<p>I'm copying this fromn a previous post, so if it looks familiar that's why.</p>
<p>Class of 2012
Male Uzbek/Russian living in Georgia, USA (I've heard that this might give me minority status?)
Very strong public school (send around 30 kids to top-20's every year.)
3.56 UW GPA
Class rank around 25% (abysmal, I know)
Will have taken 12 AP classes by graduation.
SAT 800 W 720 M 680 CR
Superscored SAT of 2200
31 on the ACT
Have not taken any SAT 2's but plan on taking Math 2, Biology, and 1 other (not decided yet.)
EC's:
Volunteer Club (4 years)
FBLA (2 years)
Secular Student Alliance (2 years; President; the only chapter in Georgia)
History Club (2 years)
Democrats Club (2 years)
1st Place winner in the state of the Math Kangaroo Competition (Participated for 4 years)
Played the saxophone for 5 years (won a recital award)
Published in school literary magazine
Newspaper staff (1 year)
Played baseball for 5 years
Volunteered as a counselor at a writing camp for little kids this summer.
Volunteer at a writing lab at our school year round (editing essays, etc.)
Tutored kids in math, writing, SAT prep, etc. for the past 3 years.
Attended a CNN Leadership/Media Camp at Georgia Tech for a week.</p>
<p>Writing is my strength, so I predict that my essays will be the strongest point of my application. I have a really good piece about perseverance that tells the story of how i've gone from being cut from 11 baseball teams throughout my life to gaining an 85 mph fastball and some college recruiting interest.</p>
<p>My recommendations should be pretty good as well as I have pretty good relationships with all of my past teachers. </p>
<p>Here's the thing, I've recently become very interested in computer science (I'm reading several textbooks on the subject, studying various programming languages, following the online lecture course on MIT OpenCourseWare, etc) and am seriously considering majoring in it in college. However, my lowest grades have been in math, and while I know there is much more to CS than just math, I'm afraid that colleges might not like that. It's not that I'm not capable (as I think my SAT and first-place victory in the math competition show), its just that, well, I've been a little lazy when it comes to academics in high school *gasp. I know that's just about the worst thing in a college application, so what do I do? Where should I be aiming?</p>
<p>Thank you. </p>
<p>Also, what other schools do you think would be good for me to apply to?</p>
<p>Nice extracirrulars. I you get techer reqs. and write good essays I feel like you have a good chance. Your story of being cut from baseball teams, to developing a 85mph fastball might be a good essay topic. </p>
<p>As a person interested in CS, I would apply to Georgia Tech and other engineering/tech. oriented schools. I don’t know why you wanna apply here (it doesn’t even make a reasonable safety for your interests). Everything looks good though except GPA so show some progress in that area w/challenging courses next year. Also, you don’t need to go to a top 20, especially for CS. You just need a good school w/a good program for it. Also, yes, when you get to such a school, you will have to work much harder. W/the level of effort you claim to be putting out now, you’d be lucky to get a 3.0-3.2 at one of these schools. These are my only criticisms (moreso general). I have no ways to improve you application. Looks strong in most places to me and I can’t predict admissions success. You will simply have to apply and find out. </p>
<p>I really must ask: Why Emory? Other than it being a top 20, why? Doesn’t seem to make much sense unless you want the liberal arts oriented curriculum and what it has to offer. Seriously, why would you apply here either ED 1 or ED II?</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts. I’m applying to Georgia Tech as well. In fact, it looks like the best match for me because of the CS program and in-state tuition. However, my apprehensiveness regarding GT (and other engineering schools) is the lack of an intellectual atmosphere. Obviously this isn’t true at places like MIT but they are well out of my reach.
This is why I like Emory. Although I would be able to study CS like I want, I wouldn’t have my education restrained to an engineer’s perspective. I’ve been to Emory many times (my parents work at CDC and my cousin got his orgo degree there) and I really like the atmosphere as well. Perhaps this isn’t a very rational argument, but I’m just a little scared regarding the whole college process. I don’t want to make the wrong choice. Maybe it would be better to go RD?</p>
<p>Is that really a difference you noticed when visiting both campuses? I’d honestly like an example of what you liked about the atmosphere (based upon your own observation) here as opposed to Tech/engineering schools (I hope your assessment isn’t based on stereotypes).</p>
<p>That’s what I was thinking, RD. Georgia Tech is very intellectual perhaps in more ways than we are, as they are constantly problem solving and thinking about interesting topics outside of class. I suppose that one way Emory is more intellectual is the fact that there are a wider array of disciplines represented on campus which spices things up (admittedly, the emphasis on multiculturalism and interdisciplinary work also probably adds a lot). So you might have several people who are say, Neuroscience and music majors (know many) or Music majors that are or plan to do the dual degree program at Georgia Tech. We certainly have more academic diversity and the arts probably have a larger scene here, but I wouldn’t say it fosters more intellectualism than Georgia Tech, at least not in the sense I think of, perhaps we are merely more “diverse”/“interesting” in terms of a social scene. I suppose if you really like it though, you can apply ED and if worse comes to worse in terms of the course variety in CS, you can co-enroll at Tech to take a class or 2. Couldn’t hurt. Really depends on your interests. If you want to pick up an additional major/concentration or like interacting w/such students, I guess Emory is a good place to come.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, if any thing the type of intellectualism is different. They are more likely to build a robot or something, whereas we start service projects, clubs and various types of organizations (I suppose many start businesses as well).</p>
<p>When visiting Ga.Tech I got the vibe from many of the students that they were overworked and solely focused on their schoolwork, whereas at Emory it was a much more “artsy-philosophical” feel that I tend to associate with intellectualism (I apologize for my pretentiousness.) </p>
<p>I’m all for the robot-building-technology side of things but I’d still like to experience the cultural depth that comes with students that are interested in the arts and music. Otherwise I’d feel like there would be a side of me that wouldn’t develop fully. Tell me, based on your impressions of the GT students you know (I assume that you know a few since you go to Emory) would you say that they are somewhat balanced in their perceptions of life or is it all engineering/math/science all of the time? Thanks.</p>
<p>As cool as they are, I must admit that it’s nearly all engineering/math/science all the time (again, one may discuss/display interest in something not having to do w/their major when outside of class. Tech students do seem somewhat lopsided). It would be much different for those in Ivan Allen college of liberal arts or say, psychology, but it seems that besides the 1-3 science courses they must take and perhaps living arrangements, they are somewhat separate from everyone else. Emory being a liberal arts college (and yes, sciences the way we do them, count as a liberal art. I notice that Tech has a completely different approach to the natural sciences than we do. Critical thinking, “outside the box” is bigger here. Both are difficult, but they require different capacities) with more stringent gen. ed requirements for everyone, thus forcing some type of interaction w/those of completely different interests. Outside of one English and history course at Tech, there need not be much interaction between science and non-science students, and I notice that this is often the case. </p>
<p>The stereotype about them solely focusing on school work is not really true. I find that stereotype over-rated. While you might be right about the differing intellectual and social vibe you get from here, some of the same students are still stressed or overworked. I guess we just tend to involve ourselves in a greater variety of interests to get away from it. Also, there is plenty to do on Tech’s campus. Look at the gym and student center for example (Also Tech Square and the fact that you’re in mid-town). Superior to ours (though ours are much better than our size and purpose requires). I suppose if you’re into the outdoors, we have much more green space (more trees and forest areas) and things of that nature on top of various events held throughout the year (admittedly, these, despite our lack of sports (another selling point for Tech, big sports enhance the scene) and stuff, still managed to be more diverse in scope and perhaps better for more “culturally oriented” students.</p>
<p>I see. I suppose that I just need to let time pass a little and see how my perceptions of things change. Of course, this discussion is all speculative since I’ve yet to be admitted to any school. </p>
<p>On that subject, do you know of any schools that you think would be good for me to apply to given the somewhat better understanding you have of me?</p>
<p>Once again, thank you. I appreciate all of your thoughtful advice.</p>
<p>What about Brown, Chicago, somewhere like that. They are bound to have decent CS and engineering programs (okay, Chicago doesn’t have engineering, but excels at math which is telling) and great academic diversity and intellectualism. Perhaps Cornell or Vanderbilt (has good engineering, so I would expect a decent-good CS, even if not like CMU or Tech, it should be much better than ours). Any peer w/strong math/science and other great non-science population/offerings will seem to suit you. Just do some more research. Maybe look into other publics like UNC, Purdue, or UVa as well.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll look into it. Assuming that UGA is a safety for me and GT is a match/low reach I think that most of my RD’s should be reaches, like the ones you posted. Does this make sense?</p>
<p>There is a 3/2 program in engineering. It’s 3 years at Emory, then 2 years at Georgia Tech. You enter Enmory as a freshman, take the engineering prerequisites and then apply to transfer to GT. You graduate with degrees from Emory AND GT.</p>
<p>Also, Emory and GT have a joint program in Biomedical Engineering.</p>
