GPA: 3.1W, but with a catch. I did really poorly during my freshman year(failed a few classes, ended with a 1.7GPA). This was back during the pandemic and my classes were entirely remote. I had a handful of extenuating factors outside that. I retook all but 1 of the classes I failed. I ended with a 3.9W Sophomore year and a 4.5W Junior year.
Class Rank: School does not rank
ACT/SAT Scores: 1460 SAT (730M & 730R)
Coursework
4 honors, 3 APs(1 is also DE), 5 APs scheduled for senior year. No foreign language classes. Took a few CS electives.
Extracurriculars
Wind Ensemble for 3 years. Occasionally perform with middle schoolers and have increased their interest in performing artists.
Research internship this summer for 6 weeks. Moderately selective(<10% AR), am being paid a stipend for my work.
Member of TSA for 2 years
Non-professional tabletop game development for 3 years.
Administrator of online community of 500+ for 3 years
Hobby CGI artist.
I might do some online tutoring over the summer and my senior year.
** Essays and LORs**
Working on my essay right now and don’t know about LORs. Essay shows stuff the rest of my application does not: empathy and being socially conscious.
Schools
Safety: Penn State, other state schools
Matches: N/A; I would say anything except near 100% AR state schools are a reach.
Why no foreign language classes? This might be a huge problem. A few schools do consider computer science classes to be foreign language, but you need to check on this.
And if your interesting story is remote learning during the pandemic, it isn’t at all unique to you. Millions of kids had the same situation.
I wouldn’t call Penn State main campus a safety for Computer Science; I think you will be offered a commonwealth (branch) campus if you apply as a prospective Computer Science major. You may have a better chance applying for DUS (undecided), but even for DUS you are more likely to be offered a commonwealth campus. Of course, that’s fine if you are willing to do Penn State’s 2+2 plan. Most if not all of the PASSHE schools should be likelies. My D22 was admitted to several of them with no foreign language. A number of the PASSHE schools are ABET-accredited in Computer Science.
Does 1.7/3.9/4.5 weighted GPA mean that your unweighted GPA was something like 0.7/2.9/3.5?
Many colleges require or recommend some level (typically two or more years) of foreign language study for frosh admission.
However, a possible way to remedy that would be to take foreign language at a nearby college next year, since a year of college foreign language is typically equivalent to two (or sometimes more) years of high school foreign language.
In addition to your GPA issues (which presumably mean that only branch campuses, not University Park, could be reasonable possibilities for admission), Penn State requires two years of foreign language, although they may make exceptions (but if admitted under such exception, you need to take a college foreign language course to graduate): High School Course Requirements: 4-Year Degrees - Undergraduate Admissions
Budget (and financial aid eligibility) is a huge missing piece here. There are enough constraints on what will work that bargain-hunting (aside from the community college transfer route) will be difficult.
The foreign language thing is going to be limiting - the list of colleges that don’t at least recommend FL (and not doing what’s recommended hurts your chances) is quite short. Stevens is one, and it’s similar to others on your list. It’s very similar to WPI in terms of admissions stats, but your chances might be better at Stevens for this reason.
Maybe look at Dalhousie, in Nova Scotia? Canadian U’s don’t consider freshman grades (and don’t really care about EC’s either). I would’ve thought that there would be FL requirement, since virtually all HS students in Canada study a language, but I don’t see it as an explicit requirement.
Would you consider a summer language immersion program, and/or a “super-senior” year abroad?
The good news is if the student is from PA they will have schools like Millersville, West Chester and E Stroudsburg amongst others that are likely affordable. And even an OOS like W Carolina - with tuition and fees around $11k - assuming the language deficiency isn’t an issue.
In-state tuition is not that high, but PA in-state financial aid is not that good, so if the parents are lower income, affordability may be an issue, particularly if a suitable in-state public university is not within commute range.
What exact AP’s have you taken so far and what scores have you received (expec to)? What’s your senior schedule as of now?
“no foreign language” is going to be a HUGE problem: Penn State requires 2 but realistically they expect a minimum of 3 and most successful applicants have had 4 (many 5 or AP).
They check how many core classes you’ve taken (ie., core classes: 4 years English, 4 years History/Social Science, 4 years Foreign language, Bio/Chem/Physics, Math through precalc or calc; other classes like CS, art…), then hey add up how many AP/IB classes and honors you’ve taken and ideally this adds up to 16+.
Less competitive majors admit at around 3.55 unweighted and students in the 3.0-3.5 range tend to be directed to branch campuses (the best ones being Behrend, Altoona, Harrisburg, typically students in the 3.3-3.5 range, other branch campuses for 2.8-3.3). Course rigor and GPA is 2/3 of the decision (the rest= test scores, essay).
CS is one of the most competitive majors. Even IST (it has its own college, check out the majors) or SODA (CS with social science) are pretty competitive, but you might have had a shot at SODA with Precalc Honors/AP Calc + 4 years Foreign language. Perhaps apply DUS and keep your fingers crossed for Behrend.
Pitt may work better because they weigh test score alongside GPA and curriculum rigor, but the School of Computing’s bottom 25% weighted GPA is 3.97.
Wrt foreign language: you can still catch up if you hurry, see if there’s a college (community college/4-year public?) that offers any foreign language Level 1 in the Fall (typically called 101) and Level 2 (102) in the Spring: this typically counts as reaching High School level 3 in a year – it’s a big financial and time commitment because it’s super intense, expect 8-10 hours of hw a week to keep up and do okay. Doing that would open up way more choices in terms of colleges.
Millersville, Bloomsburg, Mansfield, and other PASSHE schools are your safeties. West Chester may frown at the combination of low GPA+no FL+ CS major, making it a match. Penn State and Pitt branches are also matches.
What’s your budget?
Run the NPC on all your choices and check with your parents they can afford all colleges on your list without debt.
Well look at the reaches - which include Pitt and privates that if West Chester wasn’t affordable and I’m not sure they would or wouldn’t be as we’ve not seen money discussed but I find it odd PSU is labeled a safety and Pitt a reach, unless the student meant branch campus.
But if they can’t afford an in state public they likely can’t the reaches
I took a look at the admission requirements for the private universities listed in the original post. None of them mention foreign language as a requirement or recommendation. There may be more leeway at these private schools regarding poor freshman grades, since sophomore and junior grades are much better. If this student’s family can afford and is willing to be full pay at these schools, that may boost his chances, as I believe all of them are need aware.