<p>Complicating it is that I want to apply to CS at Carnegie Mellon and thus have to tell my reccomenders it’s one of my interests.</p>
<p>More than 60% of students entering college change their major during their 4 years of school. So, colleges ask about your intended major to get more of a sense about you, but seldom recruit by the intended major – except when you are applying to a specialized school. For example, Wharton is specifically looking for students interested in business, likewise with RISD etc. So be honest, IMHO. write down what you are interested in pursuing. Tell your recommenders and interviewers the same thing. FWIW: My son entered college thinking he wanted Compsci and started down that track, but after spending a year and half writing code in a darkened basement, he was bored out of his mind. So, he switched to psychology and statistics.</p>
<p>@gibby
But when you said mentioning that I coded an app would place me in competition with people who have done even more coding (like your son), that implies that they are admitting by major, or at least taking that into consideration, does it not?</p>
<p>I’ve decided to go ahead and do it anyways because knowing myself if I didn’t I’d find far less productive ways to waste time. I doubt much of that time I’d be saving would go to working on apps.</p>
<p>@Scioly1997: When you submit something EXTRA on your application – be it a comp sci project, art portfolio, music supplement, research project – you are then going directly head-to-head with other students who are submitting similar materials. When that happens, it’s really obvious to an Admissions Committee who has the talent to play at Carnegie Hall. So you don’t want to put yourself in that pool of applicants unless you have the same caliber of experience. When you just submit the required materials and say you are interested in pursuing ‘X’ colleges take your word for it, but you are not being judged by your ability (or lack of ability). Make sense?</p>
<p>BTW: If you go back to post #18, I wasn’t talking about just “mentioning that you coded an app.” I was talking about if you submitting the app as an additional supplement to your application.</p>
<p>@gibby
Ok so now correct me if I’m wrong. It’d only help or have no effect to say that I coded an app in my spare time and have CS as my secondary or tertiary interest, but I’d be put at a disadvantage if I submitted my code as a supplementary material?</p>
<p>@Scioly1997: IMHO, writing down that you coded an app will have NO EFFECT whatsoever. It’s like writing down that you played baseball. If I don’t see you hit, field and run the bases, I cannot judge your talent. But, if you write that you played baseball in a summer league on the Common App, then I know you are really interested in baseball. It’s the same with Comp Sci. So sure, write down that you are interested in CS, but I don’t think it will make or break your application. However, if you plan on submitting the app or the code as a supplement – and your competition is submitting multiple apps on different platforms – that is going to put you in a different category. It would be like submitting a baseball video to demonstrate your talent. Because you have limited experience, it might showcase you in the wrong way. </p>
<p>@gibby
Do you think it would look bad if I updated stanford after submitting the application that I released the app? I have to submit the application tomorrow and I still want to apply REA but am afraid of their really high rejection rate for early. </p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>bump. </p>