Chances at T20 Schools for Computer Science (Please be brutally honest!)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographic : Asian
Major : Computer Science
Education: Competitive Public HS in Houston, Texas
Class Rank: 7th out of 810 (Top 1%)
GPA: 4.75/5 (W) and 3.97/4(UW)
SAT: 1570 (800M, 770R) Essay: 19
SAT II: Math 2 (800) Bio (800) English (760)
Classwork: All AP/PreAP Courses throughout High School
AP Exams:
AP Computer Science Principles (5)
AP Computer Science A(5)
AP Statistics (5)
AP Spanish Language(5),
AP Human Geography (5).
AP Physics (5)
AP US History (4)
AP Language and Composition (4)

NO HOOKS

Senior Coursework: AP Calc BC, AP Physics 2, AP Bio, AP Env. Science, AP Lit, AP Art History, AP MicroEcon, AP MacroEcon, AP Gov.

Extracurriculars:
FIRST Robotics Team (REDACTED) : Team Strategist (9-12)
Worked on programming autonomous and tele-operated robots in NI LabVIEW; developed subsystem coordination using motion profiling and vision tracking.

Computer Science Team : Vice President (9-12)
Competed in various local/national circuit competitions, grew school’s computer science program; started peer tutoring system for all CS courses.

Sewa Houston: Student STEM Mentor, Volunteer (9-12)
Mentored students of less fortunate communities in the Greater Houston Area through various STEM classes and activities.

Technology Student Association: Vice President (11-12)
Competed nationally in computer-science related events, attended conferences on future of STEM Education and networked with IT professionals.

Mu Alpha Theta / Math UIL Team : Vice President (10-12)
Represented school in Texas UIL competitions(2x District Finalists, 1x State Qual.); organized school-wide peer tutoring for all math courses.

UT Austin Center For Space Research SEES Internship (11 Summer)
Worked on natural disaster response projects and research by analyzing geospatial information technologies and image analysis of NASA and ESA datasets

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap : Community Mapper (11-12)
International team dedicated to resolving global crises through open mapping; added new geographic information in areas affected by natural disasters.

Grow with Google Developers Scholarship Program (10)
Learned key skills in creating mobile/web applications in Android Studio; developed several interactive multi-screen apps for teaching basic math.

Neural Networking Analysis Research (11, 12)
Worked under mentorship of Rice Professor (REDACTED) in analyzing communications between neural networks; wrote paper on complexity of these networks.

HP Software Development Internship (11 Summer)
Worked on designing and modifying software enhancements; developed new infrastructure for testing newer applications and data structures.

Honors
Google Code Jam Round 2 Qualifier (Top 5% of all competitors globally) International (11)
USA Computing Olympiad Gold Medalist - National (11)
TSA National Conference Coding Gold Medalist National (11)
National AP Scholar Award - National (11)
Presidential Service Award Gold - National (9)
HP CodeWars Advanced Division Finalist - State/Regional (11)
Lamar University ACM High School Contest Winner / First-Year Keys Success Award Recipient - State/Regional (11)

Also, I am currently a junior right now so I am wondering which school should I apply EA?
Any insight or comments would be appreciated!

2

You can apply non-binding EA to all schools which offer unrestricted EA. However, if you want to apply EA to a school that has restrictions against applying to some other schools EA, you have to make the tradeoff between applying EA to that school versus EA to the other schools that you would not be able to apply EA to if you apply EA to the restrictive EA school.

If you apply binding ED, you can only do so to one school (and it should be your clear first choice and affordable in its net price calculator). You can still apply EA to other schools, except for restrictive EA schools that do not want you applying ED elsewhere if you apply EA there.

3

I think you have a much higher than average chance at any school, but I would still say like 35ish percent for Stanford and MIT and the ivies. I have similar stats with a 1570 and an 800 on Math 2 and Chem and I got rejected from Stanford REA. If you want help deciding what school to apply EA and a more accurate chance, I would recommend looking at some of the threads from this year to see what students got accepted to schools with their stats. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/2113339-stanford-class-of-2023-rea-results-thread-p1.html
Here’s the Stanford thread for this year. There’s a wide variety of SAT scores that got accepted, so there are a lot of people with high SATs who didn’t get in. Maybe look at some similar threads for MIT and the ivies to get a better view of what schools you have a higher chance at and where to apply early.

4

@compSciLover What about Princeton CS? What are my chances?

5

@abhonsley00 probably still around 35% or a bit more I think, but it’s really hard to say because each school is looking for something different. The majority of the students they accept have scores similar to yours, so it comes down to the essays and what type of person the college wants. Your stats are really high though and your extracurriculars are solid, so I think you’lol get accepted to at least one or two ivies if you applied to a couple. Also, I’m a high school senior myself and I just got rejected from Stanford, so I’m probably a bit biased in that sense. If there’s anyone else who has gotten accepted and could give better advice, that would be more reliable.

6

Caveat: this is just my opinion.
Your stats are solid. So, you have okay chances for top 20. However, if we are looking for possible gaps on your profile, your profile seems to be very linear. It could possibly seen as uninteresting. This is maybe where your essay and recommendations will come into play. You need to show a more well rounded personality, whole person concept.

7

To be safe, apply to one Honors College with merit money.

8

I have close relative who got into Berkeley EECS regents w/ similar background as you but less ecs, aps, and activities.

9

Pretty good chances at all T20s. Then again, no one can really give you an accurate chance since the T20s are really random about how they select people.

10

@cbcbcb1 Was he/she in-state or OOS?

11

@abhonsley00 instate