Competitive programming.

How much of an impact does a good rating on codeforces and topcoder make on college admission decisions? By good rating, I mean yellow and above on both. I am not saying that these will be the only ECs on my app, these will be part of my app.

Never heard of this EC, but it sure sounds impressive!

@Nerdyparent‌ do you know how much of an impact does this kind of thing make in the college app?

I don’t - but I would definitely mention it!

Ok thanks

Probably not much. It certainly won’t hold anywhere near the influence of your GPA and SAT/ACT scores.

This is just another EC. It might be interesting and could make a good essay topic.

The school of computer science at Carnegie Mellon told us during our tour that they admit plenty of students who have never done any coding!

I think some employers like that. But for colleges it is a good EC that shows a high level of skill and likely devotion which is good but it is just one part of your profile. Remember that colleges are admitting students based primarily on academic qualifications.

@BrownParent‌ thank you for the reply.