School: Relatively competitive public school on the east coast
Hooks: None (Maybe considered first-gen at some schools, as my parents have international degrees. Ik schools like Brown and Columbia consider this first-gen)
Intended Major(s): Computer Science, CompE
SAT: 1550
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW, 4.43 W
Coursework: APHUG (5), APUSH (4), APCSP (5), APCSA (5), AP Lang (Pending), AP Micro/Macro (Pending), AP Calc BC (Pending), AP Phys C Mechanics (Pending), AP US Gov (Pending)
Awards:
Winner of the Congressional App Challenge
Eagle Scout
9 Hackathon Wins
3x Model UN Best Del, 2x Outstanding Del, 1x Verbal Commendation, 1x Delegates Choice
Robotics State Champion
Extracurriculars:
Debate – President and Founder
CS Club – President
Model UN – Secretary-General (President)
Boy Scouts – ASPL (Highest Leadership Team)
Independent Software Development Projects (Created Multiple Apps, one of which was featured by IBM)
Software (Java dev) intern at a local company
VEX Robotics
Volunteering at middle school robotics club
Admitted into a selective program at a University, which allowed me to take courses alongside undergrads for free. Do not want to give too much information about myself, so I won’t say what college.
Recreational Table Tennis
Chance for the following:
Johns Hopkins (prolly ED), CMU, MIT, Brown, Cornell, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, GT, and Northeastern. Feel free to add any other recs as well.
What’s your home state ? The flagship needs to be on your list.
Each of these is a reach with NYU and Northeastern a match.
Is cost an issue…either affordability wise or desire to spend less ? I’d add your home flagship, Pitt, Purdue, NC State, RPI, WPI, Rochester, Maryland, CWRU. If you want to save $ Alabama and Arizona. It’s hard to recommend not knowing what you are looking for. You’ve accomplished a lot but it’s a tough major so you need to add some matches and safeties.
So most your schools are urban so Pitt > Penn State. As long as you apply to one (if not both), that’s the safety you need - so you’re good to stretch on the rest.
If it’s $$ you are after, look at U of Az, ASU, Alabama, UT Knoxville. All have solid programs and Honors programs - but Pitt and/or Penn State will be a great backdrop.
YOu need to know that the schools you listed (except for rarely JHU and a little Neastern) - they don’t offer merit aid - so you need to fill out a net price calculator or two.
It will tell you if you will get aid or not. If the answer is no, then you are full pay.
Don’t say this:
Money is not a major concern (only child in an upper middle class family), but would definitely prefer lower tuition rates.
Rather, ask your parents. Just because they can afford $80K a year doesn’t mean they want to spend $80K a year…especially when you can go to an Arizona, for example, for $25K a year or so.
Class rank is important. Even for schools that don’t formally rank. Need to know your estimated place in the class, and the total class size. Also, if you have details on what % of students go onto a 4 year degree, and how many go to T20 schools that would be helpful too.