High GPA, Scores. Few ECs. Need help finding Computer Science schools. I love you.

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi guys, I was hoping you could help me narrow down what tier of school I should be looking at. I want to figure out how high I can reach and still get some money.</p>

<p>Stats:
White Male from Nebraska
ACT - Got 29 in October (horrendous math score due to 0 preparation and not having taken a math class since fall of the previous year), expecting between 32-34 from the June ACT which I took a few days ago, as math in October was 20, and on a practice test the day before the June ACT I got a 30.
PSAT - CW - 80, R - 80, M - 63, Total - 223 (hoping for national merit, although its strange because I still haven't received any sort of letter from NMSQT; supposedly nothing really happens till they release the list of semi-finalists in the fall though)
SAT - Haven't taken, will have to take in the fall if I am going to get national merit. Should be fine as long as the SAT isn't 10x harder than the PSAT and as long as I study a bit. No one in my region takes it but I figure I should if I am better at it than the ACT, which seems to be a possibility.
AP Classes - Have taken APUSH and AP Lang expecting at least 4's on the national exams in both, and I am taking 6 more AP classes next year.
GPA (unweighted): 3.938 (I got 4.0 freshman, 4.0 sophomore, and 3 B's junior)
GPA (weighted: AP classes are weighted, honors are not weighted): 4.021
Class rank: 25/528 (BS anyway because kids who take summer school get extra credits and are therefore higher ranked. The class rankings at my school have become a competition between high-achievers to see who is willing to spend the most time and money during the summer to get more rank points.) I still am in the top 5% at this point regardless of their lame calculation system.
ECs: This is where I run into trouble. I was on the JV tennis team sophomore and junior years. I expect to make Varsity next year because we lost a lot of seniors. But besides tennis...I went to about 3 political roundtable meetings this past year until the level of discourse was too mundane for me to handle. I have played on an intramural basketball team for 3 years, I was the champion of the intramural badminton tournament sophomore year and participated again junior year, I played on an intramural bowling and intramural volleyball team junior year, and I did intramural ping-pong sophomore and junior years...As you can see I have never been involved in any really impressive school organizations. At my school all of the cool, intelligent teachers don't sponsor any clubs, it's only the brain dead home-ec teachers who sponsor sowing club or Future Educators of America...</p>

<p>So you can see my dilemma, I have decent scores and a decent GPA (only 3 B's in high school), but aside from tennis pretty much no ECs. I haven't had a job until this summer, so I don't really have that excuse either. Most of my free time has gone to homework/video games/reading/hanging out with friends - not saving the Amazon rain forest or playing piano recitals at state competitions.</p>

<p>You are probably asking yourself, what are his goals? What sort of college does he want to go to, or expect to go to?</p>

<p>Well the answer is: I don't know. I sort of think I'm going to want to double major in Computer Science and (English or Linguistics - not sure yet), and I know that I want to go to the most prestigious, best college I can afford to. My parents aren't chipping in at all for my college education, so I have to pay for it with merit aid. I doubt that I qualify for need-based aid, (though admittedly I haven't checked) because my father makes around 50-60k a year and my mother probably somewhere near there as well (they are seperated, and share custody), and I'm not a minority.</p>

<p>The lowest college I'd look at going to is somewhere like UNL (I believe I'd be able to get a full ride on merit aid there), and my absolute dream would be to go somewhere like Carnegie Mellon or MIT. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I would be able to get as far as merit aid, nor what schools offer good computer science programs. I'm naturally talented in the humanities (80/80, but I want a degree that will get me a good career, so that's why I want to go into computers, not something like English or History. There's also the fact that I spend several hours on the computer everyday - I'm an internetphile.</p>

<p>So my questions are:
1. how much is my lack of ECs gonna kill me?
2. what schools would give someone like me a scholarship (assuming I get national merit and a 32-34 on the ACT when I get my results from that back)?
3. what schools have good computer science programs? (besides the uber-expensive MIT/CMU, unless you think I could get in there and maybe get some money)
4. what is the capital of Assyria?
5. What are some mid-range CS schools, what are some higher-tier CS schools?
6. (Insert question here about whatever piece of information that respondents to this thread think would be good for me to know).</p>

<p>Thanks a bunch in advance. I appreciate alllllllll input.</p>

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<p>Um, so you did NOTHING productive during your summers?</p>

<p>what did you do (not trying to sound mean)?</p>

<p>29 to 32-34 is quite a jump, hope you can get it lol.’
sounds like you really should take the sat.</p>

<p>if you get a2230 that will really help your chances.</p>

<p>having almost NO ec’s is not going to look good, sorry.</p>

<p>You could try Purdue, I guess.</p>

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<p>I suppose the term productive is subjective, but according to most standards my summers have been pretty unproductive.</p>

<p>I’ve always thought of summer as a time for me to regain my sanity after a stressful school year.</p>

<p>I mostly spent my time playing PC games, guitar, reading, or chilling con mis amigos.</p>

<p>I’m not worried about getting my ACT higher, as I said, I got 33, 33, 29, 20 last time, and the only reason that my math was 20 was that I ran out of time like 2/3 through because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, and at my block-schedule school, a math class lasts for half a year, not the whole year, so it worked out that I had Algebra II in fall of my sophomore year and Pre-Calc spring of my junior year. I took the October ACT fall of junior, so it had been a year since I’d done a math problem. My biggest math weakness has always been time, so being so out of practice made me even slower. I like to do my problems slowly in order to ensure that I make no careless mistakes, and like I said, I got a 30 on my practice math test the day before the June ACT I just took. The only section I might have done poorly on was science, but then if you look at the ACT section of CC you’ll see that many people feel they did poorly, so perhaps we’ll get a friendly curve this time around.</p>

<p>But yeah, my only real EC is tennis. Where does that get me?</p>

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<p>Yeah, I always chill during summer and do lots of fun stuff. I routinely stay up till 3 am doing absolutely nothing.</p>

<p>but I still take a little time to do some volunteering and whatnot.</p>

<p>Are you sure you don’t have any other ec’s? My main ones are football (and a couple other random sports), a few community service organizations that I really have fun with, being an event organizer for my youth group, and I go to Hebrew school every week (I’ve done all these things throughout my 4 years in high school).</p>

<p>I mean, it;s not like going to hebrew school takes ANY type of talent, and it probably won;t help me get into college that much, but it at least helps prove I kind of have a life.</p>

<p>The UPenn person told me that even walking your dog can count as an ec; she was exaggerating, but you get the point.</p>

<p>You really should take the
SAT. A 223 on the psat is INCREDIBLE. If you do that well on the sat, you’ll vastly improve your chances.</p>

<p>alsl, take whatever I say with a grain of salt, as I am just a moderately intelligent high schooler who is tired after a long day of football practice.</p>

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<p>I got in Cornell, a top 5 CS program, with a similar resume. Fairly high test scores(35 ACT, 1570/2330 SAT), good academics(9/600 rank), no ECs (even less than your tennis). I think I wrote a pretty good essay, so that probably helped me make the cut. My advice? Most ECs take years to build, so try to focus on something that doesn’t take as long. Like competitions. I was state champion in some competitions during my senior year so that probably also made up for some of my deficits. Of course, most mid-range schools, like Renessaelar just need good grades, grades and other portions. Being a bit weak in the ECs won’t hurt much.</p>

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<p>well obviously having weak ec’s isn’t going to hurt much when you are a friggin master of academia.</p>

<p>however, most people are not masterz like you.</p>

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<p>You might want to look more closely at public schools, as ECs aren’t weighed as heavily.</p>

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<p>

You should ask your parents for their exact financial information and put it into College Board’s EFC calculator. See if the EFC it spits out can be met through loans, working, etc.</p>

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<p>“My parents aren’t chipping in at all for my college education, so I have to pay for it with merit aid.”</p>

<p>momfromtexas did a bunch of research a while back on merit aid and found full-ride scholarships for both of her kids. You need to read her thread:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Good Luck!</p>

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<p>Are you kidding? This may be true of non-Top 50 schools in general, but I can tell you that UMich, UVa, Berkeley, UCLA, and UNC all place great importance on non-academic qualities and activities.</p>

<hr>

<p>As for the OP, I think you’re on the right track. MIT is a huge reach for anyone, but CMU would be perfect for you.</p>

<p>Some other schools to consider: University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Texas-Austin; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; UCLA; University of Michigan; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Georgia Institute of Technology; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Purdue University; University of Maryland-College Park; Case Western; Harvey Mudd; Cornell; Rice; Duke.</p>

<p>The above list is huge and incredibly diverse. The aforementioned institutions range from prohibitively expensive to relatively inexpensive as well as from relatively easy acceptance wise to incredibly difficult for anyone to get in. Your task is to take our suggestions and research them completely: check out monetary aid, scholarships; schedule some trips; talk to admissions counselors; etc.</p>

<p>My best advice, which I wish I had heeded in the past: reach for the stars, or you’ll never know what you could have achieved. A lot of these institutions may seem unrealistic and outside of your grasp, but apply anyway: all you have to lose is the application fee(s).</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>PS: As an aside, you most certainly can achieve a “good career” with a degree in English or History. Computer Science may seem more practical, but I have come to know too many people with History, Political Science, and English degrees who have accomplished much in life–and above all, happiness–to discount such majors. And bear in mind that there are distinct differences between a traditional college and a vocational school. If you truly prefer the latter, look more closely at the “Tech” schools. They try to have a basic liberal arts curriculum, but their focus is on career training.</p>

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<p>another aside… if you’re looking for merit aid, MIT doesn’t give any whatsoever.</p>