I mentioned story-writing above, does that count? I volunteer at the community center over the summer, where I teach elementary and middle school kids tennis and help the actual teachers run their classes.
I also founded a Dead Poets Society club in sophomore year, where we basically do the same thing as in the movie, sharing and analyzing prose and poetry. Would this count?
Yes, but it’s a solo activity.
Oops, I missed part of your post.
See my pm and I’m going to add another comment.
The fact that you’re asian from California applying for STEM means you’ll be compared in an incredibly competitive demographic. This is what I was worried about. Definitely don’t leave the race box blank. Or worse yet tick “decline to state”. They will assume you have something to hide. It will be trivial to figure out your race from your parents names/background/education. Better to embrace your racial identity. I would even consider writing an essay about your racial background and why STEM is of interest to you.
Stanford is the most competitive of all the schools on your list. Are you really sure that you want to apply SCEA and then RD to the rest? What will you do if you’re deferred EA and then rejected at all the other private schools? You will most likely end up at one of the UC schools. Would you be happy with that?
If not, here is another strategy to consider:
- Apply ED somewhere. Someplace that allows concurrent EA applications. Examples: Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, etc
- Apply EA to MIT, Caltech. I would also throw in a few other colleges that weren’t on your list, but have EA. You might get lucky with an adcom that really wants you: UChicago, Georgetown, GA Tech, Tulane, Case Western.
- If you get deferred to your ED college, then consider ED II: UChicago, Vandy, NYU, etc
- Along with ED II, apply RD. Then apply RD Stanford along with rest of the RD schools.
The ED1/EA/ED2/RD strategy will certainly yield lots of options for you. Stanford RD is almost impossible. Coming from California, your chances of getting into Stanford are decent, but no where near a slam dunk.
I might add in UIUC or Purdue to your list, although those schools are in no way matches, especially for EECS.
I’m no expert in CS, but you do look very competitive.
Also–would you consider Rice? 
I’ll definitely add Purdue and Rice to my list, UIUC might be too much a reach for me. I don’t want to overflow my list with 10 reaches and a handful of realistic matches.
@daunt18 If you have a talent for writing short stories, that will likely be a big help for writing your essay.
UIUC would be less of a reach than MIT, Stanford, Caltech, or Berkeley. On the other hand, you’re right - your list is becoming top heavy.
I’ve been looking through other threads on CC by prospective CS majors or those applying to top schools/Ivys, and the general response there is to cut down reach schools, admissions is largely arbitrary, CS is wildly competitive, being an Asian makes the applicant just one of many, etc. I’m sure you all have heard those.
I was wondering then, what sets me apart? I’ve (thankfully) been getting mostly positive responses, but my resumé merits those negative general responses above.
My guesses so far are that I’m a woman in CS, my leadership positions, my course rigor (pretty common among Asians though), my Synopsis research (also common), or my class rank and the Rensselaer medal.
If I can isolate which of these (or something else I know nothing about) gives me the edge against other CS applicants on CC, some of whom have AIME and USACO wins, I’d be really grateful. Because if it is simply my gender, which is my guess, I’ll have to rethink my prospects at schools that do not give extra preference to women in CS (UCs) and seriously cut the number of top schools on my list.
Sorry for the long post, and any response is greatly appreciated!
What is your strategy for your personal statement? On paper your stats look good. But everyone you are competing with will have the same stats. How will you stand out from the crowd?
I just want to update everyone that I got into my safety ASU with a huge scholarship so I’ll be dropping the rest of my safeties except SJSU.
Princeton SCEA 2024!
Great on Princeton, but I didn’t even see that on your original list, was that a recent development? Anyway, keep the RD to Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, and see what happens with the UCs. Good luck!
It was, I switched out Stanford with Princeton because I didn’t like the vibe I got at Stanford, and too close to home. So I’m waiting mainly on MIT and Berkeley now.
Why would you choose Stanford over MIT?
Not accusatory, just curious.
MIT reach bc you have no undergrad math courses done / nor USAMO or USACO
Not gonna disagree with the fact that it’s a reach, but I did take multivariable calc, diff eq, and linear algebra at my CC. Does that change something, @reddington?
Congrats on your Princeton acceptance!! That’s fantastic. You have perfect stats and extracurriculars, so I would think the decision would be down to your essays, especially for MIT—if they make you ‘stand out’ or not.
Do I have an above 50% chance at UCLA? I’m deciding where to withdraw my applications, so basically wondering if I need to keep UCSD and UCSB around for the cost, or if UCLA is likely.