Computer Science Extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

Hi guys,
I’m a rising senior from California who’s interested in CS, but I just became interested in CS this summer so I don’t really have any EC’s besides my current internship for a startup.

Here’s my list of colleges:
Stanford, Princeton, UCB, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, UCSD, Cornell, Harvard (maybe gonna apply there), GWU, USC, UCI, University of the Pacific, UCD

My stats:
GPA: 3.9 UW, 4.25 W
SAT: 2270 (770 CR, 740 M, 760 W), 2310 superscore
SAT II: Got a 650 on Math II in sophomore year, taking Bio and Math II in October 2015
ACT: taking next month, aiming for 35 or 36
APs: 5 on APUSH, AP Calc BC
4 on AP EURO, AP Lang (self-studied for 2 days), AP CS
Rank: Top 10% out of 38 seniors
ECs:
-Did Taekwondo for 8.5 years (from 2nd to 10th grade), had a 2nd degree black belt and was part of the Special Team of Role Models (STORM), an elite club of black belts that helped teach classes. Was on Competition Team, went to tons of tournaments including a top-10 finish at the Jr Olympics out of 25+ people. Have tons of medals from Taekwondo.
-Played basketball in 10th and 11th grade, was co-captain in 11th
-Currently doing an unpaid CS internship for a start-up, JibaSoft Inc.
-Went to Punjabi school at my temple for 6 years, have some small awards from that
-Member of Interact for past 3 years

Advanced courses I’m taking senior year: APES, AP Chem, Linear Algebra, Advanced Computer Programming, AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Lit

Do you guys know of any other Computer-related EC’s I can do during the school year to boost my application? Or should I just go undecided so that colleges can’t “discriminate” against my low number of CS extracurriculars?

2

With the exception of the UCs and CMU, not having CS ECs won’t matter. Even for those, you’re good. Your ECs don’t have to be related to your major.

3

Ok good, I thought I was gonna have to make like my own app or something lol. Btw, how impactful do you think my Taekwondo experience will be even though i quit in sophomore year?

4

bump

5

Since you quit Taekwondo, it won’t have much impact. It you’d continued, it might have differentiated you from the pack. But that’s not a reason to do anything if you aren’t enjoying it.

6

Honestly, there’s no way I could have kept doing Taekwondo till now, especially because I joined basketball after I quit TKD. How much do you think it’s gonna cost me for quitting TKD? Do I still have a good chance at Berkeley and UCLA?

7

You’re overthinking this. Your TKD is nothing compared to how much the schools will want to feel confident you’re academically qualified. My kiddo attained 2nd degree black belt at 15 but eventually had to drop it. She was also a Varsity athlete and simply had to give karate up. No regrets. Accepted into several top engineering schools. She’s a freshman Comp Eng major and had no CS-related ECs besides being an admin on an arts website. Plus for you, it’s water under the bridge. I’m sure you’ll have very good choices come next March. Congrats on your achievements so far and good luck your senior year.

8

bump

9

bump

10

bump

11

stop bumping the thread