Low test scores, good curriculum, great ECs. Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi there, I’m looking to enter into a Computer Science or Computer Engineering major. My test scores are low for the colleges I would like to get into, but I believe everything else on the app might make up for that. What do you think?

Here is my college list (the colleges I’m unsure about): UWashington Direct Admit, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvey Mudd

I’m white and male.

My GPA is 4.0 unweighted. My school ranks people by their unweighted GPA. I am rank #1 along with a few others in my class.

I took 3 AP classes Junior year and am taking 3 this year. 4 were humanities, and two are math/science. I go to a very small, specialized high school (it was the best option for me), so my schedule was very limited to the AP classes I have taken.

My ACT is 32 (Math 30, Science 30, Reading 34, Writing 35)
My SAT II Math is 720, and my SAT II Physics is 690.

ECs/facts:

4 paid internships in the computer engineering field. Some were nearly full time during the summer. These were for very well known/significant companies.

I’ve created and run game servers for years, and made self-sustaining money for a time. I also have years of experience in dedicated Linux server management, much of which resulted from solving problems related to game servers or websites.

I created a significantly large (1M+ views at this point over various videos) YouTube channel with videos relevant to my field, and made significant money from this.

I’ve written websites and iPhone apps. I plan to release a new app to the App Store soon.
I can speak a second language (Spanish) fluently
National Honors Society
Lead for Science Olympiad
I’ve had a service industry job for all of high school.
I played an instrument until halfway through grade 10.
I’ve done various volunteering activities, but I have not stressed those on my applications.

2

The rigor of your high school schedule (by that I mean the lack thereof) will significantly hurt your application. Fortunately, you maintained perfection in the highest level of what was available to you. Your test scores are also not particularly impressive to any of those schools. With your extracurriculars and background however I don’t think anybody on this board can give you a definite.

I’m applying to a couple of elite schools for Economics, but I also have a big background in Computer Science. Based on your experience I’d just like to offer a different train of thought. The experience and success you have obtained is well beyond 95%+ of students entering college for Computer Science. Even if you don’t make it into a top school you can (and it seems very likely) be very successful.

In essence, I would remind you to stick to your passions. See where the college road takes you, but remember that consistent devs like you can get anywhere through time minus some very flattering entry positions at selective firms.