Chances of admittance/consideration for CMU?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
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<p>I'm reposting this from a thread I made in the MIT forum, so I'll polish it up so it fits here</p>

<p>I know that there's a lot of discussion about how there are tons of qualified applicants every year that apply to these universities and it often comes down to the luck of who gets noticed by random chance, but there are also those too low to be considered in this pool of "qualified applicants", and so what I'm asking is what is approximately required to have a shot at these schools, and do I stand a chance?</p>

<p>I'm currently a Junior in high school, my Mom dropped out of High School, and my Dad dropped out of college, so in some sense that makes me a first generation college student, I think. I'm in need of financial aid, as my family makes under $50,000 a year, and I like many students, have little to no help expected from my family with college expenses.</p>

<p>That being said, academically, I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, top 10% of my class, with 8 semesters of AP courses by the time I graduate, and more than 8 Honors/Advanced courses(which are not weighted at my school), no SAT score currently, expecting approximately a 700-750 in both writing and reading, and over a 750 in math, as I'm a natural math student, and I've been studying hard for my test on the 6th of June. 30 composite on my first ACT with no preparation, as it was a required test at school(33 math;31 reading;26 english[=X];30 science)</p>

<p>I'm interested in a major in Computer Science/Engineering(so SCS would be the school I'm applying for)</p>

<p>My math schedule:
9th: Adv Algebra II
10th: Adv Geometry; Adv Algebra w/ Trig
11th: Adv Pre-Calculus; Structured Programming; AP Statistics
12th: AP Calculus BC; AP Computer Science(taken online since my school doesn't offer it)</p>

<p>other AP courses include AP English Lang/Comp & AP English Lit/Comp
took 3 years of foreign language(french I, II, and III, all advanced)</p>

<p>not an ambitious history/social studies student, though I do regret not taking AP courses in these areas.
I like science, but my school has a relatively week science program, so I stuck with the standard advanced/honors track in the science department, and still regret not taking AP courses in this category through other means.</p>

<p>my extra-curriculars are relatively weak as well, National Honors Society and French Club, neither of which I was relatively active in, since I was more interested in my own hobbies, and my achievements aren't all that spectacular either, I've been invited to plenty of things, but I've never really acted on it.</p>

<p>My teachers know me well, and I know them well, so I could definitely get some insightful letters of recommendation from my teachers about my abilities, scholastically as a student in general, and in the areas I'm interested with computers.</p>

<p>I take on projects on my own time, such as making programs/games that I could talk about in an essay, and show why I'm interested and why I stand out to go to these schools, but I'm not going to write the essay right here.</p>

<p>now, ultimately, do you think I stand among those "qualified applicants" at higher tier schools? my top picks are MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, and Berkeley, so any response would be greatly appreciated, and any tips in how to improve my resum</p>

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<p>27.2% chance.</p>

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<p>Hey Lightja, you definitely have a chance. Your stats are impressive considering your family’s education background.</p>

<p>I’d say brush up on your extracurricular activities, as CMU tends to regard ECs relatively heavily. Next year, get really involved with your school. You still have time.
Also, see what you can do with those SAT scores. </p>

<p>You also said you were interested in computer science and engineering. I would recommend you apply to SCS and CIT. It doesn’t hurt to apply to one more school, it just means you have to write a paragraph more on your supplemental essay. And you would have a greater chance of being accepted into CIT since SCS is one of the most difficult colleges within CMU to get into.</p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>

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<p>I have no idea how heavily CMU regards ECs. My son had two Academic team (the team went to Nationals, but it’s a joke to get there), and Science Olympiad (team made states every year he was on it and he got a fair number of medals.) Otherwise he spent most of his spare time messing around with computers and he wrote his essays about the various things he did. </p>

<p>Your lack of APs compared to what your school offers may be an issue. One of the questions your GC has to ask is how difficult your academic load was, you may not get the highest rating there. </p>

<p>You should write a great essay, do something worthwhile this summer and hope for the best. Your chances are decent, it’s just not a shoo-in.</p>

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<p>I appreciate the positive reinforcement, and I’m very confident in my ability to write an essay to sell myself, which I think can push me over the edge to give me the chance I want. Like you said mathmom, your son spent his spare time working with computers, and I actually have the exact same fascination, and I can get off writing an autobiography about how technology and video games have morphed every aspect of my life into what it is today. Particularly I am writing a video game that has taken most of my free time throughout highschool, in lieu of ECs, seeing as my school has no clubs/activities that serve my interests, could programming my own video game make up for the lack in that category?</p>

<p>I’ll have 8 AP credits(6 classes) by the time I graduate, which I don’t think is too shabby, my only regrets are not taking the AP government/history classes, and yeah I agree that it might hurt me, but at least my APs suit my major and the focus of the school at which I’m applying?(computer science AB could even count as an EC since it’s independent study)</p>

<p>so overall, after reviewing everything, not only my chances at CMU, but what do you think my chances are of getting in to at least 1 of my top 5 schools: CMU, MIT, UC:B, Caltech, and Stanford?</p>

<p>thanks for the replies!</p>

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<p>I think your chances of getting into any of the aforementioned schools are slim, unless you are an URM/female or in-state for UC Berkeley. You may have a shot at CMU if you apply to CIT (the school of engineering, which is much easier to get into), but your lack of advanced science classes in HS is a major weakness. The School of Computer Science (SCS) at CMU is definitely a reach. </p>

<p>I don’t want to discourage you, but, realistically, you also need to apply to a few safeties and matches besides those top 5 schools.</p>

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<p>^I agree with Bruno, it’s not that you shouldn’t apply to those schools, but you absolutely need safeties. My son had really great scores and grades (lots of 800s, top 1% of the class), but he was rejected by MIT, Caltech and Stanford and he was waitlisted at Harvey Mudd. He did get into Harvard (legacy) and CMU. You just can’t count on schools that admit such a small percentage of students. The good thing about engineering/computer science is there are lots of really good safeties out there.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I understand the need for safeties, and I really appreciate the concern. I actually just recieved my SAT scores, and with a major disappointment too. I got an 1810, which is 340 points under the minimum range I expected… Oh well I guess, I still have my heart set on CMU as my first choice, and probably berkeley as my second. I still have a 30 on my ACT, but it’s without writing, but at least that makes it into the middle 50% for CMU students, although not all CMU students made it into SCS by any means. I’ve been looking back on my planning and realizing that Computer Science is really my intended major because of my Intended path career as a Video Game Developer/Designer, and I know that’s not normally an entry level position, so I’ll have to be good at something in particular in the field, and that’s not art. </p>

<p>Can anyone recommend any safety schools? My only current safety school, which I’m sure I can get into is University of Louisville(Instate, I live in KY), which is one of the best universities in Kentucky, but we ARE talking about Kentucky here hah. I was thinking of maybe applying for Georgia Institute of Technology. Also, any other recommendations based on my career pathway would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Oh, and I come from a High School that really doesn’t offer a lot of APs. They stopped offering AP Physics this year, and a lot more due to cutting staff, and not having qualified staff to teach half of the avaiable AP courses, and due to my financial situation I can’t be taking $300 online classes regularly. I am however, taking AP Computer Science AB next year, which is an online class, costing $330, and got a scholarship for that. My high school’s science department is particularly a weak branch, as most of the classes are jokes, with the sole exception of AP Biology, which would help me not in the slightest in my intended major. I’m not sure that would necessarily excuse me from taking the classes as far as how it looks on an application, but for my standards, it does, and I know top universities wont necessarily agree with that. Also, in applying for Computer Science(yes, it does have “Science” in it), how much of that is actually High School Science? I don’t see how having an in-depth understanding of Biology, Physics, Geology, and/or Chemistry might help a Computer Science major, other than basic scientific principles, which are taught at all levels.</p>

<p>Thanks again for your replies, and I’ll definitely take what you’re saying into consideration.</p>

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<p>Look at GaTech and University of Maryland Annapolis.</p>

<p>My school only offered a handful of AP classes, so maybe consider taking some independent study classes to prepare for an AP exam (for example, take AP Comp Sci A next year…it’ll help a little). The reason they look at high school sciences is that is the best indicator of how you will do in computer science—like you said, it is a science, afterall. Remember, CS isn’t just people who make computer games—those people are extremely knowledgeable about the computer language they must program in—but also people who try to make sorts more efficient or create algorithms to augment studies in the other sciences. And CS is the application of mathematics… so be ready to prove the triangle inequality with lambda calculus.</p>

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<p>I don’t see SCS happening for you. And, are you aware that CMU can be stingy with their financial aid, leaving you to cover a chunk of your expenses? This school does not strike me as the best fit for you.</p>

<p>Have you considered Indiana schools like Purdue or Rose Hulman?</p>

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<p>You might like:</p>

<p>Rice U (TX)
Cornell (NY)
Purdue (IN)
Drexel ¶</p>

<p>for some more choices on great engineering schools you could check out :</p>

<p>[Top</a> Ranked Engineering Colleges/Universities, Best Colleges Engineering](<a href=“http://www.graduateshotline.com/ranks/]Top”>Best Engineering Schools - Top 50 Engineering Colleges in US)</p>

<p>good luck!</p>