How to Convey Interest and Experience in Computer Science?

Applying to College
1

Hi,

As some of you may know, I have quite a bit of experience with computer programming, a hobby and love I picked up at age 9. In these last 6 years, I have produced and coded several apps, and plan to code a few more with partners and by myself by the end of my high school career. Obviously, none of these have become Fortune 500 worthy, or even successful to catch attention of Google executives looking to recruit young talent. In fact, I had to take 2 of them down because they were not creating enough revenue to keep up on app stores, and it appears the rest of my surviving ones will head that way soon enough. What these did show, however, was dedication and passion, I think.

In 2 years, I hope to apply to top CS programs including Princeton (SCEA), Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon. I know that I could write about my experience in essays and on my application, but who would even say they would believe this? I’d like my passion to be known and to really speak volumes for me, because I work so hard to perfect my craft. You guys can understand, right?

So my question to you is, when the time comes, how should I go about really show that I’m not blowing smoke up the adcom’s you-know-what and the real deal? List it first and foremost with my EC’s? Explain the circumstances of why I had to admit defeat in the tech game at age 11 but am making a comeback? List programming languages as native tongues?

Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

2

Bump 1.

3

Why are you afraid of writing about programming in your essays? Why wouldn’t admission officers believe you? I’m in a very similar situation as you. I taught myself programming languages from scratch at a young age. I too made and published mobile apps. However, these apps aren’t famous or anything. I decided to write about my app business in my essay. In addition, I contributed 5000 lines of code to an open source project, which demonstrates interest.

Would REALLY appreciate if anyone can give us advice. Bump on your behalf.

4

I don’t know but I just figure ANYONE could make a story like that up, and not being a Fortune 500 CEO by age 11 adds 0 validity to my story (although it is 100% valid).

5

Perhaps you could have a teacher mention something about programming in a recommendation? You probably have SOME proof about your claims.

6

I’ll look into either that or having my counselor write about it in his recommendation. I could try to incorporate, but that may be a useless waste of money if I change my brand in college or beyond.

I should also mention, my school does not offer APCS. Should I try to appeal this to the school board?

7

Since you still have 2 years until you apply, I’m sure you’ll do lots of CS-related things between now and then. I would hesitate to list things you haven’t updated since middle school, because of the general “middle school doesn’t count” guideline. So, making more apps yourself and with partners sounds like a great idea.

We haven’t gotten to the point where my son would be filling out applications yet (Class of 2017), so the following are just ideas without having dealt with applications yet. Perhaps others with more experience at applications can comment. (My son’s current plan is to major in physics/astrophysics, but he does a lot of programming.)

He took the AP CS test before high school, so doesn’t have that class on his transcript. However, I think that he will end up with one or two CS classes from a community college on his transcript within the next year and a half. If you don’t have a local community college with good CS classes, you could take a Coursera/edX/etc class to have a non-transcript class to list. Personally, Data Structures was one of the most useful classes I’ve taken, and I’m not even a programmer. (I’m a technical writer who writes for programmers.)

He has two GitHub accounts, one under his realname and one under an alias. Projects that he feels are “complete” and good (or that he wants to force himself to make so) he puts under his realname account. I think the plan is to point to that somehow on applications. I’ll bet CMU would be cool with that; don’t know about the others.

He works on things that could loosely go into an “art supplement” which a number of the elites accept. He’s using Blender for 3D modeling and has some good results so far, and hopefully they will get better. One of his ongoing hobby projects generates art procedurally and somewhat evolutionarily, so sample output from that along with a pointer to the GitHub project is possible. Screen captures from your apps could go in something like this. I think he has a Tumbler account going where he posts stuff like this; I don’t know whether that will be something he wants to share, however.

I’ve heard that there’s an “additional information” section in the Common App and that some colleges (but not many) let you submit a resume. Those would be a good place to list the languages/operating systems/modeling tools you are proficient in and to briefly describe significant CS projects you’ve worked on. Contributing to open source projects, as mentioned by @maaz97, sounds good, especially with a significant lines of code statistic.

Is there a programming club at your HS or could you start one? Mentoring other kids at programming is an EC that adcoms are familiar with, while GitHub and open source stuff may not be familiar to adcoms at places that don’t admit by major. My son is on a fairly successful CTF-style hacking team. Again, that would sell well at CMU; not sure about the others. He’s trying to open that team up to more kids at school as a club, rather that keeping it a secret for a few kids.

I have no idea what he’ll write for his essays, but I’m pretty sure programming will be mentioned, because his programming skills have been so useful in the physics research he’s doing and loves. I wouldn’t shy away from talking about programming in your essay(s), but you might need to try a few approaches before you find one that works.

8

Your school should offer AP CS, perhaps not so much for you as for other kids who should have a chance to try CS.

See if code.org has resources for encouraging schools to offer it and/or a recognized precursor curriculum like “Exploring Computer Science.” (Many kids who don’t have CS experience really can’t learn Java from a standing start in a year; they need a pre-AP course.) Getting CS classes approved by your school board would be valuable experience to you, would benefit your community, and would be something you could put on your application.

(PM me if you decide this is something you want to do, because I have experience with school boards.)

9

Thank you for the very helpful suggestions, @Ynotgo ! There is no programming club at my school, but rather a computer club (its really just video game club). I think the most appealing suggestion is teaching programming, because I can advertise that well and I already have taught a few of my friends the basics. How would I go about proving this though? I guess they’d just have to take my word for it.

Luckily, I’ve saved some screenshots from one of my now deleted apps, with features throughout. They were the screenshots I submitted for the Apple App Store submission. Should I submit some of these?

I was also planning to submit a couple of musical arrangements I am in the process of writing and will finish by the end of junior year (when I take AP Theory). Would the Ivies and Stanford allow me to submit two supplements?

10

@codemachine You don’t need to submit proof of anything unless they explicitly ask for it.

11

I don’t know for sure, but I think you are a little over-concerned with how to prove everything. Kids who list that they were VP of Debate Club or whatever don’t have to prove every little thing. I think they take your word for a lot of stuff, knowing that if you are ever proved wrong, the consequences are dire.

12

Also, for the one EC a lot of schools ask for clarification on, I was going to plan on using marching band, because thats where a large chunk of my leadership and awards will come from, as well as the fact I will be taking music classes almost every year in HS. Should I stick with this or focus on CS?

13

That’s good to know, at least. Would they go as far as to call Apple or Samsung to see if my apps were really on their store? (Not that this would be a problem, as they truly were)

14

Sorry, I have almost no knowledge regarding music ECs. I think on the Common App you get to list up to 10 ECs and can group multiple similar things under any of those. I’ve heard that the general advice is to list them in the order of importance to you, whatever that means.

In general, I’d say don’t worry so much about how you are going to fill out your applications now. Just do cool stuff. (And maybe keep a list of stuff you’ve done and how much time it took in a Google Doc or something, so that you can remember when you are a senior.)

15

Yeah, thats what I’ve read on the application. I’d almost definitely group all my band activities (marching, jazz, concert, and pep) together so it doesn’t look like I have a laundry list of useless EC’s (depth not breadth).

I’ve been doing just that! I do have a list going of things I’ve done with CS, but I’d have to group it as to not ramble in my resume. We have a local start up in my area that I’m trying to do work for. They hire a lot of Princeton CS students, but they only claim they want college students and graduates.

16

Dude you need to chill out when it comes to putting together proof. Colleges are NOT going to call up Samsung or Apple, they simply don’t have the time to do that. They probably won’t demand any proof at all. Just have a teacher mention something about programming in a recommendation and you’re good to go.

17

In this day and age, there are SO many applicants that code. I feel like the way you can differentiate yourself is by combining coding with some other activities, thereby making it unique. As an example, you could write a research paper about the impact of coding on our society and publish it in the Concord Review, you could start a student organization that organizes coding workshops at some of the impoverished, remote schools, or you could organize an annual city Code-a-thon. Just be creative.

18

Thank you @PartyNextDoor ! The research paper aspect seems interesting. Would working as a research assistant at my local state flagship over next summer in their IS lab (they don’t have "computer science) and writing research on it be of substance? Or can this be something I author by myself? I have considered becoming a professor like several others in my family so this could truly show my future interests.

19

@codemachine Yes for sure, it fits in with the tech theme! If you are considering Stanford, they tend to really value the notion of interdisciplinary activities, which was basically what I was alluding to. If you’re into CS, consider combining it with a fine art. As example, you could join your school’s drama club or join a community theater group and try to write a script about the way our world has changed with technology, and try to convince the leaders to act the script in front of an audience. Or, you could develop a new interesting form of art where you program a mechanical arm to randomly paint on a piece of paper, and you’re supposed to paint simultaneously along with the arm to complement it. See? Get as crazy and weird as you can!

20

Thanks again! I’ll definitely look into doing some of those things, starting with the paper!

I honestly would apply to Stanford REA if it weren’t ridiculous with rejections. At least if I got deferred from Princeton, I could write a letter re-demonstrating interest and it could possibly help me.

Does anyone have any experience with Stanford REA?