How can I Improve, Especially ECs and Awards. Trying to get into MIT, UNCCH, NC State, Rice

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone, a really scared sophomore here, just wanted to know what I can improve and what my prospects look like.

Background:

  1. I am a white male, not financially challenged
  2. #2 Charter High School in my state
  3. 100 people per class
  4. No class rank in my school
  5. My GPA is calculated differently - 90+ is 4.0, there is no A+ or A-
  6. My school has science classes, but only one CompSci class
  7. My school does not have any non-honors classes except for Spanish
  8. Only have 6 year-long classes, not 8 semester-long
  9. I stutter - might help me on the apps?

Intended Major: Computer Science

Possible Schools:

Reach:
Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Any of the Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Rice

Match:
UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, U of Illinois, Rensselaer

Safety:
UNC-Wilmington? Still have to look for those

Stats:

*GPA:*4.0 UW / 4.44 W
*Test Scores:*Haven’t taken the SAT or the ACT but will take it this June

Coursework:

Took 2 APs this year (one of them is not reflected on the GPA) - really scared that I will not do good on the AP Exams because of the open-note tests

Taking 5 APs next year (AP Calc AB, AP Physics 1, AP Lang & Lit, AP US History, AP Environmental Science)

ECs:

  1. Founder/President - Computer Science Club - we teach student programming (about 10 people)

  2. Founder/President - Russian Club - we teach Russian to my 2 friends that actually signed up for this club

  3. Investment Club - a potential leadership role

  4. ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) - Started doing this year, made smart glasses that transcribed speech to text, used Raspberry Pi and Google Speech to text, in this competition got to States (so won Regionals) and then didn’t get anything after that - I am planning to continue to do this until the end of HS - hopefully, I take my idea that I made (the smart glasses )and turn it into a business or continue improving it or something

  5. NCSAS - Same thing as ISEF, just smaller and is only in North Carolina, did it this year with the same project - won states

  6. I am planning to make the ISEF club at my school as well next year

  7. Do a sport named Water Polo - not popular in my state, so I don’t know what to do about that other than just playing for the team that I am playing for and trying to go to tournaments - I am not that great

  8. I have organized a water polo summer camp for kids at my community pool this coming summer and 15 people signed up, so I will teach them water polo

  9. This summer I might be landing an internship/research assistant role at my local university in their robotics/engineering/sensor/programming lab that develops robots for agriculture - up for grabs because it depends on their COVID policies - I am still trying to email other professors for an opportunity but I am doubtful - or maybe have the research position that I did land maybe keep in my junior year so I work on it during the school year as well, not just the summer.

  10. I Will take CS classes at my local community college this summer - 4 classes

  11. I am trying to participate in my Code for America meetups where they develop an app for politics, very hard because I do not know how to code that good (taking courses for a reason) but I am trying to push myself to go to the meetings even though it pains me

I do not think I have enough Awards - I am now trying to participate in hackathons and trying to find more opportunities for research, but what else can I do? How can I improve?

Feel free to criticize me or anything like that, also if you guys need anything else ill gladly provide it.

2

Georgia Tech is not a match. It is a reach or high reach OOS. UNC may not be a match either if you are from Wake or Mecklenburg County.

3

Anything I can improve to make me a better candidate for those schools?

4

Take a deep breath. You have a strong resume.

It is just that some schools are extremely competitive to get into and are a reach for everyone because for every available seat they have, there are 4-10 qualified applicants with lots of ECs, awards, APs, 4.0 GPAs, and high test scores. Therefore, you cannot “out compete” other candidates.

You will need to demonstrate would makes you different, unique, interesting. Colleges do not want 4,500 incoming Freshman cut from the same cloth. They want all kinds of diversity - socioeconomic, geographic, race, interests, experiences, backgrounds, etc. - and they want students who are decent human beings. So, demonstrate what you bring that is a little different without coming across like you are bragging would be one goal to have in your application. Research what colleges are looking for in essays. Both my Ds focused on how to write good essays (and by that I mean content, not just grammar). Similar concept with LORs. What will your recommenders say about you that is beyond boilerplate.

Keep up your GPA, do as well as possible on your tests, keep doing what you are doing with ECs.

Both my Ds focused on something they brought that is a little different and both were accepted to UNC and NCSU from one of counties in NC people note as being harder to get in from (both 4.0 UW, one HS ranked, one did not, both HS were small, 32-33 ACTs, no hooks). They did not have any “awards” beyond standard NHS/student of the month type, but did have heavy ECs including demonstration of leadership inside and outside of school, volunteering and mentoring, which you have.

As far as safeties, it looks like you are willing to go across country. For in-state I believe UNC Charlotte is considered to have a solid CS program (more so that UNCW).

I would also suggest checking out Arizona State as a possible safety. Assuming your test score ranges align with your GPA range, you would likely qualify for Barrett Honors and OOS scholarship $ and they have decent to well ranked computer related majors (they have multiple majors in that field). ASU’s motto is “we pride ourselves on who we include, rather than who we exclude” so they are a large university with a high acceptance rate that has some surprisingly strong program rankings for a non-selective school. It seems most of their class sizes are not that different from say UNC (some classes have 400+ students, some have 40 or 20). It’s also rolling admissions, so apply early and you will have an acceptance to a good option under your belt early, which reduces the stress level of waiting for your reaches and UNC and NCSU in late Jan.

D21 put ASU on her list and now she is down to and struggling to pick between UNC and ASU/Barrett/OOS scholarship (for biomedical field).

Good luck!

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5

Thank you so much for all the information! It made me feel much better and was very insightful. One question though, what do you mean by “Ds”? I know LORs are letters of recommendation, but what does the D stand for?

Thank you so much!!!

6

Daughters. So, D21 means Daughter, class of 2021. S means son. People use those abbreviations a lot on this forum.

You’re welcome. One is UNC class of 2023 and one is graduating high school this year.

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7

BTW - for UNC you will want to follow their plans regarding CS. It has been a major that students can just declare vs one that requires secondary admission (have to apply to the major once you are at UNC). However, due to popularity UNC has been considering changing that and in fact announced they would make CS secondary admission this week. There was a lot of uproar and they backtracked that decision for now, but just make sure of situation when it is time for you to apply.

8

That long list of ECs is not healthy. For a degree as ridiculously employable as CS, is seriously overkill. Kids routinely have mental breakdowns doing things like this.

I do computers for a living. Here’s my recommendation. Take a deep breath
find a good affordable school that won’t saddle you up with a ton of debt. Go there and don’t look back. Get your degree, learn a widely used programming language (SQL, .NET, Java), and practice interviewing skills. You’ll get a job, don’t worry. After about 3 years experience, employers don’t even ask where you went to school. Virtually all of your skills and accomplishments will be learned on the job.

If you manage to get into MIT and you can afford it, then GREAT! More power to you. But it’s nothing to stress over, and it’s definitely nothing to take out a ton of loans over. There’s an entire economy of tech professionals that never stepped foot in a prestigious school and they make a prosperous living.

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9

[quote=“MrMrag, post:1, topic:3518081”]

  1. I am a white male, not financially challenged
  2. #2 Charter High School in my state
  3. 100 people per class
  4. My school does not have any non-honors classes except for Spanish[/quote]

So you are starting from just about the most privileged position possible: white male (b/c despite what you hear, by the #s that is still who is most likely to get in), top marks, elite program that all of the colleges will be familiar with. You have one of the big markers that say ‘wealthy’ to a college: your sport And yet, you still want to use this:

To use an Irishism, cop yourself on.

I am not minimizing the role a stutter can play in a child’s life. IF that has materially shaped who you are and why you do what you do, fair play. Maybe it’s just how something comes across in a list but to me it read pretty cynically.

Go read this from MIT: Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions

The Dean who wrote that is still there.

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10

Thank you so much for your input. Yeah, I am definitely starting on the higher end of the spectrum in terms of my background/ethnicity. And I definitely agree with your statement. I maybe thought that I could incorporate it in an essay in some way because I actively participate in speech and debate club, present even though I have a stutter, but that just sounds bad the more I think about it. Of course, I do struggle with stuttering and it is always on my mind, but what you said is definitely correct. Thank you so much for putting me on the right path.

11

Yeah, I definitely do have a bit of a problem with my mental state, not that I am struggling, but I don’t think it is healthy to think of college admissions every single day of my life and always trying to find a way to beef up my “resume”.
I came to the US in 5th grade and my parents are Russian, so I was raised with them always being on me that I have to go to a good college and just kind of a stereotypical Asian-type parent thing.

Thank you so much for your input. That definitely makes me feel better.

In the back of my head I know that CS is not a hard major to find a with, and for a while I accepted that and just wanted to go to NC State, a school easier to get into than UNC or anything else, but for some reason that thinking that I will get very good connections at MIT came back, so hopefully that will go away.

Thank you so much again. Maybe I will pass on some things that I do not particularly enjoy and focus on the ones I actually love and feel very passionate about.

12

Thank you so much! Did not know that, try to not get any more stressed with colleges by reading things here, but may start lurking a bit.

Thank you again!

13

Oh wow, I did not know that! Thank you so much for the insight! I will definitely do that.

Thank you so much again!

14

@MrMrag, please read the MIT piece linked to above. You are a high achieving student, with a good story to tell. Instead of trying to pack in some extra awards at the last minute stop or just fretting about what is going to happen, stop and think hard about what would be the best fit for you - who you are as a student and a person, what environments you thrive in, what you would like from your college experience, etc, and start identifying colleges for which you are a good fit.

For example, MIT is an amazing place- but what a lot of people don’t realize is how idiosyncratic it is. It’s not just a matter of having a strong enough app to get in, or being ‘smart’ enough to do well there, it is will you fit in with the students there. It’s like shoes: the shoe may look fantastic, be beautifully made, even be the right size- but if it isn’t comfortable on your particular foot, it’s not the right shoe for you. Many people- especially people from other countries - don’t understand how strong a personality US colleges have, or how strong a campus culture many US colleges have.

So step away from the ‘what’s the highest ranked school that I can get into’ stress bomb, and start thinking about ‘where will I shine?’!