Do I have a chance at MIT, CMU, or Stanford? (For CS)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I accidentally cancelled posting the first time I wrote this, so I’m currently rewriting it. (****ing mobile) Nonetheless, here it is:

Last year I was depressed and disengaged in school. My closest friends drifted away from me, I was underchallenged, and my gpa/participation suffered. (~3.3) As a result, I moved to another school. I’ve made more friends, moved on, and have a gpa of ~3.8-4.

That said, I skipped my sophomore year due to how miserably underchallenged I was, moved into 4 AP classes, (I’m in eight core classes, in total) and improved my mental health/anxiety. I’m currently playing varsity tennis, uploading occasional programming videos to YouTube, participating in 4h, (writing some neural networks and trying to win state) working at a local library teaching python to teens and children in our area, and working to find an internship at a company doing programming. Also, my SATs are competitive, but my act is lacking. I retook it, (original was a 27 or 28– I don’t remember) but the scores haven’t arrived in the past four weeks.

This summer, I plan to take another two math classes; (calc bc and linear algebra) however, I’ll also be taking 9 college courses in school next year. My school, unfortunately, offers very few advanced classes, but I’m going to take most of these through local colleges and online systems. (Northwestern’s CTD, as well as some others— I’ve quite enjoyed taking self-paced courses on CTD as I don’t need to do extraneous homework and can move through them quickly)

Thanks for hearing me out! Any advice would be much appreciated and very helpful! Please, though, be honest with me. I’m extremely concerned that my freshmen year and, overall, lackluster gpa will hurt my chances.

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BUMP-- really in need of some advice, here!

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When you say you skipped sophomore year, do you mean you went from 9th grade to 11th? Or that you just didn’t do well that year? Are you going into 12th grade now?
You sound like a smart and hard-working student. Stanford, MIT, and CMU are all big reaches for everyone. It can’t hurt to apply (if you can afford the time and application fee) but I’d strongly recommend spending time developing a list of safeties/targets that you can fall in love with. There are a lot of great schools out there beyond the top 10-20.

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I had no sophomore year because I was fortunate enough to find a school which not only had former friends at it, but also allowed me to take classes of some interest to me! (Currently in Ap calc, Hn chem, Hn English 3, gov and Econ, Ap stats, college writing, Ap us history, and AP Physics 1) My freshman year was/is my only year of high school, thus far; however, my work ethic and organization have improved. Nonetheless, mit has been my dream school since I started doing robotics in 4th grade.

My strengths, from my perspective, would be that I love programming and design, take difficult classes without a struggle, and have some ECs in the area of potential study. I don’t know if I’m competitive, but I really, really, want to get into one of the below:

MIT
Stanford
CMU
UC-Berkeley
Caltech

Please be honest about things— I just need to know what the reality is… I’m not someone with millions of awards as most of my projects are stupid. (Cryptocurrency trading bot, door alarm kit for teaching children stem, neural network-based app for gender recognition, etc.) I also have some YouTube videos talking about how to write code for specific game development tasks in unreal engine 4, but those are from last year. Those seem to be thbe only things which set me apart from other applicants, but my gpa seems… rough. (Also, all of my education has been self-determined and pushed by myself)

Sorry for writing essays to respond to everything. Lol

P.S. yes, I’m currently a junior. I’ll be graduating high school at 16 and next year is my senior year. I should be a sophomore but I skipped that year.

I also want to try for the intel science fair, but I doubt I’ll ever place. Anyhow, is it worth a shot to do that? Will participating and producing a respectable result be beneficial in the context of admissions?

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One last question: does skipping a grade and still doing fine in AP courses improve my outlook when it comes to applications? I’ve always wondered as per whether or not a college might look at that in a negative, positive, or neutral light.

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Bump still looking for more insight given more information and in general…

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With computers, prestige make zero difference. You’re better off staying in-state and keeping the debt to a minimum… Make a list of affordable schools you want to go to, research scholarships, and apply. The ACT scores are going to be too low for the schools you listed. If you’re graduating high school at 16, you’re likely not going to be going away for college anyway, because of the legal issues with being a minor.

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I know a few undergrads at CMU who were 15 or 16 when they started so look at each school for their policy for younger students.

That being said the schools on your list are hard for anyone to get into. Acceptance rates at these schools are 5-8%. UC Berkley had about 20% acceptance for in-state, but I can’t find the out-of-state number. A lot of qualified students do not get accepted at these schools, so you need others on your list. Nothing wrong with applying to a few of these.

Upward trends are good for grades. You need top SAT/ACT and SAT Subject tests to be competitive for these schools without a major hook. MIT and Caltech require Math 2 (750+ for most students who attend). That can be taken in June since it sounds like you’re in pre-calc now. Have you registered for SAT Subject tests yet? Take Math 2 plus whatever AP science you’re in. If you’re considering CS in an engineering program Physics or Chemistry are preferred along with Math.

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Thanks for the advice! So, would you say that I’m at least competitive for these schools? Ideally I’d make it into one, but I’m worried I won’t.

My subject scores should be decent for math and physics as they come very naturally to me; however, I’ll look into study materials. I do plan to retake the sat to try for around 1550-1600, and my act was already retaken (it seemed that I was better this time than last) and should be back son. (Took it about a month ago)

I’m currently working on a 4-H robotics project, Intel science fair project, cryptocurrency trading bot, and some other things. Will those, overall, help me in admissions?

Thanks

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Also, would any of those suffice as a target school, or should I look elsewhere? I think my gpa can be saved, but this year is ~4.0. I may, though, take some classes this summer which may be able to bring it up, further.

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A 3.65 GPA (3.3 + 4.0) is going to be tough for any of those schools. Getting good AP results at a young age is not going to make up for that.

UC-B wont’ look at your grades from Grade 9- but be careful to check out the requirements for applying, and remember that some courses are impacted & will be more competitive.

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Well I might add a few things…

  1. I took less classes last year than this, so my gpa would actually be more like 3.7
  2. What would you suggest, then? I have some ECs relating to CS, a good amount of experience writing code and creating circuits, (all documented) and some good test scores + credits. Do these have much of an effect with applications? Really, right now, the only thing lacking is my gpa, but I can at least get it to a 3.8 with some classes this summer.

Would these schools work as reaches, or would any be able to qualify as target schools?

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Those schools are reaches for students even with perfect GPA and test scores. They will be reaches.

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Okay, so here’s my question: if I apply to all of these schools, what do you think my chances of admission to at least one will be?

Thanks

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The acceptance rate at MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, and CMU (for CS) range from 4 - 8%. These are high reach schools for everyone! Berkeley would be some what less competitive if you are in state, but still a reach. Certainly apply and give it a shot, but have a solid and realistic list of safeties and match schools.

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…you are mathy enough to understand that each college is an independent variable: applying to more of them doesn’t make getting in to any of them any more likely.

Have you read these posts from MIT admissions?

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways

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Yes, I understand that; however, I would like to point out that your terminology is a bit wonky, here. Independence does not suggest what you say that it does. If I flip a coin five times, each flip is independent, but the chance that I’ll have at least one land “tails” is much greater than fifty percent. Despite the fact that colleges are mostly based upon your applications, there will always be slight variance… (I.e essays, gpa vs. sat preferences, etcetera) The question, therefore, was as per whether or not I am ‘close’ to being as competitive as the individuals who are actually admitted to said universities.

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Your approach to learning fits into an independent, research based program. I am going to suggest a school you may never have head of: Olin College @ http://www.olin.edu/. Also a single digit acceptance rate, but this tutorial project approach may be just right for you.

On a less competitive admissions note, check out project based undergraduate research programs at WPI:
@ https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan; and
CS research @ https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/computer-science/research.

You are a very good student but cannot be assured admission in the one percent schools. Olin and WPI specifically look for self-directed researching undergraduates as their entire programs are designed around these activities,

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Thanks for the advice! I’ll also look into the university of Illinois, UCLA, and Cornell. Would Illinois or UCLA work as a target/safety?

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Have you considered any state schools?

UCLA is not a target/safety, in my opinion.