Low GPA but Crazy EC's

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey CC!
I’m currently a junior at a very selective high school in Illinois and if you’re reading this, please do keep reading and help me figure out where I fit in!!!

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.56
Weighted GPA: 4.6 (hopefully going to go up to around a 4.8 by end of semester)

ACT: 32 (going to go up hopefully)

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): NA

AP Classes: AP US History, AP Computer Science, AP Physics, AP Language, AP Psychology

Senior Year Course Load: Plan on taking AP Microeconomics, AP Statistics, AP Literature, AP Computer Science Principles (First year ever), Honors Neuroscience and some Honors Art/Music electives required for grad.

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Fifty for the Future, Questbridge College Prep Scholar, Chicago Scholar,

Extracurricular (place leadership in parentheses):

  • JV Robotics (Head Programmer, 11)
  • Varsity Robotics (Team Captain, 11 12)
  • Varsity Tennis 11 & 12
  • Varsity Basketball (Team Captain, 9 10 11 12)
  • Muslim Club (Officer 11)
  • Public Street Art Club, Key Club

Job/Work Experience:

  • CTO and Co-Founder of multi-million dollar cancer startup company ( 11 12)
  • Research Assistant at UChicago Conte Institute for CS (10)
  • Paid IT Consultant (9,10,11,12)
  • Founder of organization to teach kids to program in Afghanistan (9 10 11 12)

Volunteer/Community Service:

  • Service trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan (9 10)
  • YMCA Volunteer ( 9 10 11)
  • Tutoring refugees in math/CS on the weekends (9 10 11)
  • Volunteer Worker for Habitat for Humanity International (9 10 11)

Summer Activities:

  • Worked at mini golf place (Summer of 10, Summer of 11)
  • Mission trip (listed above)
  • Research Assistant at UChicago Conte Institute for CS (10)
  • Cancer AI research on my own; published a lot of code online
  • Founder of organization to teach kids to program in Afghanistan (9 10 11 12)

Additionally: I’m currently a CS Major at my school which is pretty rare as not a lot of kids take CS for 4 years. I’ve won CS science fairs for my work in machine learning.

Intended Major: Computer Science

Other
State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
Country (if international applicant): US
School Type: Public High School
Ethnicity: Asian/ Middle Eastern
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: ~80,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

Schools:
Pepperdine
Indiana University
Cornell University
Yale
Stanford
Harvard
UMass Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Illinois in Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
UW Madison
USC
UCLA
Marquette
Rutgers

*I know this list is long and I’m hoping I can cut some down with your help

If you guys have any other schools that you’d think I’d be a good fit for, let me know!!! I’m going to major in CS but anything can change.

2

I don’t know how much your ECs can make up for your low unweighted GPA. Your ECs are great, though. One thing I don’t understand… If you are a co-founder of a multi-million dollar cancer startup, why would you even need to go to college? Also, it looks like a lot of your ECs are just to impress colleges, which admissions counselor hate to see. I don’t know if that’s actually the case, but that’s what it looks like at first glance. No matter how good your ECs are, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale will most likely deny or wait list you. Remember that to most colleges, your GPA is the most crucial part of your application. However, I think you have a chance at Cornell and a pretty good chance at the other schools. Good luck to you!

3

Oops… Didn’t see UCLA and USC… Those might be a little bit of a stretch too

4

@ap012199 Understandable question! I’m still going to go to college to keep my options open just in case something happens.

Which EC’s do you think are just there? I pretty much just threw all the stuff I’ve done in that post so I would like to know what EC’s may come as BS.

Thanks for responding by the way!

5

Most of the time, volunteer trips to foreign places come across as BS, because anyone can apply for them, and most communities don’t benefit that much from untrained volunteers. Key Club and Habitat for Humanity are also pretty generic (dw though, I’m guilty of being in Key Club too). However, I don’t think your ECs are that BS; most of them fit your narrative.

6

Rutgers - safety
UMass Amherst - safety
Pepperdine - safety/match
Your weighted gpa is really good so I’d say people with ur stats end up at around 20-50 ranked universities. Good luck, enjoy highschool while it lasts and keep up the good work.

7

@jtyats1114 thank you!!! what about the other schools in your opinon?

8

“CTO and Co-Founder of multi-million dollar cancer startup company ( 11 12)”

Can you elaborate? I am skeptical. .

9

Lying about my EC’s here would in no way benefit me as all of this is anonymous so I would gain no “advantage”. It is exactly as it sounds. I co founded a startup focused on breast cancer and our valuation is “multi-million”. :slight_smile: @suzy100

10

Pepperdine has a gorgeous location but it is pretty evangelical with strict codes.

11

I think Carnegie Mellon university, NYU, johns hopkins, Cornell would take you. Helping start up a big cancer research organization is HUGE. It shows your work ethics and intellect (seriously, how many people have done this type of thing in highschool). Harvard and Stanford are the only 2 in your list that no one can garuntee anything. Although you definitely a competitive ivy league candidate. I hope your organization does really well, you are doing great things for the world.

12

By Cornell I meant like"lower tier" ivy leagues.

13

Also, I have a question as to how I can open up an organization/research where I may somehow directly help people. I hope to be a future doctor, and I would be interested in any tips or tricks you have as to how to start up something that will benefit people. Can you email me : jtayts2@yahoo.com. I would greatly appreciate if you could help, I’m really interested in helping people. Opening up a research for cures to illnesses, or making an organization to better other lives would be amazing.

14

@Oregon2016 thanks for that! taken off my list lol.

15

@jtyats1114 thanks for the insight. I can’t see your email but I’ll gladly post it here. It boils down to believing what you are building. Investors will be tough on you and you need to stay firm on your vision to be able to handle that roller coaster ride. I’m guessing you’re in high school? If so, you have NOTHING to lose. Literally. Go out and start something. Start it with a friend or start it yourself, it doesn’t matter as long as you have momentum. Figure out what you want to do and how you want to do it. That’s the hard part. After that, it becomes so much easier. Find people that resonate with your idea and let them help you build your dream.

16

GPA is king. Take the California schools off of your list.

17

@samappleoogle A few random things:
1.Does Asian/Middle Eastern going to count as URM?
2. Income bracket about 80K: you may be able to get some fin aid, especially with Questbridge, but less likely merit aid at top schools. What can you and family pay?
3. ‘CTO and Co-Founder of multi-million dollar cancer startup company.’ How much net worth do you have? Students are expected to pay the equivalent of 20% of their assets.

You list of colleges is nicely broad, with a mix of reaches, matches, and safeties. (Other than Pepperdine, the outlier here). Looks like you prefer a large university and have no geographical preference. Consider also Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, RIT with your interest in CS.

Also, you may consider applying to some smaller LACs. In the top 50 or 60 with US News LAC rankings. (Rankings approximate, as they give Reed the shaft!) 2 reasons: First, the adcoms for these smaller schools are more likely to give your application a more holistic reading, really looking at your ECs, First gen status, ethnic background, location, etc. Second, at a large university, the professors will do the bulk if not all of their research with grad students. At a LAC (Lafayette, Whitman, Macalester for example) there are few if any grad students, and therefore undergrads get to assist in research. A degree from a LAC is a great springboard to grad school; they will be familiar with these schools.

18

@PetulaClark Thanks for the insight. Sadly, from my research Middle Eastern is not considered URM. Let me know if I’m wrong. I’d rather not disclose 2 and 3 for security reasons but thanks for bringing it into my head. The post is a bit older so some things like my GPA have been updated to a 4.8 weighted and 3.7 UW.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me I’m aiming too high. I can understand why they say that. Which of these schools would you consider reaches and safeties in your opinion? I’ve added CMU to the list. I need to look into Case Western so thank you!

Agreed. I’ll start looking at some LAC but I always worried about the CS programs there.

Thank you!!

19

Nothing wrong in aiming high. Harvard and Stanford are reaches for any student, save a President’s child. Two scenarios everyone should avoid: applying to 10 schools and getting in none, and applying to 10 and getting into all. I’d say if you hit about 50%, you did a great job in forming a list.

Regarding the CS programs at LACs, you are right with your concern. There is a wide variance but some are great. I mentioned Lafayette in particular because it has engineering. It is important to remember that LACs are much more than English and history majors. They have great science majors also, and some like Haverford, Reed, Bryn Mawr , Swarthmore have great track records of grads going to grad schools.

20

“CTO and Co-Founder of multi-million dollar cancer startup company ( 11 12)”

You’d better be able to prove this, otherwise it comes out sounding like major BS.