Chance me for top 30 schools please.
*Applying to Northwestern CS ED
*Automatically accepted into UT-Austin
I intend to apply to 20 schools on commonapp. Emory, NYU, U of Miami, USC, Rice, Notre Dame, Northeastern, Fordham, Boston College, Tufts, Wake Forest, Wash U, U of Rochester, And then the Ivies as a crapshoot
Basic:
*White male from Texas
*Computer Science Major
*GPA: 3.7/4.2 (UW/W)
*Rank: 8/440
*ACT: 31 (E 33 M 30 R 28 S 32) - Retaking September and October
EC’S:
*Cross Country - Varsity 4 years - State Championship
*Track - Varsity 2 years
*Texas Boys State
*Black belt in Tae Kwondo
*JROTC - 1 year
*Academic Decathlon - 2 years
*Distinguished Achievement Program
*Texas Scholar Program
*Volunteered in the Houston flood relief for a month ~300 hours
Awards:
*National Honor Society
*AP Scholar
Work:
*Worked at golf course - 8 weeks and 30 hours a week
Recommendations:
*Got counselor and 1 teacher, still working on last (Stressed)
Essays:
*Won Patriots Penn Essay competition ($250 prize) so should be decent - not sure what to write about yet
I am in a gap year right now, volunteered and worked so far. Probably going to try to improve ACT. Once I finish apps I am going to backpack Europe (not using in application, doing it for experience). Responses appreciated
Your test scores and ECs aren’t ivy caliber, but good overall nonetheless. Try to attain a leadership position in something during your gap year and/or get an internship/job related to your intended field of study. What are you majoring in? Depending upon that, UT-Austin is fantastic for business so I would consider that if that is the field your going into. Other than that school, I think you have a 50/50 chance for northwestern ED. You should get into half of the other schools on your list. Keep working?
Thanks for advice, I am majoring in Computer Science. UT accepts top 7% in state, so I hope a 31 is good enough for that major… Not as hard to get into as Business or Engineering at least. But since it is number 9 it is competitive. Northwestern 50/50 sounds good, with a 37% acceptance rate ED (athletes aside, the main competition applies to HPYS ED) I would be pleased with that.
i would totally chance you, but i don’t think I’m qualified enough to know if you meet each school’s standards. but i did want to mention that me and you are applying to a lot of the same schools! haha
Your UW GPA looks rather low for someone within 2% of his class. Perhaps your school is very competitive? I think your GPA is more of a problem than your ACT score. Nonetheless, a better ACT perhaps can make up for your lower GPA. I think you should definitely not ignore schools lower ranked than 30, in your list.
@Crystal9ucla Yes it is competitive, and I have been a little worried about that actually… I will take the ACT 2 more times and hopefully it will rise. I have been looking at schools like Lehigh that are ranked 30-50 and I usually come to the same conclusion: It only takes one and I can only go to one school anyways… Which is why I will apply to ivies and such…
@Crystal9ucla UT is my main safety, Automatically accepted and number 9 in CS. I will use Fordham, NYU, and a 2 more as safeties but it may not be worth $40+ for a less reputable school.
I’m guessing you’d get some aid – how much depends on things like income and how many siblings you’ll have in college at the same time. With family income of 99k and one sibling in school a net price could be around 35k, but with no siblings in college at the same time it goes up to 50k. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY of course.
@Pheebers NYU net price calculator has me getting roughly $26k… I would assume similar colleges (Miami, Emory, Northwestern) would give me a similar amount?
@cappex Do you mean 26k is your cost or your aid? In any case, definitely don’t assume the same amount at different schools. I’d recommend a quick & simple spreadsheet, because in my opinion you want to be aware of the aid breakdown for each school. Loan aid is not the same as grant aid, and student work is frequently included. It’s better to have the whole picture.
You won’t have to enter the data 20 times for the 20 schools on your list – a lot of them will use the same college board login, so your info will be saved Let us know how it goes.
Let us know how it goes.