I applied to schools like NYU and Northeastern this year for compsci and was rejected. I don’t have the best high school grades. My UW GPA is a 3.3 and my senior grades are not good. I also have a pretty low SAT score of 1830. The only benefit that I have is that I’m a girl going into compsci. Next year, I will be entering a CUNY (equivalent to a state school) but I would really like to transfer after my freshman year to NYU. How hard would it be? What would my grades have to be and what can I do to stand out?
Your high school grades and SAT suggest that you may not yet be well prepared for intermediate and advanced computer science courses. You haven’t specifically stated your high school GPA in math and science courses so my guess regarding your preparation may be inaccurate and if so ignore the rest of my post. Before you consider transferring focus on making up for any gaps in your technical/math skills. Take it slow at CUNY and work hard to bring up your skills. You are likely to find that it will take you more than a year to do that. To the extent that you succeed in catching up you can consider a transfer as a junior. You may realize that finishing you CS degree at SUNY is the better option. The brand of the college from where you get your CS degree is less important than the competence that you build in CS. Set a goal to find a significant intern position in CS at the end of your freshman year. Finding such a position and building your competence through it will help your career much more than a transfer.
Thank you so much for your input. This year, I have taken AP Compsci, AB Calc, AP Physics C, AP Euro, and AP Literature. My class average for calc is between an 85-90 and an 80-85 for physics. I am not particularly strong in math or science but I am pursuing compsci because it appeals to me and I really enjoy it.