Chances of MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! so I was thinking about applying early next year at MIT and Berkeley for Comp Sci, but I wanted some more opinions on what my chances are.

Currently a Junior

SAT 1570 (800 Math, 770 English/Writing)
ACT 36 (All subsections were 36)

GPA: 3.90/4.00 unweighted
4.86/5.33 weighted

Other stuff:
By the time I graduate, I would have taken every single math AP and high honors class my school offers (aka 8 years of math).

My school only allows you to take APs in your Junior and Senior year
Junior APs:
AP Chem - 5
AP Calculus BC - 5
AP Computer Science - 5

Extracurriculars:
Boy Scouts:
6 years, I am an Eagle Scout with a couple hundred service hours probably

Track and Field:
2 years on the JV team, I wasn’t very good, but I was still participated and I have a garenteed spot on the varsity team as a senior

Science Olympiad:
2 years - my school has 2 teams, a freshman team and Sophomore/Junior/Senior team. I was on the Freshman team, but it wasn’t very good. This year I was on our school’s varsity team which got first at state. At nationals we got top 20.

Summer Internship:
This summer I am working at a Fortune 500 company and have already made 2 apps for them. I am also analyzing ways to make their databases more efficient.

Chinese National Honors Society:
I would have taken 4 years of Chinese by the time I graduate.

Math Team:
2 years - my performance wasn’t too great but I still participated in it

Coding:
I have been coding for 10 years, have 4 apps on the App Store, and know about 5 programming languages well

Senior Course Load:
AP Econ, AP stats, Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra, AP Physics C, Great Books (not AP, but honors), Chinese, Drawing and Painting (for Berkeley)

Also a little side note; My first programming experience was with scratch so MIT has been my dream school for 10 years and that is why I am not applying to Carnegie Mellon or Stanford early, because if I get in I would like to go.

Any advice is appreciated!

2

Great work! Many of your ECs really show that you have a passion for your major, and that will be greatly appreciated by many of the top schools. Based on these stats, you should be able to get into Carnegie Mellon no problem. You seem to be a viable candidate for the other schools as well, but it comes down to a little bit of luck in the end for everyone. Good luck!

3

You are a competitive candidate for any school. Nobody can realistically chance you for schools with under 10% acceptance rates. Take care that every part of your application (ex, essays including the supplemental essays.) is as strong as possible and try to get LORs from people who know you well. You may want to consider CalTech as well.

4

@happy1 Thank you! I was also wondering if I can submit non-academic letters of recommendation in addition to my 2 letters from school, because I was thinking of asking someone at my internship to write a letter.

5

Many colleges will accept one supplemental non-academic recommendation.

6

Stats definitely look solid. Love the fact that you do indie app development (I do too) and that you’ve taken the initiative to go intern at a company. You’re only a junior, so I would recommend finding ways that you can improve the world around you, whether it be through apps or other stuff. Overall, you’re a strong applicant that’s on the right track.