Going into senior year this year.
ACT: 35 (34 reading 35 math 35 science)
SAT: 1430 / 1600 (I plan to submit ACT score instead)
Math II: 800
Taking physics in October
AP courses taken (I’m in IB, taking HL math HL physics HL chem HL english, SL French, SL History tho I don’t think that matters very much?)
10th grade
AP Euro - 5
AP Comp Sci
11th grade
AP Physics 1 - 3
AP US History - 5
AP Calculus AB - 5
AP English Language - 4
AP Macro - 4
AP Stats - 4
Courses taking next year:
AP Physics 2
AP Calculus BC
AP English Lit
AP World History
AP Chem
AP French Lang
Unweighted: 3.83 (I plan to bring this up before December, and the unweighted is on a 4.0 scale)
I might apply here for early action.
I would like to go for computer science
Extracurricular activities:
Mu Alpha Theta (was officer last year)
FBLA
SNHS (Science National Honors Society)
I’m not part of NHS yet (app rejected) but will be going in this year
I am part of Beta Honors Society
That’s all I can think of for now, is there anything I’ve missed?
Hey there @shumpu123
One thing to note is that Carnegie utilizes Early Decision(ED), not Early Action. If accepted under ED, you are bound to Carnegie and must withdraw all other college applications.
Although I won’t chance you, I will say that you should expect to include examples of your Computer Science (and related displinary) work in your application. Last year the admissions council was less about the academics, and more about the evident talent, passion, and commitment of students.
Best of luck!
Will you be applying for fall 2017 (this coming admissions cycle, class of 2021) or next year’s admission cycle(fall 2018 - 2022)? Just curious
This coming admissions cycle.
And thanks @MandomeLife, I won’t be applying ED (I’m mostly wanting to go to UF due to the low instate costs but I’d much rather go to carnegie mellon or georgia tech etc)
ED is not only a binding decision (if accepted), but the financial aid might not be very good (because you can’t compare offers). And, you can only apply to your first choice college.
If the financial aid offered ED by any school is insufficient to support attendance, you just say thanks but no thanks, and move on to RD (or perhaps ED2) somewhere else.
Ok, so I’ve chosen to do dual enrollment in the fall and will be picking computer science courses, including some programming courses. Would that count as Computer Science related work or is it something more they are looking for?
@shumpu123 That could count, yeah. What I was referring to was personal work. Things you do for yourself. If you’re able to apply any of the skills you learn in your classes this year to any personal projects, that would be great and something to show off
What boxes do you check?
Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon is incredibly competitive.
I’ve also made some game for FBLA (using java), and I won 1st in district for it but haven’t gotten past the state level
but that’s about all the applied programming I have done.
@shumpu123 Definitely show the game and talk about your district award!
On a related side note, is it okay if an applicant doesn’t have a lot of CS related achievements/ECs? I do have other ECs, and have pretty decent depth too in them, just not a lot of CS related stuff, but am looking to apply for CS ED(as an international applicant) @MandomeLife
@skstanford Definitely! My own personal thought(which others might not agree with) is to always include extracurriculars that mean a great deal to you (as opposed to listing a ton for the same of listing a ton).
What other extracurriculars do you have and how nice will your rec letter and essay be
Sorry I haven’t gone that indepth into my EC:
I’ve done Mu Alpha Theta since 8th grade, I have several trophies from it, none at state level though.
I’ve also done FBLA since 8th grade and have several trophies for that
2nd place districts Introduction to Computers
4th place states for same field
6th place districts Computer Problem Solving
1st place districts for a game I made in java (I think it was Game programming?)
I also have some science national honors society medals from a couple competitions ( one was 3rd in Astronomy)
The teachers I will be getting rec letters from have written the letters for students who got into MIT, Yale, Harvard, UPenn, etc.
I might apply to the school of engineering instead of computer science