Current rising senior looking to get his chances for CS at T20s

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities)
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Competitive Private
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): ORM
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):

Intended Major(s)
CS

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.88
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank: At least first quintile, school only reports quintiles to colleges
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
School doesn’t do AP curriculum, other than that took hardest classes possible. Took AP CS in 10th grade and got a 5.

Awards
ISEF Finalist
FTC Dean’s List Finalist
Congressional Gold Award
Eagle Scout
USACO Gold
FTC Team top 20 worldwide w/ top 5 autonomous
VEX Team top 100 worldwide

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Computational Neuroscience Research @ Harvard: first-authored 2 peer-reviewed papers, co-author on 1 more
  2. CEO of 501(c)(3) to advocate for diversity in STEM: raised 15K, served 1200+ through 20 events, partnered with White House, Google, Amazon, etc.
  3. CEO of org where my sister and I created a board game to introduce ppl to the field of technology. Raised 3K through kickstarter to bring the product to life and got over 70 pre orders. Manufacturing 500+ games and am distributing them to over 200 schools and libraries all over the world, reaching 350K ppl.
  4. FTC: Head of programming
  5. Imaging Research @ Penn State: first-authored 1 peer-reviewed paper, profiled by NVIDIA for innovative and creative work
  6. Scouts BSA: Was Senior Patrol Leader for 1 year, led 65 scouts, led troop to journey for excellence gold award
  7. Computing Club: President of Group (25+ members) where we help build websites for other clubs at school. Partnered with school IT department.
  8. Student Rep for school committee: one of 4 students representing my grade, work with faculty [don’t want to describe too much]
  9. Student Rep for another school committee: one of 15 students representing my grade, partner with administration [don’t want to describe too much]
  10. CS Tutoring - Taught 50 students through various coding camps in town, also private tutored 20 students, earned 5K.

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Essays: at least 9/10
LORs: Harvard Prof (10/10), CS Teacher (9/10), History Teacher (7-8/10)

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
No Aid fortunately.

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability): State Flagship, U Waterloo
  • Match: G Tech, U Mich, UT Austin
  • Reach: HYPSM, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Harvey Mudd

All of these categories were made by my school counselor.

2

Where is your state residence?

What is your budget? Schools like MIT and Ivies will be $80k/year without FA.

What is your class rank?

Your stats are very good but CS is hyper competitive.

Your matches are reaches. OOS acceptance at GT was 13% and they all have high stats.

You might get into a few of these schools or none. If you’re ok with your safety that’s where you might end up. I would try to balance this list a little more. Not sure about Waterloo being a safety. You’re an international unless you also have Canadian citizenship. Someone with more experience might chime in.

Why HYPSM? Other than prestige some of the Ivies aren’t known for CS. Cornell and Columbia I get.

What type of experience are you looking for?

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I would normally say that to most high stat applicants, but OP has exceptional ECs which need to be factored in. I believe OP’s chances are quite a bit better than average. But of course, reaches are reaches.

Agreed, except I’d substitute UPenn for Columbia.

@tt377 why not look at the top CS schools instead of just the USNWR “best national universities” - many of which are not that good for CS?

Of course, in addition to any “top” schools have some likely and safety schools.

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Agree to a point. Good EC’s plus USACO Gold might be a little bump. I hinted that he might be accepted at a few but also could be shut out. It’s possible. You’re still looking at schools with acceptances less than 20%. Some less than 10%. I just can’t call a school a target with rates that low.

Regardless, OP needs to find a few more safeties/matches.

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Thanks all for your feedback!! Regarding finding more safeties and matches, I completely understand what your saying - but my school counselor told me which schools were targets, safeties, and reaches for me. I would say she is reasonable with her assessments - she told me purdue and UIUC are reaches for me.

I will be applying to HPSM as of now, which have great CS programs according to my research. Doing my research has me interested in computational neuroscience program, which H, S, and M have. I like Columbia b/c of the core curriculum, I don’t just want to take STEM classes in college, and Columbia’s core is world-class. I also have CMU as a reach, forgot to list that in my post.

Would love to get your thoughts on this!

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That’s a fine list of top schools, and do apply. But why not also put in a few apps to some of the “top 20 best CS colleges”?

Once you look past “Ivy prestige” there are some excellent choices in that later list that you might really like. And it’s good to have additional acceptances in hand to choose from.

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Any suggestions?

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You’d need to research fit, but GTech, UIUC, UMD and Purdue come to mind. I’d have said UMich too but you’re very likely to be deferred/waitlisted by them based on your profile.

Have you seen this aggregate list of CS rankings? (Caveat: all rankings are subjective and they should not be the sole factor in picking colleges).

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Thanks! Why do you think I’d be deferred from UMich? Not trying to sound arrogant, just want to soak up as much information as possible.

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Because they’re going to look at your stats and ECs and think “this is a kid who’s looking to get into an Ivy/HYPMS and is using us as a safety”.

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I can use GT as an example from my S20’s experience. Probably a dozen kids applied from his HS. I think 8 rejected EA, 3 accepted EA and son was deferred. My son was admitted RD. He said there was no rhyme or reason based on stats. Several NMSF types were rejected.

GT takes a holistic approach. Essays matter. Personally, I think that got my son admitted. It was really the only essay of his that I liked. I also think they deferred him because he applied for business and they figured he would be looking at NYU, Wharton, etc. He wrote a well crafted LOCI why he wanted GT.

FYI, one of his friends that was admitted chose GT CS over Michigan CS. His stats were pretty much identical to yours. But that was three years ago and acceptance rates have gone from 22% to 13%.

I think you’ll have a few acceptances but there’s no guarantee with the list you’ve crafted. Every year in April there’s a “I didn’t get into any schools” thread.

Where do kids with your stats typically go from your high school? Is it a feeder to top 20 schools?

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Everyone in the first quintile usually gets into T20s from my school. My school counselor said that my stats are competitive for any school on my list. Until today, I wasn’t aware that my list may be too top heavy. My counselor stressed that I should have enough safeties and targets on my list, and was satisfied with the list I’ve described in this thread.

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You will be a very strong candidate for any school where you apply But, as others have said, those schools admit very small percentages of their applicants, almost all of whom are very qualified.

Would you be happy attending your state flagship or U. of Waterloo? If so, that’s great. If not, you need different safeties.

I also am not entirely sure about your rationale on the reach schools selected. In doing a little internet searching on computational neuroscience I saw more references to Brown, Dartmouth, and NYU than Yale and Princeton. Be that as it may, I’m going to throw out a couple of other possibilities for you to think about:

U. of Chicago: Another reach school, but if you like the core curriculum of Columbia, that U. of Chicago should be right up your alley. Plus they also have a department studying computational neuroscience. And, I have heard, that U. of Chicago tends to really like applicants from known strong high schools, which I suspect you attend which might make it less reach-y than some others.

U. of Illinois: One of the top CS programs in the country and with a number of faculty working in computational neuroscience.

Also consider U. Pitt and U. Delaware, and Washington State as other possible safeties.

Best of luck to you!

ETA: Just saw your latest post. If your high school’s trend of everyone in the top quintile going to Top 20s continued last year, then trust your guidance counselor’s advice.

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I wouldn’t be that sure about that, especially UT Austin. The type of connections that private high schools on the East Coast have with the colleges on your reach list don’t always work with public universities, especially ones that have a very strong commitment to in-state population. While your counselor knows what he’s saying, remember that admissions to these colleges is strongly affected by policies and processes going on in the state legislatures of these states. So his advice regarding public universities in the Midwest and the Southeast may not be as good as his advice regarding private colleges in the NE and West Coast.

Also, admissions to CS at these colleges is far more competitive than admissions to other majors…

I would second a recommendation that you look at UIUC. Although admissions to CS is very competitive there as well, the do not have a preference for in-state applicants. They also have a top neuroscience institute as well.

Finally, your list of reaches is all over the place. UPenn is a very different place from Cornell, and there is very little similarity between these two and Harvey Mudd.

You should not be applying to colleges because of their “prestige” or “Eliteness”, but because they are the ones which best match who you are and what you want. Look closely at each and at your other selections, and see where you would be happy to attend.

Your list, from the safest safety to the reachiest reach should consist solely of colleges where you feel that you would be able to succeed and thrive. Nothing else is important. The least important thing in your future is what your school friends, teachers, etc, think about the college you choose to attend.

Harvard’s CS program is good, but not as good as any of the three matches you have, as well as a bunch of other colleges, like U Washington, UIUC, and more. Of the Ivies, it is Cornell, first and foremost, then perhaps Columbia, Princeton if you like theory, and UPenn if you want to add business.

Seriously - in your case, I would tell you to drop UPenn, Harvard, Princeton, and maybe Columbia. CMU is a good choice

My wife has been CS faculty for a couple of decades, is very involved in CS education, and is pretty familiar with the reputations of different colleges for undergraduate teaching. So this is close to first-hand knowledge.

While I would have, in the past, recommended that you look at Berkeley, I would not do it now, since their undergraduate program is having some serious issues of overcrowding in classes.

However, most importantly - again, what do you want, or more importantly, what do you need to succeed and thrive in college?

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I have UIUC on my list as well as a reach. I’ve kept Harvard on my list because of the connections I have through my research lab. Regarding UPenn, I’m interested in their M&T dual-degree program which gives you a degree in Engineering and Business, as it would prepare me for some sort of entrepreneurship in the future. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll apply to Princeton and Columbia as well. Will look into UWash for sure. Thank you so much!!

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Thanks for your suggestions!! I’m happy with my state flagship and UWaterloo as safeties, but I think it would not hurt to maybe add some more as my demographic is highly competitive. Is Washington State the same as Washington, which some other people were mentioning I look into on this thread?

On another note, the trend of mostly everyone in the top quintile going to Top 20s did continue last year to my knowledge.

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For UIUC, also consider their CS+X majors, which are still competitive but less so than just CS.

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If you are interested in a liberal arts curriculum to supplement the CS classes, I’d recommend Stanford. Stanford does not have a core but requires 11 quarterly classes in areas from Social Inquiry, Ethical Reasoning, Aesthetic and Interpretative Inquiry, etc + 3 writing classes. You can choose these classes from a very long list of offerings and the quality of teaching is excellent. My son loves the flexibility to choose the classes that fit his interests which are in Psychology and Philosophy. He is a CS major.
Good luck with your application! As the others said, have safeties and discuss the costs with your parents.

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Thanks for this suggestion!! If I were to be to their CS+X major, would it be possible to transfer to just straight CS if I wanted?

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Yeah!! Stanford is one of my top choices.