Hi!
Since its almost the middle of summer, buckling down and starting to get serious on college apps is becoming really important. Before I start diving in, however, I wanted to see how realistic my college list is so that I don’t waste time over the summer and can focus on schools I have a chance of getting into.
Background:
- Live in Illinois
- Attend large public school (Graduating class is about 1000 people)
- Male
- Asian
Major:
Reach Schools:
- MIT - CS
- Harvard - econ
- Stanford - CS
- UPenn - Econ
- Duke - Econ
Target Schools:
- UIUC - CS
- Georgia Tech - CS
- Umich - CS
Safety Schools:
- Purdue
- Iowa State
- UW Madison
GPA:
- Unweighted: 3.8
- Weighted:4.41
Testing:
- ACT: 36
- SAT: 1590
- SAT II: 800 Math, 800 Physics. 800 USH
- AP: Physics C mechanics (5) and electromagnetism (5), AP Euro (5), APUSH (5), AP Lang (5), AP Stats (5), AP Calc BC (5)
Extracurriculars/ Awards/ Leadership:
- Math Team:
- Individual:
- AIME qualifier, AMC 12 certificate of distinction
- Team:
- 2017 Illinois State Math Competiton 1st in state
- 2018 Illinois State Math Competiton 2nd in state
- National Math Madness Champion
- 6th overall North Suburban Math League
- History Fair ( President ):
- Karate ( Assistant Sensei ):
- 3rd in State in Division
- National Champion in Division
- TEAMS :
- 2017 - 1st in state, 3rd in Nation
- 2018 - 1st in state, 6th in Nation
- Science Bowl (Team Captain )
- Astronomy Club ( Founder and President )
- Band:
- Percussion Ensemble
- Jazz Band
- Drumline
- Highest level concert band
Summers:
- Currently part of an Astronomy summer program at Northwestern
- Working with a professor on Northwestern doing research
Thank You!
Ur GPA is kinda low, but your EC’s are really strong. Nothing in your EC’s say computer science though, I’d recommend just going for econ (better chance). I think you’d have a great chance with your EC’s and especially if you publish of getting into one of your reaches.
I think you need to add another safety. Purdue and Madison are not safeties for out of state students. I would say a match but if you are applying for CS, it’s very competitive. Same principle for Michigan and GT - I would saw low reach, not matches/targets. That all said, you will be a competitive applicant.
Thanks for the advice!
My concern is that for some of my reaches (Harvard, UPenn) Econ tends to have more people in the program and might, therefore, be more competitive. Is this an unbased concern?
Com sci is probably equally as competitive at most of these schools. http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-ivy-league-major-2017-4#yale-university-8. The AO is going to be looking for a theme/narrative around you; having nothing related to com sci will make u have almost 0 chances for coms sci, but you do have a lot of math awards that would make sense with ECON.
Obviously, your standardized test scores & ECs qualify you as a competitive applicant at all of your listed schools.
Willing to share any thoughts or comments regarding your summer experience at Northwestern University ?
Are your safeties a safety from a cost perspective? UW-Mad will by $53k per year. It looks like ISU is $35k/year and they would give you at least $8k/year merit.
Cost is not really an issue for college.
You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools
Why do you consider Michigan not a reach, esp as an oos applicant?
How come you did not have AP Macro and Micro, if you are interested in Econ?
Grades are fantastic for state schools. I would be surprised if you could not get into UIUC’s CSc. Apply to some out of state CSc, eg UC Berkeley’s or UMich’s, in case you don’t get placed into UIUC’s CSc automatically.
I don’t see Harvard, Stanford, or MIT are within your reach though.