Demographics: Male, Indian-American (RIP), 12th Grade (Senior), Out Of State
Major: Computer Science (Applied Direct To Major)
Academics: I go to a highly competitive magnet school. I’m in a bit of a unique situation in terms of GPA. My first two years of high school were extremely bad, with ~2.9 weighted GPA in freshmen year and ~3.2 weighted GPA in sophomore year. However, I changed myself a ton after sophomore year and ended my junior year with ~4.6 weighted GPA. I am continuing that upward growth, on track to have ~4.7 weighted GPA in my senior year. My overall weighted GPA (not including senior year), is 3.675. I wrote about my upward trend in the additional information section of my application, but I did not give any crazy explanation - I simply told the truth.
Coursework: Decently rigorous. Compared to the other kids at my highly competitive school, it’s about average. I’ve taken 4 Computer Science courses so far and am taking one more this year. I am also currently taking AP Calculus BC.
SAT: 1510 (800 Math, 710 Reading/Writing).
SAT II: 800 Math II, 700 Physics. Not sure if the poor physics score will hurt my chances significantly.
AP: Computer Science A (4), Calculus AB (5), Psychology (4). Taking US Government, English Language and Composition, Calculus BC, and Macro/Micro this year. Hoping that the 4 on Computer Science A won’t hurt me, as it is my intended major.
Extracurriculars/Volunteering: I think they’re pretty good. I’ve done robotics for almost my entire life (since 4th or 5th grade) - FIRST Lego League and FIRST Tech Challenge. Overall, I’ve won 20+ awards which varied from Robot Design to Robot Programming to Community Outreach to Tournament Champion and have moved on to the State and Super-Regional levels a few times. My team also ran programs for a few years where we taught robotics to children with autism through both a local college and our local Autism Society. There were articles published about us in small local papers/school newsletter a few times. I’ve also participated in four hackathons: First was a small local hackathon, the second was a relatively large hackathon hosted by my high school where I won two awards, third was an extremely large (I think the largest collegiate hackathon) hackathon where my team won a corporate prize, and fourth was a large hackathon where I won second place overall. At school, I am an officer and writer for a sports analytics club. Last year, I also won first prize in my project’s category at my school’s science and engineering fair. Last, but not least, I have been interning at a reputable Children’s Hospital, using computational science/data analysis/bioinformatics to contribute to a really cool project in the Neuroscience research laboratory. Now, on to volunteering. Last year, I took part in my school’s program where a select group of students go to a neighboring, underprivileged elementary school and tutor them in subjects they’re struggling in (mostly math and English). I also took part in an extracurricular (not affiliated with my school) club/organization where we would go after school to neighboring schools and teach STEM to younger kids. I’m not sure if these activities are considered good because some of the other kids at my school have done a ton of stuff and some have so many internships that I have lost count.
Essays: I’m a pretty average writer, but I think they turned out alright.