Demographics: Asian-American
State: Florida
Intended Major: Computer Science
ACT: 33
Rank: School doesn’t rank
GPA: 3.379 UW, 3.97 W using core classes (UW scale of 4, W scale of 5)
Coursework: Every class was honors or AP with the exception of PE ( 1 semester required course). 4 AP’s from 9th-11th grade. Senior year 4 AP’s, other 3 honors
Senior year APs: Chinese, Government, Physics 1, Statistics
Awards: National Merit Semifinalist, science fair chosen to be displayed at school science fair in 11th grade, AP scholar
Extracurriculars: Played violin since I was 6 years old, in a youth orchestra since 6th grade (still doing it this year) that practices 2 hours every week during school year, camp counselor for 3 years (job), internship at a museum for a year where I built a rube goldberg machine to teach physics to visitors, volunteered at a youth activity center for a few months one year, college summer program for 2 weeks summer prior to 9th grade for foreign language, President of Chinese Club and First Priority, Member of Chinese Honor Society, Programming club, Rho Kappa, NHS
I have no idea what types of schools are my match/reach and I’m looking for good computer science schools. My main concern is my GPA, because it is pretty low for most competitive schools. I’ve had 3 C+'s, majority B’s and A’s. School is semester-based.
Literally 100s of schools you can go to, so narrow this a bit. Compsci is offered in basically three flavors. You can get an engineering degree (BE), a Science degree (BS) , or a liberal arts degree (BA). All work for jobs in the IT sector.
The BE is offered through engineering colleges, more engineering and math. You might do well in a BA program since you have foreign language skills and broad interests.
I see you are a national merit scholar, so scrub the list of schools offering scholarships to NMS. I think A&M does.
Think of places where you will feel motivated, comfortable and supported. Thats more important to your success than any rakings, and you wont get into those top ranked tech schools anyway.
BE/BS/BA doesn’t really matter, and isn’t somewhere I would focus in a college search. Many schools offer both a BS and BA, and a BE is pretty rare in my experience, with most CS programs in engineering colleges offering a BS. Again, as noted, employers don’t care, and the difference is in the extra math/engineering courses, which aren’t always needed. However, narrowing to a BA will eliminate some good BS options while still leaving your list quite long.
Your test scores should give you some good chances, but your GPA will make it hard to be certain. Make sure you apply to a good number of match and safety schools.
To give a broad range, I think a school around 30-40% acceptance rate would generally be a match for you. That would be about 50 or so on US News, for reference.
Finances are the best place to start, to see what you can afford. After that, many here can give you good suggestions for CS schools in the reach/match/safety ranges.
I’ve already applied to UF, UCF, and FSU (for instate). As for financial aid, I do not need it. However, I will still be applying for scholarships. I’m fine with BA, BE, or BS. I prefer a medium-bigger school and geography doesn’t matter. The main thing I am looking for is a strong curriculum and great professors.
While you have a low unweighted GPA, your weighted GPA shows your rigor. I had a similar profile myself and found that match schools meant the 40-60 range in US News, and going as high as 25 or so is possible but will be in the reach category.
UF will be a great option for you price wise and will compare decently with other CS programs. Something to note.
If you are interested at all in tech schools, check out RPI and WPI, who will both offer great curriculums. Both are on the smaller side but would be good match schools for you. In the tech school category, RIT is a nice safety. Again, smaller but not absolutely tiny. RIT is also notably a co-op school.
If you’re into the practical spin, Northeastern has a great CS department with a great co-op program. A bit of a reach but they like test scores.
There are a lot of public schools with good CS programs out there you have a decent shot at: UMass Amherst, UW-Madison, UMD-College Park, among others. Most of those would be matches.
Your criteria keep a lot of doors open - these suggestions could probably continue for some time. It may actually be easier to note even slight preferences or your list could be all over the place in terms of the type of schools there are.
Apply to more instate since your weighted GPA is lowish for if and fsu (I think expected GPA is 4.3 at uf and 4.0 at fsu, weighted. Check the Florida system matrix). Look into the honors college and apply to the ‘safety’ whose honors college you like best!
Students I know with similar curriculum rigor and GPA 's got into American , gwu, and Dickinson with merit, may be worth investigating.
Case western, rpi?
I already got into FSU and with merit semi I got direct admission to the honors program. I’m just hoping I can get into UF because that’s one of my top right now. I’m thinking of applying to RPI, UMass, UMD. Thanks for all the help everyone
