I think as of this (or last) fall, no transfers to CS are allowed. But CS+X majors, from what I heard, receive just as strong foundations in CS, and employers treat these degrees equally.
Sounds good! Thank you so much for this suggestion!!
This is excellent advice- from last years thread it the CS+ majors are about twice as likely to get in. Also I think every one of your matches is a lottery school for CS. CS is the most competitive major to get in these days - the overall admission rates mean nothing in light of this. Iād ask your GC to look at where your schools kids got in for CS - not just in general.
Hmmmā¦ My counselor made the judgements about which schools fit in which area of difficulty, and I thought she was quite reasonable?? She told me Purdue and UIUC are reaches, and was satisfied with the current composition of my list. I will discuss again with her though. Thank you for your suggestions!!
Stanford was not on your list so glad it is a top choice. Not sure what state you are in but UMass Amherst has a great (but competitive) CS program. One of my kids went to Brown for CS and still lives and works with fellow Brown grads: great network, and he got to TA as an undergrad, also had great summer internships starting in the summer after sophomore year. Carnegie Mellon is a good add.
Could you explain a little more about these:
Computational Neuroscience Research @ Harvard: first-authored 2 peer-reviewed papers, co-author on 1 more
Imaging Research @ Penn State: first-authored 1 peer-reviewed paper, profiled by NVIDIA for innovative and creative work
How did you come to do this research and how were you the first author? Who did you work with? Was it a research program for high school students?
Do you have a formal 501(c)3, and did your parents help you with that? Did you have legal help? Be aware that many applicants are foudning non-profits these days.
Personally, if listing on the application, I would leave out the āCEOā and just say āfoundedā the 501(c)3 and the board game organization.
What is FTC where you are āhead of programmingā?
Do you get enough sleep?
I got the Comp. Neuro research position through cold-emailing at the start of 10th grade. This wasnāt a high school research program - I work with undergrad, grad, and postdocs as Iām the only high schooler in the lab. My mentor made me first author because I did all of the work for my projects with little input from others I guess? As the bullet said, Iāve published 2 first-author publications, 1 co-author, and I forgot to mention but 1 first-author and 1 co-author are pending publication.
For my position at Penn State, my mentor recommended I reach out to the profs at Penn State as I had a research proposal she knew they would be interested in. So I worked with them on another project, which was published and profiled by NVIDIA.
My NPO is officially registered as 501(c)(3). My sister and I run the org, so we did all the paperwork regarding that. One of our family friends is involved in law so she guided us through the process as my parents arenāt really involved.
Regarding FTC, itās a robotics competition, and my school has a team that participates in it. Our team has 3 groups (mechanical, programming and outreach), and Iām the head of the programming group. Our team has also been one of the top globally since I came.
I know this may seem like a lot, but I really enjoy all of these activities and Iām not trying to spam for college lol. And yes, I get at least 7 hours of sleep haha.
Well, it certainly seems you are not overstating things! I think your chances are excellent wherever you apply, honestly. Again. maybe took a look at Brown. If you are interested in other academic areas, Brown has a flexible curriculum with no gen eds, allowing for freedom of choice. I know you liked the Columbia CORE but consider schools like Brown, Amherst and Hamilton without gen eds too, if you want to focus classes on genuine interests rather than prescribed/required gen eds.
Glad you are sleeping 
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Thanks!! Do you have suggestions on my college list? Iāve pasted it below.
Reach: HPSM, CMU, Columbia, Penn M&T, UCs (Berkley M.E.T), Columbia, Cornell
Match: GTech, UMich, UT Austin (am OOS for all)
Safety: State flagship, U Waterloo, WPI
My school counselor classified each school as reach, match, and safety for me.
I suggested Brown and gave reasons. Also suggested UMass Amherst but many state schools have good CS. Not sure what your home state isā¦
Iām from NJ.
So Rutgers and maybe NJIT as safeties? Sounds good. Good luck. Keep us updated.
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That depends on what you can afford. If you have to co-sign large amounts of debt to afford tuition, then you canāt afford it. Also, rankings are very deceptive. Most of these āt-20ā schools are east/west coast schools, and the salaries are skewed toward areas with a highly inflated cost of living. In reality, thereās very little advantage to paying the $$ to go there.
In the world of tech, prestige really means nothing. In fact, after 3 years of work experience, employers donāt even ask where you went. Their only concern will be what do you know? And What can you do? I went to a regional state university. Iāve interviewed for Google and Amazon, as well as several fortune 500 companies. Theyāre overrated, in my opinion. Just focus on affordability, and the career will happen.
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Yep.
Luckily I can afford full tuition. I completely agree that prestige is not as important for getting good jobs in tech especially, but just wanted to see my changes at the top schools as theyāre the hardest to get into lol. But if I only get into Rutgers/my other safeties I donāt think itās the end of the world.
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Now, that is a winning attitude!
I wish you well in your application journey. You definitely have a good shot at your reaches, but there are no guarantees. Give it your best shot.
Keep us posted.
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It it hasnāt already turned up in your research, UT Austin has two programs you might be interested in. CSB and Turing both have their benefits.
The turing program is definitely on my radar, hadnāt heard of the CSB program. Thanks!
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