Chance some wandering and homeless Asian male! :D

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Just, kidding, I'm not homeless, but I would appreciate a chancing. XD</p>

<p>I will probably be doing Comp Eng./EE/CS. </p>

<p>Asian American (Chinese) Male, single parent, low income (15~25K), CA Resident</p>

<p>Goes to semi-competetive public school, API is like 810? (I think there were two people who went to Ivies last year, some Berkeley and LA people too)</p>

<p>10-11th weighted GPA: 4.0 (Includes summer classes at CC)
10th-11th unweighted: 3.68
9th-11th unweighted:3.56
Class rank: Around 112 / 600 (our district doesn't weigh GPA's for class rank)</p>

<p>Grades:
9th Grade:
Algebra 1: A+/A+
Spanish 1: A/A-
Integrated Science(Forced to take this class due to the stupid school)A/B+
P.E(Just for reference): A/A
English 1 Honors: C+/B
Intro to Computer Science: B/C+</p>

<p>10th Grade:
Geometry: A/A-
Biology: A-/A-
AP World History: B/A
English 2 Honors: B+/A-
Spanish 2: A-/B+
P.E: A/A-</p>

<p>11th Grade:
Chemistry: A+/A
Algebra 2: A+/A
U.S History: A/A
A.P Computer Science A: B+/A-
A.P English Lang / Comp: B-/B
Spanish 3: B+/A-</p>

<p>Summer classes at CC:
Introduction to Business: B (missed one week of class)
Trigonometry: A
Pre-Calculus Algebra: A</p>

<p>Courses this year:
AP Physics B
AP Calculus AB
AP Government/Regular Econ (One semester of each)
English 4
Choir 1
Planning on taking Calculus 2 at CC during spring</p>

<p>AP Scores:
AP World History: 5
AP Computer Science: 4
AP English: 4</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:
Chinese: 800
Math II: 780
Chemistry: 740
World History: 700
Biology M: 620</p>

<p>ACT:
Composite: 33
English: 33
Math: 35
Reading: 33
Science: 30
Essay: 11</p>

<p>PSAT: 63 R/ 73 M/ 64 W 200 Total(96 percentile)</p>

<p>Award(s):
National Merit Commendation
AP Scholar</p>

<p>Spent 5 years in Taiwan at a regular public school. I wrote about this in my essay, and I truly believe that this has changed me a lot due to the exposure to an ultra-competitive Asian school culture(again, wrote about in essay).</p>

<p>Extracirriculars:
Chinese Club (one of the founders): 9th/10th grades
CSF: 11th and 12th grades
Key Club: 11th and 12th grades
Church tutoring helper: 10th grade
Church GK (youth leader): 12th grade
NYLF Tech Forum: Summer after 10th grade
Piano (5 years, never had time to take CM examinations though). Despite the fact that I have never won any awards or sorts, I believe that I do have a pretty big passion for piano (write about in 2nd essay and explained why I didn't play piano for a longer time due to many circumstances)
Game Development Club - officer: 12th grade</p>

<p>Works for uncle's company unofficially (computer accesories compnay), does translation and grammatical checking (his company is based in Taiwan)</p>

<p>I already applied to UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UCSD and UCI. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Well, for CMU's CS tends to be highly competitive, it is safe to say that you are in the intermediate range. It would have been much better if you had applied Early Decision.</p>

3

<p>Haha, but I just decided to apply this week. ;)</p>

<p>And besides, I couldn't apply under early decision:
7. Not for applicants under the age of 17.
I'm only 16 now. XD</p>

<p>So would applying for the Carnegie Institute of Technology be easier? Or would applying for the CS school be better?</p>

4

<p>i agree with tomahawk. SCS is competitive. your academic record (ranking, esp) will pull you down. plus, you are a chinese male. i know way too many male chinese programmers. (let's not spark off another debate on ORMs, please)
transferring into scs from cit is difficult, i would imagine, so check off SCS, CIT, Tepper, and everything else you want to go to. see if you get into scs first, if not, then they'll consider you for the rest as well.
wish you luck.</p>

5

<p>"transferring into scs from cit is difficult"
- in order to transfer into CS u need to complete 15-211. Then if you are in good academic standing you can get in. And... the AP comp sci class u got a 4 in will give u 15-100 credit, so you're only two class from getting to transfer. If that AP comp sci was (AB) level, I think you might even place out of 15-111, so u can start 15-211 relatively soon (you need to take 21-127 concepts of math) before 15-211. So i'm saying it's only 2 class to transfer. </p>

<p>"...everything else you want to go to"</p>

<p>if you apply to multiple schools and u get waitlisted (for all of them persay), then anyone who applied to only one college will have priority over you in the waitlist. </p>

<p>THUS - apply to SCS and get in, or if you're chickened out apply general CIT. but only apply to one college (from CMU).</p>

6

<p>There's no reason not to apply to both CIT and SCS, but you'll have to write your essay so that it covers both in a way that makes you look positive not waffle-y. I don't see a problem since there's a pretty big overlap and SCS requires a minor. You are interested in both sets of courses, aren't entirely sure at this point which should be the main emphasis, etc.</p>

7

<p>haha. thanks to despair for the personal attacks. i really hope you don't go to the same awesome CMU i went for the summer.
i think ill retreat back to my MIT board now.</p>

8

<p>yes. go to mit.</p>