ChanceMe: UT Austin, Rice (& Reaches: MIT et. al.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi all! I have been lurking a bit, and spent time over on r/applyingtocollege and I thought I might as well do a chance me thread. I am curious what y’all think the odds of me getting accepted anywhere are. Also let me know if there are schools I am missing for my major that I should look at.

I would like to study Computer Science, second choice Computational Biology. White male. I go to a magnet program that is very good in my state (TX)

GPA: 4.14W 3.3 UW

Rank: Our school doesn’t send it, but schools aren’t dumb, I’m in the top half for sure, but I don’t think top 25%

SAT: 1540 (800 math, 740 English)

SAT Subj: 750 Math 2, 770 Physics

AP’s: 13 -
Calc BC, English (Lit + Lang), Physics I&II, US Hist, WHAP, Gov, Econ (Micro), Bio, Human Geo, Music Theory, Comp Sci

EC’s:
-Eagle Scout - SPL, OA, been in scouts ~10yrs and done all the scouty stuff
-Software Captain Robotics Team (We got 2nd in the world my sophomore yr)
-Varsity Golf - Jr. & Sr. years
-Officer of Computer Science Club - We do competitions, bring in guest speakers and do peer mentoring
-National Leadership Council - through my religion, but not just total fluff. We do service projects and organize groups.
-Volunteering, mainly to feed the homeless and less fortunate of Austin ~530hr during high school

Awards:
-Congressional Award Gold Medal (Basically 400+hr community service and some other stuff)
-NHS
-AP Distinction & Nat. Merit Commended blah blah

Jobs/Internships:
-Android Dev @ local weapons company - paid internship last summer, worked 40hr weeks and coded their streaming app
-Summer Camp Counselor - Most Inspirational Staff 2017 Award. I teach swimming and lead a cabin at a stay-over camp in MO
-Internship @ local biotech co. - I model antibody docking and add stuff to their website.

Rec Letters:
-One from CS teacher who I’ve known for 4 yrs, have taken all his classes and lead his clubs, should be pretty good
-One from an English teacher, probably meh
-Counselor rec should be pretty sweet

Essays: My common one focusses on a passion of mine. Could be hit or miss, but I think it turned out well. Had it reviewed by family/friends/a counselor.

I have big dreams and my first choice would easily be MIT, but I know its a long shot and don’t want to delude myself.

Right now I have applied to:
-UT Austin
-MIT
-Colorado Mines
-RPI
-Toronto
-Wisconsin Madison
-Minnesota Twin Cities

And I plan to apply to:
-Stanford (2nd choice but there’s no way I’m getting in)
-Rice (really love this one, both my parents went)
-Harvard
-Georgia Tech
-Yale
-UC Berkely, LA, SD - close to submitting :slight_smile:
-British Columbia
-UChicago (honestly thinking of cutting it)

Fallback just in case:
-UT Dallas

Thank you guys so much for doing this, I have found other threads informative.

2

With a 3.3 GPA and a probable rank below top 25%, most of your list consists of unrealistic reaches, particularly for CS).

3

The 3.3 from the magnet may not be that bad, but I would save time with Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

4

Thanks y’all for the input, that was kinda what I was afraid of. Doesn’t matter what my EC’s look like if my grades aren’t phenomenal. Im sure there is a different subformum for recommending schools, but do you have any suggestions for CS if I were to say cut: Stanford, Chicago, and Harvard.

In terms of grades, the main tool I use to put them in context is naviance. Naviance has all of the data from the past 5-10ish years from my school of who got accepted/denied/WL’d and plots the students based on GPA and test scores. Based on just those graphs of stats, I am above the average accepted applicant for:
-CO Mines
-RPI
-Toronto
-Wisconsin
-Minnesota
-UC SD
-British Columbia
-UTD - like waaaaaaaayyyyyyy above

I am hovering in the zone where people could get accepted or denied for:
-UT* (Slightly above, but the 7% stuff makes it hard to tell)
-GA tech (again slightly above)
-UCLA + Berkeley
-Rice (above on test scores, below on grades)

Below avg for:
-MIT
-Stanford
-Harvard
-Yale
-Chicago

I have basically already applied to all of my ‘safeties’ + UT, because they all offered EA. I also did MIT EA. What I have left to apply for is the UC system, which I am almost done with, so even if its unrealistic, I see no point in scrapping my app, and I think UC SD is quite good odds.

The schools I haven’t applied for yet are pretty much the big name Ivies + Chicago + Stanford. I am fine wasting a bit of time applying to maybe a few schools that are truly hail-mary reaches, but am thinking about trimming the list to have a bit more of a spectrum, since right now there is a pretty big jump from state schools (other than UC) -> Rice/Georgia tech -> and then theres not much between these school and the true elite.

5

[deleted] - duplicated post

@UCBalumnus, when you said “most of your list consists of unrealistic reaches”, would you mind specifying exactly which schools you think are unrealistic? It would be very helpful to know precisely the schools that I shouldn’t waste my time on.

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[deleted] - duplicated

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UT Austin is likely unrealistic. They will have filled up their class with those in the top 7%.

Your parents have said they will pay for you to go to all of those OOS schools who give close to zero financial aid?

8

@androidtexan, remember that the Naviance data for UT Austin shows all majors, so unless you know that all the accepted students in your range were accepted for CS, engineering, or other restricted majors you must think of UT Austin CS as a reach. My son’s high school (he attends a well-regarded STEM magnet program within a larger well-regarded Texas public school) typically has almost 20% of each class accepted at UT Austin so the Naviance data looks hopeful. However students outside the top 7% are mostly rejected by CS and engineering. Last year a girl who was literally the first student outside the top 7%, and was in the STEM magnet program and had the whole package of ECs and leadership and community service, was rejected by UT Austin engineering. Just being in the top 7% is not by itself a guarantee that a student will get into CS at UT Austin, and you seem to be well outside the top 7%. Certainly you have a chance there, but it’s a reach and not a match.

9

Yikes, good to know that I have been evaluating UT wrong. I had not been taking into account the differences between majors. I am still somewhat optimistic. My school has a ~65% accept rate to the school in general. I think I left it pretty vague, but my school is very competitive, I don’t know if it is anymore, but was the top rated school in the state as of two years ago. Few of the top 7% go to UT, they usually can get in plenty of other places.

Money is definitely an important factor, which is why I had been looking at UT quite seriously. In state price is going to be a fraction of anywhere else. We have talked about the tuition of an out of state school, and it kinda comes down to how good the school is and how long I plan to study. (i.e. 60k /yr is worth it at mit for undergrad, but not Minnesota for a billion years to phd)

Now that I know I can not rely on UT at all I am much more concerned about the cost equation :frowning:

Thanks all for the reality check no matter if it hurts

10

Generally, it is better to look for possible schools based on your GPA and not your test scores and ECs. GPA (or rather, strong grades in rigorous classes) is very important when looking at very selective schools. When you are looking at Naviance, pay closest attention to the GPA coordinate.

The reality is that for the most selective schools, there is no shortage of students who have it all - GPA, high test scores, and ECs.

That said, your scores and ECs are truly superb. Your rigor is also excellent. Do you have an upward trend in grades? How were your grades junior year, and how are your grades this semester?

I have heard that legacy is not a big factor at Rice, although it is considered (I am an alum, so I have paid attention to this over the years). All of the legacies I know who are at Rice were extremely competitive candidates even without the legacy tip. When you work on your Rice app, make sure you spend a lot of time on the Rice specific essays. They are important.

11

@Faulkner1897 Thanks for the note about grades.

They are definitely upward. Freshman year was mid-low A’s and a low B. It has been rising to higher A’s. Junior yr was all mid-high A’s This year is 98ish average.

Note about how my school’s grading system works. 93 average = 3.3 unweighted. Getting an A in the class does not mean you get a 4. I don’t know if this clarifies anything, but seems like every school does things differently.

I wasn’t really considering legacy at rice to help my admissions, it just biased me to like it more. I have heard all the stories and already know CS prof’s

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With a 3.3 unweighted GPA, your UC-weighted GPA is unlikely to be more than about 3.6-3.7. But you can recalculate your UC-weighted GPA as described at http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/gpa-requirement/index.html .

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html

3.6-3.7 puts you in the range where the admission rates were 2%, 3%, and 8% for UCB, UCLA, and UCSD respectively for 2016. But since you are applying for CS, admission will be more difficult than the overall average for those schools.

You should recalculate your GPA using the letter grades with A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, etc… If your GPA as calculated this way is higher than 3.3, then your chances at the various schools may be significantly better than a 3.3 GPA would indicate.

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@ucbalumnus Thanks for the heads up, I hope this helps to standardize my scores
I recalculated my GPA for the UC system-

Unweighted GPA: 3.80
Weighted GPA: 4.80
Weighted and Capped GPA: 3.98

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Now I’m unsure of what counts as honors. My school counts a lot of things as honors (pre-AP etc) that are neither AP or dual-credit. It looks like for UC they only count AP and Dual-Cred as honors.
If that is true, I recalculated and got:

Unweighted GPA: 3.80
Weighted GPA: 4.39
Weighted and Capped GPA: 3.98

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With a 3.98 recalculated GPA for UCs, UCB and UCLA become more realistic reaches (but still more competitive for UCB EECS or UCLA CS than the schools overall), and UCSD probably becomes a high match for the school (but still probably reach for the CSE major).

But some of your other schools become significantly more realistic with a 3.8 unweighted GPA compared to a 3.3 unweighted GPA.

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I was aware that CS (and engineering in general) would increase the competition for top schools, but how big of a difference does it play? I am having a hard time finding resources that show the difference in admissions stats for schools based on major. I would really love to know what kind of GPA/SAT I need for a specific major at a school, rather than just a general measure.

I am dreaming of a day when schools have admissions calculators on their website next to their financial aide calculators. Just plug in key things from the app and it gives you your odds, would be nice :)>

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Can range from no difference (but some of those schools are reach for everyone like MIT, or are much less selective schools where the CS or engineering majors are underenrolled because few students are capable of handling the rigor) to a large difference (e.g. there are students who are auto-admit to UT Austin but should consider the CS or engineering majors there to be reaches).

18

People here go nuts over GPA. 75th percentile at this magnate probably isn’t bad. Whatever the GPA is, you can’t compare it to a standard public school. He has ECs and SAT IIs.

I would apply to places like Rice as reaches though, not HYP.

19

1540 is really good. Thats the score i also have and im gonna be applying to Harvard stanford and yale and i think u should apply with that score also

20

This is why GPA is such a ridiculous concept to me. It should be standardized. The way you’ve outlined it, your “3.3 GPA” is …not really a 3.3 UW GPA. I’ve rarely gotten over 93 in most of my classes, but in my school over 90 is an A and will give me a 4.0.