Chance mee please {:

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey I’m new here.
I know everyone says you shouldn’t post these but still.
I’m an international school applying to the following schools intending to major in computer science.

Chance me for these colleges:
Harvard, Stanford, USC, UCLA, UC Berkely, UIUC, UT Austin, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech

Academics:
-SAT Score: 1500/1600
-SAT Math Level 2: 800/800
-SAT Physics: 790/800
-IB Diploma predicted score: 40/45 (7 in HL Maths, 7 in HL Economics, 6 in HL Physics, 6 in SL Chemistry, 6 in SL English Language and Literature, 6 in SL French)

  • That’s about equivalent to a 3.95 GPA Unweighted according to an online calculator.

Activities/extracurriculars: (in order of importance to me)
-interned at 3 different software companies (2 startups and 1 established company)
-work experience at the same established company on a later occasion
-learnt programming alone (mainly web development)
-made 2 websites: one personal blog, another aimed at helping IB students (resources, advice, ask me anything etc.)
-was part of a research project (presented at a conference, the write up will be published soon)
-played the guitar and piano since the age of 10
-4 years in the school soccer team, played in various tournaments (involved in projects helping Make A Wish foundation overseas)
-part of the school Drama Club which has produced 3 plays
-part of the school Organisation Team which organised 3 large scale events (a marathon, an Olympics and a futsal competition)
-volunteering in general
-went on an international understanding trip (helped various schools and hospitals in China)
-academic excellence award for grades 9,10

ethnicity: Pakistani (live in Australia)
Financial aid would be nice, but I can go to college without it!

Chance me?
Also could you please tell me if applying restrictive early action to Harvard would help?
Should I list my ethnicity as Asian or other in the CommonApp?
Thanks,
Emily

2

You have a great stats, but your EC’s are sparse. While they do have some kinda of link your intended major, I don’t believe they are strong enough to get you into some schools. You don’t have any leadership positions in many of those clubs or at all. Try to get some if you still can.

Harvard, - reject
Stanford, - you can still make it up with good essays - reject tho
USC - reject/accept I can’t say for sure they are HUGE on Ec’s… I would say waitlist but they don’t have a waitlist option
UCLA - accept
UC Berkely - accept
UIUC - accept
UT Austin - accept
Carnegie Mellon - accept
Georgia Tech - accept

Chance me back?

3

I think test scores+gpa are good enough to get you into Gtech, Carnegie Mellon, UT Austin, UIUC. You have a shot at UCLA, USC and Berkley. For Harvard and Stanford, just remember that there are so many Asian students who want to study computer science or engineering, so it is hard to stand out, and I don’t think you have a real “spike” in your application, but I still think you have a small chance, given your interesting background (Pakistan+Australia). Best of luck!
Chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1969186-chance-me-at-princeton-williams-colgate-and-george-washington-university-rd.html#latest