How screwed am I as a CS Major?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Admissions the last few years have already been a crapshoot, and I’ve been hearing that being an asian male going into CS is really tough on admissions, so I might have to reconsider my chances at a few schools. I wanted to get some opinions on these schools:
WashU stl, UNC-Chapel hill, Ohio State, U Mich, Georgia Tech, NC State, Duke, Rice, Texas A&M, UT Austin. Anyway, I appreciate all feedback! Give me the cold hard truth, even if it’s really really bad news

ACT: 36, 34 writing
SAT: 1580, 18 writing
Subs: 800s in Math II, US History, Physics, Bio E
9 APs so far, 5s: HumanGeo, Bio, CalcAB, Lang, PhysCMech, USH; 4s: Chem, Phys1, PhysCEM,
Senior Year APs: Spn Lang, Eng Lit, Music Theory, Us gov, Comp politics, Statistics, also self learning Calc BC and Comp Sci A
3.8 unweighted, 4.35/4.8 weighted GPA. Small private school with very rigorous courses and no bell curve grading, does not rank although I’m almost certain I’m in the top 5/100 in my grade.

ECs:
Long-time competitive chess player, top under-18 in state, chess club president, school team captain, various state awards;
Band senior officer, 1st chair trumpet, solo and ensemble superiors;
Varsity archery captain, got the top score on school team at a tournament last year;
Interned over the summer for my school’s IT department;

Do some stuff on my own like coding, built my own PC, set up a Linux-based server etc. but not sure colleges count those

Awards: not any prestigious ones tbh.
Full ride merit scholarship to my school (they give like 2-4 per grade depending on the year)
Technology Student Association - 1st place state for CAD engineering, finalist at nationals
National Merit Semifinalist
AP English 11 book award at my school
NHS
National Spanish Exam Level 5 top score in my state
1st place in biology at this random STEM tournament my state had

Volunteer work: Over 150 hours. Mainly as a chess coach for local elementary school and as a lab assistant for a medical research professor, some miscellaneous hours thrown in

No hooks whatsoever. None. Educated middle class parents, asian male. whooooo

Anyway someone please tell me if it’s time to panic and apply for some easy state schools thanks!

2

You’ve got a reasonable shot at most places, so drop the pity party. Most kids don’t have a hook - and they still do fine. You’re kicking butt and doing the level work to be admitted to the selective schools.

The state schools you mention are mostly metric driven. Decisions mostly rest on where you fall above or below certain cutoffs, so not much to do, change or worry about there.

But you also mention some selective private schools like Duke and Rice. Those want more than a check the box, all only numbers guy. For example, you mention that you’ve done some work outside school - coding, building pcs, setting up servers - those schools will definitely care about that. They want to hear that you explored your interests outside class. What did you learn and do on your own? What was creative? All that is directly relevant to their admissions decisions and you’ve got some good material to work with since it also relates to your desired major.

Good luck - you’ll be fine.

3

Thanks @milee30 . I’m just super concerned because computer science is absolutely blowing up, and multiple universities I applied to asked very specifically for my major and a few even wanted a specific essay only for future CS majors and no one else. I honestly wasn’t worried until I found out that a lot of Unis have been throttling CS admissions because of the influx in recent years. Maybe I should’ve chosen a less mainstream major. Price of chasing a dream huh

4

Wow, haven’t seen this before. Where did you find that happening?

I know you’re probably not really serious, but for reference for you or anyone who may actually consider this line of thought - the top CS schools are seeing a big influx, as well as smaller schools not prepared for the shift, but the job market will be good for some time it seems (knock on wood and keep an eye on it though), and the industry doesn’t care about where your degree is from in most cases. If you’re having trouble finding CS matches, going lower on the lists may be needed, but I wouldn’t change major over it unless you were 50/50 split on two majors and it was the tiebreaker really.

5

Actually I don’t sense strong CS interest in your EC and postings. Are you just looking at it as the “best paying options”?

6

@bogeyorpar No definitely not. It’s more that I discovered my interest kind of late (like junior year) and by then I had far more established extracurriculars. I’ve always been very much a balanced student that kind of likes everything and I still am, it’s just that since junior year I’ve really started digging in and learning a lot of stuff - coding, hardware, etc. So I don’t have a really strong EC focus but my courses and what I do with my free time do reflect my future choice of major. My current hope is that I’ll get into a good liberal arts college with a fairly strong CS program (I applied for multiple Ivies but didn’t ask for a chance on those because, well, Ivies). That would be most ideal. I know my limits so I didn’t apply to the likes of MIT or Caltech. I’m just asking for these schools because I don’t know my odds of getting into these and wanted to know if I needed to settle for some less competitive options.

7

@PengsPhils UT Austin, Texas A&M, a few others I think. Some may have been more due to CS being nested in the engineering school, but the threshold was definitely higher than your average major.

Yeah I have my eye on a few local ones if need be. Automatic in-state admission is nice to have even if the school isn’t amazing.

8

Prestige doesn’t matter much if at all in CS. I know UMass graduates and MIT graduates and IIT graduates who work together and no one cares where they went to school. In many cases coworkers won’t know where you went to school. Your stats should be fine for very good schools with very good CS programs, even given how competitive CS is.

Have you applied to some good in-state public schools? Which are your safeties?

9

I’m from Texas. Both UT-Austin and Texas A&M are well known nationally ranked computer science/engineering programs. With your grades and SAT scores, you should be able to get a full scholarship at either school.

10

@DadTwoGirls I’m going to say that my state is not known for its education and leave it at that. I was thinking I could probably at least get admission to UT Dallas on a full scholarship as long as I do end up getting NM finalist. They have a respectable CS program so I wouldn’t be unhappy with that.

11

@coolguy40 are you/ were you a student of either of those universities? I heard admissions to UT Austin especially has been extremely competitive in recent years. I actually spent freshman year in Texas, and speaking to some friends there admissions prospects to Austin have been less than ideal… some really smart people I know not necessarily getting the major they wanted.

12

UT Austin admits about 75% of its frosh from the top 7% ranked Texas resident applicants. For such applicants, the admission rate is 100% (but not necessarily to their intended majors). Everyone else must compete for the remaining spots; the admission rate is probably around 15% for the non-automatic-admission applicants.

In addition, CS is one of the majors that is additionally competitive to get into, so admission to UT Austin does not necessarily mean admission to the CS major there (and admission to the CS major after enrolling is difficult).

13

Numbers are there, but Asian male syndrome may cause some rejections. You need to differentiate yourself from all the Asian applicants, especially in your essays.

I am surprised that UIUC isn’t on your list of schools since you have Michigan and Ohio State on your list. You might want to consider UW-Seattle as well.

For the private schools on your list, you will need to show demonstrated interest.

14

@Hamurtle yeah I probably should have applied UIUC. Oh well. I had considered UW-Seattle, but only after their Nov. 15 RD deadline! Caught out for poor planning lol.

Anyway, basically all applications have been sent at this point… thanks for all the feedback everyone! Wish me luck :)))

15

I can only really speak about OSU as I live close by, but I think you’re absolutely qualified. They’re starting to look for more OOS students (according to what I’ve heard) so you should get in. Good luck!