Hey guys
So I am a girl who is interested in majoring in Computer Science. I’m just curious if is an advantage to apply to competitive schools as a CS major and as a female?
Lots of Love,
SmileyDinosaur
Somewhat, yes, but when I’ve seen this really work, it’s been for majors like Classics (the kid, of course, had plenty of experience in Latin and Greek, so she was able to make a good case for herself; nonetheless, she got into an Ivy for which she otherwise appeared pretty firmly underqualified).
Columbia, Cornell, and Penn admit by division at least, so that admission selectivity can vary based on which division the applicant’s intended major is in. With respect to CS in particular, it may be available in more than one division of the school (e.g. Cornell, where CS is offered in both engineering and arts/sciences).
You should be asking a different question. Being female is an advantage for MIT, Mudd, and Olin.
There are a handful of Ivies/equivalents that admit by major/school. @ucbalumnus listed the Ivies that admit by school. Northwestern has different admissions for Music, and admissions to its Theatre major is special, but none of that would likely have much impact on you.
OP, it does help a little. Usually, the girls will begin a CA program with less coding experience than the guys. Grades and test scores tend to be similar.
Some schools, sometimes, may favor a particular overall interest (i.e. STEM vs. Humanities & social sciences) based on how lopsided their student body is. Stanford seems to be an example of this.
Sort of answers your more general qestion
IMO it may provide a very slight nudge in your direction but it won’t get you into any school you are not otherwise qualified to attend. Acceptance rates at the Ivys are generally under 10% and are tons of qualified applicants vying for each slot.
I mean I have a high GPA and above average SAT scores but not extremely high:/
I do MANY extracurriculars and have had two stem related internships. I also have a couple national programming awards and a few local programming competition awards, I did however get a 4 on APCS when I took it sophomore year :/// . What do you guys think. Does this make me a competitive applicant?
For what? For a well-regarded CS program that admits by major like UIUC (and which is now very hard for a non-URM guy to get in to), yes. Also probably for Olin. Possibly for Mudd. Maybe for CMU SCS.
FWIW: All students applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth and Brown are admitted as Liberal Arts majors and choose a major doing their sophomore year.
As more than 60% of US college students switch majors during their 4 years of school, it’s impossible for an Admissions Office admitting students as Liberal Arts majors to use an applicant’s “intended major” as a recruiting tool, as most students will graduate with a major different from the one they wrote down on the Common Application.
Colleges ask about your “intended major” to see how committed you are to your interests – the idea being that your commitment, energy and drive is a transferrable skill. So whatever student’s write down as their “intended major” they should make sure they have documented evidence in the rest of their application of their commitment to that intended major. If you’re applying to a college with an “intended major” of Computer Science, you should also think about creating a website to display your CS skills in Java, Python, SQL etc by posting examples of games or aps you have created or designed.
If you are referring to colleges in general, some do admit liberal arts students by major. See here for an example at a moderately selective public university, where admission thresholds are determined by number of applicants to each major versus the departmental capacity of the major:
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/index.html
(Note: the eligibility index numbers = GPA * 800 + SATCR + SATM.)
For example, English and physics are less selective than psychology or biology. Even more selective are computer science and animation/illustration.
Obviously, at such a school, changing major later is not automatically granted, but dependent on available capacity.
^^ I was specifically referring to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth and Brown as the OP had asked about Ivy League schools and another poster mentioned that Columbia, Cornell and Penn admit students by interests/major.
So where it matters, a girl planning to double major CS and Sculpture, with demonstrated history in both areas, would better be applying to tech schools or CS majors?
I think many schools are overwhelmed with prospective CS majors. However, being a girl probably helps somewhat as I like to think that they care not just about overall diversity on campus but also diversity within classes. But I would not count on it helping that much–I think it’s a fairly small advantage at gender-balanced campuses.
At many techy schools I think being female is an advantage in admissions, just as being male is an advantage at many LACs. Many of those schools are trying to get a gender ratio on campus that is more even than their applicant pool, which is not something most other top schools have to worry much about.
I don’t think it’s true that liberal arts schools pay no attention to intended major just because many students will switch. I think they have a pretty good idea of the patterns of switching that tend occur, and they have motivation to populate their Classics department as well as their CS department. But they probably need students who studied latin with some enthusiasm in high school for that.
Remember that if the school admits by major, a student who enrolls and then tries to change into a popular major may find it very difficult. S/he may need to have a high college GPA and/or face a competitive admission process.
The student should check each school to see if the intended major is overenrolled and whether s/he can apply directly to the major as frosh.
Thanks. It seems tech schools generally don’t have sculpture programs anyway, except MIT that has one that is sort of.
http://act.mit.edu/academic-program/courses/fall-2016/4-3223-introduction-to-three-dimensional-art-work-2/
BTW, am I the only one who thinks that Latin may become a popular foreign language again? 
The problem I see is that top schools will be getting applications from a fair number of students with significant CS achievements, since this is an area that is more accessible than most endeavors to middle and high school students. If you don’t have the test scores to be competitive with that school’s applicant pool, I would not count on being female to give you such a boost that they will overlook your scores. They have to consider that you might want to switch majors and are you qualified for those majors? This may be less of an issue at tech schools.
@gibby on the Harvard application, it asks the applicant to rate their commitment to their intended major and career path. If I show that I am completely committed to concentrating in Computer Science, do you think this will improve my chances?
I plan on submitting a poster I made this summer from my internship that was in line with CS and engineering, as well as a letter from my mentor. My AP Computer Science teacher is also writing my recommendation letter. He has known me for two years and watched me grow, from B+ student to programming competition achievements.