<p>Well, here goes. I think I should mention I'm instate, which I assume helps a LOT. Anyway, Im a white male (Ive heard being male helps, due to lower male-female ratio, but not sure).</p>
<p>2130 SAT (670 reading, 790 math, 670 writing, does anyone know if disparity is a good or bad thing, since my preconceived major is math related {computer science}). </p>
<p>4.6 weighted gpa
3.8 unweighted gpa
Umm...lets just say lackluster ECs.
Im going to assume great recommendations, as my AP teachers will undoubtedly write some great ones.
5 AP classes in 4 years. Will find out APUSH and AP lang scores very soon. I made a 5 in AP stats, only confirmed score, though I suspect a 5 in APUSH and a 4-5ish in AP lang. I think I will make a 5 for sure in AP Calc (has a great 5 percentage), and since I love history, I think I have a good shot at a 5 in AP Euro next year.
Top 10% confirmed, but unsure of rank otherwise (I was a junior marshal)</p>
<p>Anyway, what do you think my chances are? I want to say I have solid chances, but my ECs and quite unspectacular. In other words, I have NONE. Yea. Didn't really plan ahead. I do plan on joining atleast a few my senior year, but otherwise, I am frankly totally dependent on academic performance. </p>
<p>College chancing websites unviersally say my chances are in the 90%+ range, but those of course only take academics into account, whereas my ECs are far from astounding. </p>
<p>Anyone care to give me an estimate? Should I retake the SAT (also considering duke and wake forest btw, but UNC has the best Comp sci department)? </p>
<p>Thx</p>
<p>Bump.</p>
<p>Sorry to be a bother. I literally didnt pay college a single thought until the middle of my junior year, and then everything started moving fast. I know thats no excuse for not having a single EC, but do I have a decent chance at getting in due to my academics? </p>
<p>Could you also tell me if I have a considerable chance at Wake Forest, Davidson, and Duke?</p>
<p>UNC is my #1 pick for CS however. Both my parents want me to go to App, but their CS department isnt very strong and I feel like I need to be a little more independent, since Im drastically oversheltered.</p>
<p>You are a good candidate with your grades and scores. With the selectivity of UNC, predicting chances is pretty hard for anyone, but you should apply.
As far as EC’s go, I’m not sure it would look sincere to suddenly join a bunch in your senior year for a college application, but if some fit you, then join them. The Common App asks you to list your top activities, the time you spend in them and what grade. Think seriously about how you spend your spare time. What are your hobbies? You don’t have to be a club person. Do you spend time learning about computers- programming languages- or anything related? Have you done any volunteer work? You love history- do you do anything with that in your spare time- like reading about certain topics?
If not, there is still time in the summer to start now. Look at any of the non profits in your area. Join something that has meaning to you. If your interests are all computer related, think about how to use them to help others. If your library has computers, maybe you can volunteer to help people who are not good at them use them. Maybe you can help elderly people in nursing homes e mail their grandkids or skype with them. Have you had a job? Once you find something, continue it through the school year.</p>
<p>Your scores are good but I don’t know of they’ll get you in without the ECs. Colleges are looking more and more at what kids do outside of academics so to have absolutely nothing is pretty bad. No offense, just being realistic. If you’ve worked a lot then I think that would help, but otherwise I don’t know. I would say you might still have a shot at UNC, but probably not the other schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>Personally, my test scores were about the same as yours but I have a ton of ECs, leadership and research experience. I am going to chapel hill now, but I know a ton of my friends had better test scores and class ranks than I did and they were rejected because I had serious ECs.</p>
<p>^ The EC part is important, but I don’t know the value of adding school clubs and activities at this point just for the sake of the college application. Adding a few activities that reflect the OP’s interest might. I’m hoping that the OP has been doing some "EC’s " if not the traditional ones- such as hobbies or a job that reflects his interests.</p>
<p>Oh I totally agree. At this point colleges will know it’s just for show if they join a bunch of clubs.</p>
<p>I love animals as well, and I’m hopefully going to work at the humane society a bit this summer. Will that help? Should I retake the sat? In my spare time, I largely play A Lot of video games, but I’m not sure “650 hours in battlefield 3 with a 2.3kdr” will look good on an application.</p>
<p>Sorry for use double post. Anyway, does AIG and junior marshal Count as ECs? I was a member of both. Thanks</p>
<p>Not sure what AIG is but junior Marshall does not.
I’d say it would be very hard to get in without ECs, but maybe try to take a unique explanation in one of your essays as to why. Good luck!</p>
<p>Doing something you are passionate about is good, because you are doing it for you, not just the application. Yes to the humane society. Volunteer as much as you can and through the school year. See if there are any opportunities to expand on this in a leadership position. Is there a club at school that relates to this? If so, get involved. If not, maybe something going.
To volunteer at a humane society shelter you need to first take some kind of orientation classes. Many are posted on the website, but better to just go, talk to them face to face and ask what you can do and how. Once you are trained, you can put in as many hours as you like as there are more animals that need a loving human to play with, walk, feed, than there are volunteers. There is always a need for food and supplies donated, and you could show leadership by organizing a donation through your school, friends, family, church. You might be able to integrate this interest by donating your computer skills by helping them update the website, create e mails, interface with social media.
I would bet most CS majors are gamers. No, it isn’t an EC, but stating this somewhere as an interest is understandable. You will include why you chose your major somewhere on your application. I don’t know about the new essays on the Common App (UNC uses this) but the old one had a short answer where you describe one- usually your most important- EC.
It is probably not a good thing to not have had EC’s before, but you still have a chance to develop your interests- not just for college but for you. Don’t work just a bit- get involved. It may open some new worlds and ideas for you.
One decision you will need to make is when to apply to UNC. Early action is probably the better chance for applicants statistically, but without EC’s, it may not be your best foot forward. Applying RD may give you more time to get involved. Get involved now, and decide that when school starts. Look at the essay prompts on the Common App and think about what you would write.
Also know that UNC may, or may not, look favorably at an application without some EC’s. You don’t know, but it’s worth applying and putting your best foot forward- but don’t put all hopes on one place. There are other NC schools with good CS departments such as NCSU and UNCCH. Apply to several.</p>
<p>Are you classes marked AIG? If so, it will be on your transcript. Junior Marshall is an honor, special recognition, or award. There is a section on the application for honors and awards where you will indicate this.
Make a list of everything. Are you in Beta Club? a high school honor society? Did you get any recognition- honor roll? Do you do anything related to a religion such as a youth group?</p>
<p>In elementary school there was an AIG “program” where we got out of a class period once a week to supposedly learn things only suitable for the intelligent. It was a load of crap and I cant remember it at all. Ive been on honor roll all 3 years in high school so far. </p>
<p>As far as other colleges, I would really not prefer to go to NC state. It has a game design program, but I hate the environment. Wake Forest is weak in CS. App state is close to home but weak in CS as well. Not sure where I would like to go if I cant get into duke or UNC</p>
<p>College applications include activities from grade 9 on up, so anything before that isn’t included. If it is a lifelong interest that started when you were young, this can be part of an essay. AIG won’t be included. Honors classes will be on the transcript.
Duke’s acceptance rate is <10% and UNC is hard to get into. The risk of not wanting/applying to other schools is that you may end up not getting accepted anywhere, or not being happy with where you are accepted. It’s true that some programs are stronger than others, but keeping an open mind and expanding your options is crucial, especially if there is a weakness like few to no EC’s. The most highly selective colleges can pick who they want out of a pool of more qualified applicants than they have room for.
UNC Charlotte has a CS major and a game design certificate. If you want a smaller more supportive environment, seriously consider Elon. The stregnths are in the small classes, personal advising, and internship opportunities there- many in larger cities. You might qualify for their fellows program. Look beyond rankings and how each college suits you. Even with perfect academics and stellar EC’s, being interested in mainly Duke and UNC is a risky road. Not too far down the road from western NC is Clemson, which is more rural than Raleigh. You might qualify for their honors college which would give you more of a small college environment. However, NCSU’s location is great for internships and IBM is nearby, so you may want to apply there and spend some time learning about it before you decide.</p>
<p>Clemson is about the size of UNC and App, and smaller than NCSU. According to their website, with your grades and scores you would qualify for the honors college and a merit scholarship. For CS, you will have to decide how it suits you. By car, it’s about 3 1/2 hours from Boone compared to UNC which is about 2h 45 minutes by Google maps. That’s not much of a difference. It may be a possibility.</p>
<p>Penny, you’re being way more helpful than I expected anyone would be when I posted this topic. Thanks. </p>
<p>Many of my classmates thought it was silly of me to take the sat again when I had scored a 2000,knowing I wanted to get into unc. I’m thinking I had very little chance at all then, and still not an incredible chance now. I’m actually thinking if I don’t get into wake forest, duke, or unc, I may have to go to app. It’s a great school, no doubt, but I want something that specializes in computer science so I may get a quality education. I am very over sheltered. I know for a fact that if I don’t have a significant reason to go to a school other than app, I won’t be able to (without parental support, that is). Since those other schools don’t hold much prestige over app, and my dad is convinced asu has a wonderful cs program due to the claims of the website, I highly doubt I’ll go over to Charlotte or so. </p>
<p>What about davidson? I know it’s highly prestigious, if cs decent over there? It’s fairly close as well.</p>
<p>The other schools may have more weight in the CS world than App. (I’m not in the field, but that’s a good question to ask here on CC in another section about which of your schools are good for CS) If you look at grad school rankings for CS ( hard to get undergrad) NCSU is #47 and UNC is #20, Clemson is #79, UNC Charlotte is #99. But rankings and prestige don’t tell the whole story. Many small undergrad programs offer personal attention, faculty as instructors, and a supportive environment. The stronger grad CS programs are at large state institutions. Honors programs can make large schools smaller.
Prestige does count, but it doesn’t say everything as some colleges are stronger than others at different things. App has an excellent music school for example. Large state colleges with a STEM focus like NCSU, Clemson, Virginia Tech are very strong in STEM areas, maybe not so strong at some humanities. Duke, UNC are strong in most everything.
Websites are a start but not the whole picture of a school.
Add Davidson if you wish, but like Wake, Duke, UNC, it is highly selective, and App is a good school but less selective. The other choices are in between these two groups in selectivity, but they may be good opportunities for CS- NCSU, UNC-Charlotte, Elon, Clemson, and even Furman if you want small. Without them, you have high reach schools or App on your list. It is important to respect your parent’s wishes. App may be the best choice for your family and if it is, you will be fine there, but if you are interested in looking at other schools, perhaps your parents may be willing to take some road trips with you to visit some of them and see what they are like.</p>
<p>Trust me, I want to avoid app at all costs. Mainly the environment. It seems like the only guys who go there go to play sports and football, and I abhor sports in general. Unc Is obviously popular in sports as well, but you generally need strong academic performance to get in as well. Anyway, what I mean is that I believe the only way I can convince my parents to let me go more than an hour away for college is if the school really excels in a field and cam generously be of use on a resume or so. Otherwise, it’s app. I may look at Nc state a bit more, since it is high in cs and offers an actual game design program (which is originally what I wanted to do, but since the industry is a bit hard to be successful in, I went more broad onto cs). Do you think it’s worth it to retake the sat one more time? I got 2000 the first time, 2130 the second time. My writing score decreased by 40 points the second time, but math went up 140 to 790. I think I could retain a great math score and get writing back up with a little more section specific practice.</p>
<p>If you are willing to prepare for it- study what questions you missed and practice- then many state schools are fine with you taking it multiple times. Duke and Davidson may not be, but the chance of admissions there is so slim, it’s not worth not trying to do better if you want to. Your math is excellent. Verbal and writing are sometimes harder to improve, but for schools that only look at the highest scores ( almost all of them on your list) you have nothing really to lose by trying. However, time and cost are also to be considered, and you should spend time developing outside interests and not just focus on taking the test too many times. Some programs may require or wish to see SAT subject tests. Best to check with their admissions.
Which also raises the issue of “fit”. You seem to have specific focuses- history, math, computers, and you are good in them. Schools like UNC have plenty of applicants. They can select for a broad range of students- athletes, musicians, and so on. Other schools do too, but a school like NCSU is actually composed of 12 different schools and you apply to one of them. CS is part of the engineering school- which is a very competitive program. EC’s still count, but this school is concerned with academic aptitude of the student for the rigor of the program. They will look favorably at your focus on math and computers and less at the fact that you have few EC’s. It is still good to do some community service like the humane society. UNC may be higher ranked as a school overall, but admissions to the different NCSU schools varies. The engineering school is highly selective. In addition, you would be among students in this school who are similar to you. Clemson CS has much to offer too, and the honors college is a nice option. The average student in honors has a combined math+verbal SAT of 1400. You don’t get much more selective than that. Both Clemson and NCSU have honors housing where you live with other honors students. Applying by the earliest deadlines to these schools will increase your chances of admission and is mandatory for considerationfor any merit aid, which you would be eligible at Clemson and possibly others. Study their websites. ED to Duke is binding- not the best way to apply unless you are 100% committed already, and I don’t know which is best for UNC.
Every school is going to have some partiers. The schools that fit you should also have a niche for your interests.
Your parents may have other concerns about you being far from home, since you state you are sheltered. They may want you to live at home and may be concerned about costs. Now is the time to have a frank discussion about any concerns they have. Ask them if they are willing to visit these schools with you and to see them for themselves.</p>
<p>trust me, cost isnt a worry when it comes to college. We’ve been saving money for literally 2 decades, and the college fund is more than enough, even for a school like duke. Its the fact Ill be away from home that scares them. I had no idea about the honors in Clemson and such, thanks for that info. </p>
<p>Do you know if ED at UNC is binding? I thought my mom said it was as well as duke, but I could be wrong.</p>
<p>They’re pretty annoyed that I actually want to go to another school than App. When I got my SAT scores, they started to get worried, knowing that I could get into a school better than App. Anyway, they arent exactly super willing to let me see other campuses right now (they say theres no point since I may not get accepted), but Im sure ill eventually be able to visit and see which school just looks best.</p>
<p>In general- Early Decision is binding, and Early Action is not, but read every application carefully to see what you are agreeing to. As far as I know, UNC only has Early Action.</p>