<p>I currently am a junior in high school, and I would appreciate it if you guys would help me improve/build up my application to Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>No preparation:
June 3 2006 SAT: M 670 CR 520 W 530</p>
<p>Avg. Practice Tests after June 3 SAT:
M 710 CR 580 W 710</p>
<p>GPA: 4.64 (5.0 scale) 3.712(4.0 scale)</p>
<p>AP Computer Science A: 4
AP World History: 3</p>
<p>Clubs:
Mu Alpha Theta
Chess Club(Secretary)</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities:
Programming: C++, Java
Community Service with Campus Watch(70 hours) for 7th and 8th grade
Working at a small company that puts my programming skills to practice since 9th grade.</p>
<p>Major:
Computer Science</p>
<p>============================================
What do you guys feel is the first thing I need to improve?</p>
<p>Well the only maleable thing are your E.C's, essays, and test scores. You can't really help the GPA. Write your essays well and retake the SATs if you can to raise the CR and maybe even the V. </p>
<p>Spelling Carnegie Mellon correctly will probably improve your application the most.</p>
<p>SCS is the most competitive school to get into at CMU. All your SAT scores would need a huge improvement for you to have much of a chance. A 670 math might be good enough for a less competitive school, but for SCS the 25-75% range for SAT math is 720 to 800. The 25%-75% range for verbal is 650-750, so you're well outside that range too. Your GPA is solid, but nearly all CS applicants have a strong GPA, so it wouldn't cause you to stand out at all.</p>
<p>Along with improving the test scores, try to build up your ECs, teacher recommendations, and essays to show why you are unique and why Carnegie Mellon should accept you. A hook like that can sometimes compensate for SATs scores, at least as long as the scores are decent.</p>
<p>If you really want to major in CS at Carnegie Mellon, I'd encourage you to apply, but you might want to consider other (less competitive) schools within Carnegie Mellon and be sure you apply to safeties.</p>
<p>Best of luck in the college process and feel free to ask any other questions you might have.</p>
<p>Since I am a junior, I know I can definitely raise my SAT scores. I also plan to join Key Club for Community Service.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for all your help. We will continue to work on my application so that it can be free of anything in my power that would undermine my chances of being considered by the admission officers.</p>
<p>-Score very high on the math, at least over 700, preferably over 750 for CS.
-Score respectable on the critical reading and writing (mid 600s).
-Do very well in your classes. I think that is the most important thing.
-Put time into your essays and try to get them to reflect your dedication and why you are unique and then get teacher recommendations that can support those reasons.
-While ECs aren't extremely important and you don't need to have a lot of them, it would be helpful to have one EC which you could demostrate that you are very involved in (perhaps as a captain). In fact I think having one EC that you are very involved in will, perhaps, look better than having a bunch of ECs that you aren't involved in much.
-Any type of research or hands-on experience in an area related to your intended area of study would provide a huge boost as very few applicants would have this type of experience. (Though I'm not sure that's applicable in your instance.)</p>
<p>If you're really interested in programming, try to win a Topcoder (topcoder.com) high school-level contest. It'd be impressive, and you can make good money off of learning what you enjoy at the same time.</p>
<p>DO NOT blow off your grades because of computer games or websites, or whatever. It sound stupid, but keep that in mind. It can be tough, especially for those interested in the CS field.</p>
<p>Definitely email around any research centers (that means universities or satellite laboratories) and try to see if people would be willing to take you in as an intern. Don't mass email. Tailor each email to the researcher and their field specifically, and you WILL find an internship, guaranteed. Internships are possible leads to a killer science project - and even if you don't do a science project, simply the internship would be impressive on its own. Not a hook, but it looks good nonetheless.</p>
<p>Get some more ECs. Your GPA is excellent. You definitely need to improve your SATs (but that's not TOO hard). Keep your GPA up and get 5s - and if you can, that alone could be very attractive. I'm serious about this. I have pretty good ECs, but my grades are effin' fail. I have Bs scattered all over my transcript like dust, and in the second semester of my junior year, things fell apart and I got 3 Bs + a C. But if I had gotten all As throughout my high school career, I'd be looking at a completely different story and different school options. GPA, as sad as is it is to say, is very important.</p>
<p>Congratulations on raising your SAT scores. That will help, but I have to caution you that the math score still may be somewhat of a disvantage considering how selective CS is. Normally you'd like to get 750+ on the math. The 25-75% range in CS is 720 to 800.</p>
<p>I'm a CS Freshman at CMU right now - Actually I had a 700 in Math (eh...) which was a bit on the low side considering that the CS kids here are insanely good at math. INSANELY GOOD. Well, my verbal score was above the range, so I guess it balanced out...</p>
<p>If your math skills are not as strong as you'd like them to be, you might be struggling here... My math skills are all right, but right now I'm struggling in Concepts of Mathematics, a course they require you to take in the fall of your freshman year for CS kids.</p>
<p>If you are sold on CMU, consider attending Pre-College next summer. You can take a couple of classes and get CMU credit for them. </p>
<p>Students who attended last summer were given the option to apply Early Action to CMU. I don't know if they will make the same offer this summer. It's pretty competitive and you need to apply for Early Action by 9/1. You recieve a decision on admissions by the end of Sept.</p>
<p>Note: The Early Action option wasn't for all the schools. So you'll need to checkout if the school you'd like to attend is offering Early Action.</p>
<p>Only retake if you really think your scores will go up, otherwise it's just a waste of time and money. Many people find that scores stop going up after a 3rd sitting on SAT; I don't know if this applies to SAT SAT ACT ACT.</p>