No racism involved in this discussion, please answer based on your experience and data. Thank you!
My impression from looking at the data sets and from visiting is that there are more undergraduates of Asian heritage at CMU than there are non-Hispanic Caucasians. On the other hand, it is very very difficult to get into SCS for anyone. Data sets are available for your review on the CMU website.
How hard?
I understood the SAT and GPA should be very good.
And what kind of the activities or what kind of the awards?
there are a lot of Asians, Chinese, and Indians are CMU, so it isn’t impossible.
Having taken the campus tour and walked through the Gates Computer Science Complex, I can assure you that Asians have no problem with admission. The statistics I remember seeing online showed that there are almost more Asians than non-Hispanic whites (something like 25% of the student body vs 30%).
My white S did not get into SCS with this:
4.0 GPA
1540 SAT (800M)
800 Math2 800 Bio
Perfect score (not just a 5, but a perfect score) on AP CS A
A bunch of local Math and CS awards
All State Band (brass/woodwind)
I’m an IT manager and would hire him right now as a developer (and probably most of the freshman class). Once he formally takes data structures and algorithms, he could easily work anywhere.
I’m not sure what makes SCS admissions choose. At worst, they are accepting girls with less CS background, but very high math scores to get to a 50/50 M/F ratio. I thought they said last year’s freshmen girls had higher scores than the boys.
I personally think that you compete within your group (race/gender) and then throw in whether your a first gen. So probably best to look at who was admitted being an Asian male, that would be a good place to start.
Your son’s stats sounds almost exactly like my son’s. It must be very disheartening and confusing for him (and you). The system seems to be a lottery now for most qualified applicants. I know it will be hard for my son if he does not get in. I have already started preparing him to expect the worst.
CMU accepted 205/6907 applicants to its SCS for a 7% admission rate. And bear in mind, the majority of applicants have outstanding qualifications. The bottom line is, it’s extremely difficult to get in no matter what your racial/ethnic background. That said, being Asian probably doesn’t help. And if OP is a male, that probably doesn’t help either.
Actually, it enrolled 205 out of 6907 applicants. The 7% acceptance rate would be approximately 483/6907. Still, you get the point.