chancing

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I will be applying for these colleges soon for Computer Science:
- Yale
- Harvard
- Brown
- Carnegie Mellon
(these are my top picks, does anyone know any good backups for this major?)</p>

<p>Grades:
- 4.0 unweighted, 4.8 weighted
- Rank of 1, class of about 900</p>

<p>Courseload:
- Junior: U.S. History 5, Chemistry 5, English Lang & Comp 5
- Senior: (I will be taking these) Physics, Government, Calculus. I expect that I will receive 5s on these, maybe 1 4.
- I am also planning on taking Psychology and/or Computer Science independently during the year, too. I'll take practices and if I can get a 5 on one or both, I'll sign up for their tests.
- Everything else that could be taken as an honors class over the years was.
- I will have one free/open period in my senior year. At my school we have 8 classes, 4 every other day, and nothing that was slightly interesting or an Honors class fit into my schedule.</p>

<p>I also took Computer Science I (AP was available only freshman year, and CS I was a prereq, so I was unable to take it in class) and I will be taking Robotics. I don't know how much these impact me for being a CS major.</p>

<p>SAT/ACT:</p>

<p>SAT I
- Reading: 800
- Writing: 670
- Math: 730
I only took the SAT I once</p>

<p>I will be taking the ACT and expect to get a similar score percentile-wise.
I have taken practice SAT II subject tests for History, Chemistry, and Math 2, and should to get 740s or higher on each, but definitely not below a 700.</p>

<p>Work:
- I have done numerous (around 7) paid contract website design and development jobs. They were on a scale from a restaurant website and content management system to a social networking site.
- I have done long term tech support for one company for about 3 years with a few hours a month.
- I have launched two websites on my own, one of which is original and a good idea that is slowly gaining more users over time. The other was a rather cliche website which I am not sure whether I should mention on the application.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
- I have belonged to my school Orchestra for 3 years (will be four) and have been/will be concertmaster for some or all concerts for 3 years in a row.
- Also the treasurer for the school orchestra
- School district Honors Orchestra for 4 years
- Received "superior" rating at 4 years of a school district solo music competition
- 1 year in an all-state student orchestra
- Volunteer around 5 hours a month for my church.
- Was in FBLA for one year, and I might stay in it next year. This involved about 12 hours community service and I earned the non-prestigious Future Award in it.
- I have guest written for a website which has ~45000 subscribers on web development (it was a paid writing opportunity)
- And possibly 1 year of chess club next year. I would be good enough to compete in state competitions our club is affiliated with if I did, but it would be extremely unlikely for me to place 1st-3rd.
- Also, our robotics team went to a world championship last year and it is pretty likely that we will be in this next year, too.
- I might join Varsity Quiz, too.</p>

<hr>

<p>So what are my chances?
And also, which items above should I include on the applications?</p>

2

<p>I also forgot to add under courseload that I have taken 3 years of Spanish (as many of them were Honors that I could at my school) and one more computers class, Website Science, in which I redesigned my school’s website (this was by myself, not as a normal assignment, and the school is still using it).</p>

3

<p>I think you should include whatever you are most passionate about and have been doing the longest. Having said that, I would say you have a very good chance at gaining admittance at some of those schools. I would suggest that you try to get your writing score up on your SAT score if you can. Ultimately though, I would say you get into two of those:) Ivies are reaches for everyone but you stand a good chance. Best of luck!</p>

4

<p>Do they all look at just highest scores in each section though? Would the strong possibility of getting a lower CR score be worth it to try to work up the writing?</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply.</p>

5

<p>Yes, that’s what the superscore is for and no problem:) I think your statistics are exceptional though, being one out of 900 is a feat to be proud of:></p>

6

<p>Definitely take again, you’ve already aced the hardest part, the other two are easier to raise with some work.</p>

<p>Do you have any factors going for you like underrepresented state, low income or first generation?</p>

7

<p>I don’t know if Nevada is underrepresented or not, my family is middle class, and I am second generation, so no extra factors are going for me.</p>

8

<p>Just got my SAT II scores:
Chemistry 800<br>
Mathematics Level 2 700<br>
U.S. History 720</p>

<p>I’m worried about my math score that it may be too low for computer science. I just can’t understand how I did so poorly. In the Collegeboard’s review books, I scored 780 on the Math 2. It seemed much harder than the practice. There are also a lot of similar posts in the SAT section here on CC. Should I retake it? I know math is important to computer science, but would a 700 hurt my score badly?</p>

9

<p>any comments after my SAT IIs were added?</p>

10

<p>You have a really good academic transcript and ECs. if you do the application process well… the personal statement and interview (if they do one) you should be really good for a shot at those schools. Especially with the 1 of 900. Fantastic :D</p>