Chances for T20s?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

What are my chances for acceptance to schools like Duke, WashU, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern? Also any ideas for more safety/match schools? I am looking for midsized universities with good computer science programs, located in an urban setting within ~3 hour plane ride from Chicago.

Intended Major: Computer Science
White
Female

UW GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.48 (about as high as possible at my school)
ACT: 35, retaking and hoping to get 36
SAT: 1530 (740 math, 790 EBRW)
Class Rank: 8 out of 400ish
SAT II: planning on taking Math 2, US History, and Spanish

APs: Microeconomics (5), Macroeconomics (5), Calculus AB, Literature, Computer Science A, APUSH (no scores yet)

Senior Year Classes: AP Calculus BC, AP Stats, AP Chemistry, AP Lang and Comp, AP Spanish Lang, AP Gov

ECS: Varsity Dance Team (9-12, captain 12th), Girls Who Code club (10-12, president 12th), dance at studio outside of school (~7 hours a week, 9-12), NHS (11-12), 2 other dance groups at my school (9-12)

Work: Teach kids coding/robotics/math at summer camps and classes (11-12) , teach dance classes at my studio (8-12)

Summer Programs: Received scholarship for 2 week programming camp this summer (Kode with Klossy)

Recomendations: Pretty good, one from CS teacher and sponsor of Girls who Code club, one from English teacher

2

Your chances are as good the vast majority of kids who have and will be applying to these schools. You have done as well as anyone can do.

Those are the teach schools. The real work is finding a school that you don’t have to worry about acceptance, that has all you need and want in a college and that you can afford. That’s the real work in putting together that college list. It’s real easy finding those reach schools.

For the match schools, work on matching each of the reaches with a school very similar but with a much more realistic accept rate. You like Duke? How about Elon? Penn? How about Drexel? Vanderbilt? Center College. Just off the top of my head , but you get the gist. Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Gettysburg also good possibilities.

3

No need to retake a 35 ACT in my opinion.

4

@sobow2020

Academically, you are more than okay for those schools. Your EC’s are decent, but I probably wouldn’t mention NHS on your app unless it is a major time commitment (listing less impressive things makes more impressive things look less impressive).

My main pieces of advice are the following.

  1. Make sure to write really good essays. Essays can really help an app pop. I would start practicing essay writing early this summer. Writing college admissions essays is different than the writing you have done up until this point. It is its own skill. The more practiced you are at this skill, the better your essays will ultimately be. I would practice by writing many different essays responding to many different prompts. Try writing an essay every few days. You’ll get better at expressing yourself and more comfortable with the college admissions essay writing style.

  2. Frame your application in a compelling way. Tell a good story. Packaging is important.

  3. If you can, try to do something this summer to make your application stand out a bit more.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions about what I said, let me know.

5

I think you have a pretty good chance considering your EC’s seem to concentrate around a few areas (CompSci, dance). Any awards you would be listing under the Academic Honors section of applications? Didn’t think I saw that in your post. Altogether, though, you seem to present yourself nicely (don’t spread yourself too thin and concentrate on major activities).

6

Second not retake “ACT”, but wonder whether you may want to take another science sub SAT in place of USH or Spanish?
Good luck!

7

I might swap Spanish for something like Chemistry or Physics for the Subject Test.

Numbers are in line with what WashU expects. If you get a 5 on CompSci, you will get credit for CSE 131.

What is your home state? Since the schools you have listed will all be reaches despite your GPA/test scores.

Have you done any AMC or math competitions? Or hackathons? Your ECs seem more oriented to the performing arts than STEM. Which may not be a bad thing for WashU as I believe the school has a Dance major/minor.

8

For CS, every one of those schools will be a high reach for anybody. However, your list of colleges is based on rankings that have little to do with the level of their CS programs.

The best CS programs in the Midwest would be UIUC and UMichigan. However, those are not in urban areas,. but Wisconsin fills your requirements and has a better CS program than any college on your list. Other really good CS schools that fill your requirements and have better CS than, or as good as, the schools on your list are Rice, UMN, UMD, UT Austin, and, of course, CMU.

For every college to which you want to apply you need to cut the acceptance rates by at least half to get the acceptance rates to CS. For large flagship universities, you need to consider the chances to be 1/5 or lower of their regular acceptance rates.

So, if you want colleges with amazing CS programs, and a realistic chance of acceptance for you, I would say that possibly UMN and UMD, though I’m not sure. To that, I would add Rochester, U Pitt, and SUNY Stony Brook.

Another thing that you may want to check out for every CS program to which you apply, is how supportive they are of women in CS.

9

Purdue has a quality Computer Science program, although West Lafayette might not necessarily be the most urban place.

Georgia Tech might be a target/reach worth considering. Their EECS program is better than most of the schools on your current list. And Atlanta is obviously pretty urban.

I might substitute Cornell for either of Duke, Vandy, or WashU for a potential CompSci major. I would even consider Johns Hopkins Engineering over some of your other choices.

10

@makemesmart @Hamurtle I took the ACT without any prep and got the 35 but my math subscore was only a 33. Math is normally my strongest subject and I think I can get the math score up with a little bit of review on the geometry topics. Considering I am looking to go into a stem field do you think it would be worth it to try to improve the math score or does it not matter?

11

@sobow2020 I wouldn’t bother with an ACT retake with a 35 composite regardless of the Math subscore. Try getting an 800 on Math 2.

I do understand your concern though. Your SAT score is excellent but a 740 on the Math doesn’t really match your academic record. But at this point focus on your ECs and application.

12

A possible safety/high match could be RPI as they also give good scholarship money. Not entirely urban though. Another vote for adding Ga Tech to your list.

13

How exactly does your school rank? If your “Weighted GPA” is “about as high as possible at my school”, how could your “Class Rank” is “8 out of 400ish”? Sounds like conflict to me.

14

Also, GA Tech’s CS ranks much higher than CS in “Duke, WashU, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern”. The admission to GA Tech (especially for an OOS student) is getting harder and harder each year (CS would be even more difficult) so not sure if it will be easier to get in at all.

15

@wally1688 Not that it would be easier, just another top CS school that fits her urban criteria and would be good for her target/reach list. OSS acceptance was 14% this year but one thing GaTech lets you do is change majors easy. This year they let students make a major change in May before even signing up for orientation. There were no restrictions except if you had major specific scholarship money or for music technology which required an audition. So as long as you got into GT it looks like you can get into CS if you want.

16

@racereer So are you suggesting applying for other majors then changing to CS after admission? This is a sort of cheating (imagine that you might have to come up with other non-CS ECs in applications). Also, if everyone does that, I guess GA Tech would have to come up with restrictions so not to overwhelm the CS department.

17

@MWolf with the suggestion of Minnesota-Twin Cities is a good one. Minneapolis/St. Paul is definitely urban enough and close enough to Chicago along with having a good Engineering department.

18

@wally1688 while the option at GT to change your major before orientation was new this year, they have had the option to do one “free” major change after your 1st semester for some time. They seem to make it work and don’t have everyone changing to CS. I guess it helps when the entire engineering department is ranked top 5 across to board.