I have a uw 3.81 GPA, 2290 superscore SAT, go to a top 10 CA public high school, took 5 AP courses, good ECs, good recs and CA male applying for computer science. Chance me for:
CMU SCS
Cornell
Dartmouth
Emory
Northwestern
Rice
Umichigan
Upenn
USC
Thanks so much!
Please help?
Hi! If you have a leadership position, then I expect that you’d get into USC and NW easily. OOS for state universities are always tricky. Dartmouth and Cornell are reaches (as they are for most anyone).
You should look into schools like GA Tech and MIT who are known for their excellent csci programs. Don’t get too hung up on just academics, though – college is an experience.
Best of luck!!
From what little bit of information you provided, no one can even begin to chance you for the very top schools. For that matter, even if we had a lot more information, no one could accurately assess your chances because we don’t see you recommendation and essays or what the competition in your school looks like the way AO’s do. What’s your class rank?
Based on a decent test score, mediocre (for the very top schools) gpa, and “good” not great ECs, it would appear that the top half of you list are real reach schools but I guess you won’t know until you apply and find out. Good luck!
For an Ivy League school like UPenn or Dartmouth or even Cornell an unhooked male needs a 3.9 or higher UW GPA to be solid. 2290 is a very good SAT, what are your SAT Subject test scores? Hopefully above 750 but certainly above 700. An admissions decision to these Ivy League schools will depend on great essays, strong recommendations and EC’s that differentiate you. If this list is the full list of colleges you are applying to you run the risk of only getting into USC and probably Emory. U.Michigan is more competitive every year and the average successful applicant at both Rice and Northwestern is as strong academically as the Ivy League student with perhaps less superhuman ECs. College admissions today is more competitive than many students imagine. Looking at SATs of accepted students alone doesn’t really tell the whole picture
Thanks! I am in top 10 percent of my class/ got 780/800/800 on my 3 SAT subject tests Bio/Spanish/Math 2/
Bump!
please help?
These are all very difficult schools to get into. For this year’s class at Northwestern, 32,124 students applied and 4,187 were accepted. These odds are bad to begin with, but consider as well that half the class came in through ED, leaving only half the remaining slots for all the RD applicants. It shows you what you are up against. And 92.2% of the entering class was in the top 10% of their class, so that doesn’t give you any advantage–it just means you are like everyone else, unfortunately.
All the rest of the schools on your list are going to be similar.
Have a serious talk with your GC. Have your GC go over your high school profile page with you so you can see exactly what the adcoms will be looking at along with your transcript. Look at the common data set for each school you are interested in. Use your one shot at ED very strategically. And make sure that you have a list of match schools that are realistic, that you like AND where you can see yourself attending. You want to have at least one admission in hand by the end of January so you aren’t sweating bullets at the end of March when the decisions come out for the elite schools. There are many threads on CC each year where students with stats similar to yours end up with unsatisfactory choices because they failed to understand just how much competition is out there for spots at the top schools.
Thanks @MidwestDad3 i do have safeties. Do you think I have a chance at those schools though? Thanks!
Yes, like most of those other 32,000 NU applicants you have a chance. Or the 37,267 applicants to Penn this year. The vast majority of the 90.1% of applicants to Penn who were rejected were qualified and they, too, had a chance. They just didn’t get in. Picture Wrigley Field in Chicago filled to just about capacity. That’s the number of applicants trying to get into the freshman class at some of these schools.
Definitely you have a chance, and you should apply to each one. Your chances will increase if you visit campus, nail the essay (as Wje says above), and have stellar rec letters from your GC and teachers.
Are you comfortable sharing your matches? Which of your matches have you visited, sat in on a class at, and can see yourself thriving at?
Yes! I have visited Cal poly slo/ uc irvine and can see myself thriving there.
Anyone else want to chance me for my schools? Thanks!
bump!
Please help!!!
Please help! bump!
can you be more specific on your ec’s and recs?
One international business award , instrument for 10 years(reached highest level and many county awards), robotics team head coder and vice president, Created a program for school to improve schedule making/accomadating schedule changes for students at my school, recs from english and history teacher from junior year, both know me very well
GPA 3.81 but in top 10% of your class? Your school is tough. Your GPA is a bit low but your class rank should help. For UMich, you may apply to either LSA or CoE for CS major later on. Your SAT score is within the range. It should be a low reach to very high match for you from OOS depending on whether you apply to CoE or LSA and how they view your low GPA.
thanks @billcsho @pianoswim i have updated my ecs for you