide variety of interests that could later impact the world.</p>

18

<p>Well, I think telling colleges about some of them is a good idea (as well as some of my “informal” ECs); it’s just that I don’t want to lose too much of the focus on CS/game design (or of the secondary focus on languages). You are right, though; the two clubs I’ve been with for the longest time aren’t related to either field, and if I didn’t like them I wouldn’t stick with them. I guess it’s an issue of balance.</p>