I need another "reach" school... Help is appreciated :)

College Search & Selection
1

Hello CC,

I have been editing my college list and I had to take one of my reach schools off, and I would like another school to replace it, but I can’t find one! Any suggestions? Here are my stats.

I go to a small public combined middle/high school. I’m a girl applying for computer science/software engineering as my major, unless the school offers artificial intelligence. If the school offers AI, then I would do AI.

Weighted GPA: 97/100 (I don’t know my unweighted and my school only sends the weighted GPA)
Class rank: 12/105

Note: I missed a lot of school during my junior year due to personal issues, which caused my grades to decline. My guidance counselor wrote about it and how I “pulled through and came back stronger” in her rec letter. So far my grades have improved from last year. I know my rank stinks but I’m hoping they won’t put too much weight on it and my guidance counselor hopefully explained it well.

AP’s:
2014- World History (3)
2015- Music Theory(3), US History (4), Physics 1 (4), English Lang&Comp (5),
Currently taking: College Economics, AP Chemistry, AP Lit, AP Bio, AP Calc, Computer Science (school doesn’t have AP)

SAT: Taken once.
C: 2180
CR: 750
M: 680 - I am confident that this will improve in December
W: 750

ACT: Taken once.
C: 32
Math: 29
Reading: 35
English: 34
Science: 29
W: 29

I took Math 1, Math 2 and Physics subject tests and my scores will be coming out on Tuesday. I am taking another SAT in December to raise my math score. I probably won’t send my ACT score.

EC’s:

Robotics team (9-12), captain (12)
Organizing coding club for middle school girls.
Self-taught JavaScript, HTML & CSS
Math team (9-12). Among the top 5 scorers from my school. Captain/Head programming developer (12)
Music: School chorus. 6 years of classical/operatic vocal training. Soprano 1. Invited to All-County chorus 7 times. Perfect score on Level VI NYSSMA (for non-New Yorkers, NYSSMA a vocal festival where you sing for judges and are given a score out of 100. Level VI is the hardest level.) President of Tri-M Music Honor Society.
Cast of theater productions (9-12). Lead roles.
Member of National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society.
Virtual Tutoring (11-12). 30+ volunteer hours.
Hospital volunteer (11). 50 Hours
Attended a gifted math program (10).
Work experience: Worked as a cashier at two different stores (10-11)
Varsity tennis (9-12). MVP Award (11)
JV Softball (9-11), Captain (11). Varsity Softball (12)

I have published research in the computer science field and it was presented at a conference.
I also organized and created an anti-bullying mural in the middle school all on my own.

Awards:
Scholar Athlete
A Honor Roll
50 Hour Award from local hospital volunteer office
AP Scholar With Distinction
National Merit Commended

Teacher recs - my guidance counselor said they were “great” but who knows lol.

essay - I wrote about the gender gap in computer science and how I’m taking steps in my community to solve it by starting a coding club for the MS girls.

I’m applying to SUNY Stony Brook, RPI, RIT, UPenn, Princeton, Tufts, and I’m looking for one more reach school. I had planned on applying to the Ohio State honors program, but then I found out I missed the deadline. I had considered Cornell, but I don’t particularly like the school

My twin brother is applying to Binghamton, Siena, Scranton, Ohio State, and Adelphi. His top choices are Binghamton and Ohio State. My parents would like us to be in the same same school or the same general area, but I don’t really have a preference in whether or not we stay together.

I already applied to Scranton, Siena, NYIT, Binghamton, and Fordham. Siena already gave me my acceptance with a scholarship.

Am I aiming too high? Do I need to lower my expectations? Help me out guys!

All help is appreciated :smiley:

2

The University of Rochester seems to be conspicuously absent from your list. (You seem really solid for the school, so in that sense it would not be considered a reach, however.) Your choice of a college should be partly based on your academic interests outside of CS, which you don’t appear to have specified, as well as partly on the extracurricular activities you would like to continue with. UR, for example, has a great music program.

3

I’ll consider University of Rochester, thank you. Anybody else?

4

Carnegie Mellon? Theater plus CS is what triggered that reaction. Johns Hopkins might be another possibility – at least some of the resources of the Peabody Institute (music conservatory) would be available to you. Improved math SAT score and/or a great score on SAT II Math 2 might be important in both cases.

5

@exacademic I had considered Carnegie Mellon, actually it was my first choice for a long time. However, their median SAT math score is 790-800 and there is a 5% acceptance rate for CS. I know I’m looking for a reach, but Carnegie Mellon is just too far of a reach. Also, my parents are not comfortable with Pittsburgh for some reason. Thank you, though

6

I’m looking for a reach school that I might have a decent chance at, kind of like Tufts.

7

I think you need one or two match schools.

What about Case Western?

Have you considered Stevens Institue of Technology?

Rice would be another Reach and Rice has an excellent music school.

8

Agree with URochester as a great fit. Perhaps also consider a school like Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, or Union. For a reach maybe Johns Hopkins? Barnard? William & Mary? Brandeis?

9

@txstella Well my match schools are Binghamton, Stony Brook, RPI and RIT

I think I’ll be able to get my SAT math to a 730-740, but I’m aiming for a 750+. I’m not a good test taker when it comes to math. I’m really good at math and I’m a very creative problem solver, but I think quickly and I make a lot of silly mistakes.

I was thinking about Barnard but it’s a women only school and I’m not about that life.

10

Correction: Not sure why I wrote captain/head programming developer next to math team. I’m the captain of the math team, and the captain/head programming developer for the robotics team.

In case anyone was confused.

I also left out that I took AP Environmental last year and scored a 5, not sure if it matters though.

Also, I’m going to post my SAT II scores in here as soon as they come out

11

If you would like CS within a smaller college environment, these schools appear to be the first to have actively initiated and designed a model CS curriculum for liberal arts colleges:

Williams
Swarthmore
Hamilton
Amherst
Vassar
Washington & Lee
Colgate
Allegheny
Bowdoin

You can find high reaches, reaches and matches from within this group. As your SAT score currently stands, you would be in the middle range for seven of them.

(Information from the Liberal Arts Computer Science consortium.)

12

Ok, what about Duke? Too high?

I say Duke because they encourage double majors, minors and certificates, and if I went there I would choose a double major in computer science and public policy, and a certificate in entrepreneurship annd innovation. I want to take advantage of opportunities to study leadership or stuff related to leadership along with CS, since I believe it would help me in the future.

13

From what you have posted previously, you will need financial aid and you have struggled with anxiety. I don’t know if Rochester will give you the money you need, but it would be an excellent choice overall (fairly open curriculum, nice students). I think Rice would also be a good choice for a reach, but it seems as if your parents would prefer you to be closer. Johns Hopkins is usually considered somewhat stressful, but it would be an easier reach than Duke.

And I think, if you haven’t already done so, you should visit Barnard. It’s directly across the street from Columbia and Barnard students take many of their classes at Columbia. In almost every way but living arrangements, it’s similar to a co-ed school and I think you would benefit from the more nurturing environment of a smaller school. Moreover, it meets full need, which might be important.

14

Rice is too far. I’ll check out Barnard. One of my friends told me that I should look at Northeastern, because it has a great CS program. What about Dartmouth?

15

What about Brown if you are going that reachy? It has a very strong CS dept that is also very cooperative and collaborative. My dd did very well there and was able to have some nice perks, like being sent to Grace Hopper and going to the international Robotics competition on their dime along with research grants and now they have startup grants too. It is undergrad focused with plenty of opportunities to work with faculty. She is actually now at a startup founded by a Brown prof and a couple of his students. There are 29 CS profs (9 with AI research interests) compared to 17 at Duke and 11 at Dartmouth and all profs at Brown teach undergrads. See the dept page for info, you might be interested in the Artemis project mentioned, since you are doing something similar it may be worth mentioning in your application…
http://cs.brown.edu/about/

See their CS blog for current events/news/alumi reports.
http://blog.cs.brown.edu/

16

I really wanted to apply to Brown and it was on my common app for a long time but my parents don’t like it. I may ask again though

17

I think I’m going to go with Columbia, because it is closest to home and my parents are comfortable with it. I like that computer science majors have to choose a track, and artificial intelligence is one of the track options. I could also minor in entrepreneurship and innovation, which I would likely take advantage of.

Thoughts?
I’ll update again tomorrow when my scores are out and then I’ll take it from there

18

Columbia sounds good in terms of what you are looking for.

19

I did really bad on all of the subjects that I took… I really would rather not send them. I was surprised, I thought I did so well. I’ve never beaten a 700 on a subject test, and I’ve taken 5. I’m really disappointed. Will my application be damaged too much without them?

20

For Columbia, if you submit the SAT, you must also submit two SAT subject tests.

Both Tufts and Penn require that you submit ALL testing so you will need to send all of the subject tests.

For Princeton, you can choose what to send. However, from reading other CC threads, you will be compared to other applicants who are submitting at least two SAT subject tests (usually high scores).

For what it is worth, I also did not do so well on my Nov. SAT subject tests so I am in the same position as you.