I’m an international student applying from India currently a rising senior, looking to major in CS. Would be great if you could recommend me some US/Canadian universities where I stand a substantial chance of getting accepted and maybe selecting my safeties, matches, reaches, considering I manage to write decent enough essays and get some good LoRs. Finances are not an issue.
Academics:
9th: 9.6/10 GPA
10th: 9.8/10 GPA
11th: 70%, ~top 5/50 in class, high-ranking school with rigorous curriculum
AP tests 2017 (self-study): Physics C: Mechanics: 5
SAT I: 1460 (710RW/750M) 6/5/6
SAT II: Physics 790, Math II 760
TOEFL: 116/120
EC:
Participated in 4 MUNs (2 international-level) and won 4 awards
Participated in various national and international level debating competitions
Organised 1 international and 1 national-level MUN
Organised a TEDx event
Started the school TED-Ed club
Member of the school editorial board for the the yearbook
Member of school newsletter core team
Journalist for videogame news website
South-Asia Middle-East finalist in Wharton stocks competition
Regional finalist in a tGELF debating competition
Started a social initiative
Volunteered 75 hours at NGO teaching underprivileged kids
Interned at a well-known NGO for 3 weeks
Interned as lab assistant at a reputed university over the summer, assisting a professor in his research while conducting my own research on a closely related field. The professor agreed to write me an LoR
Attended a lab orientation at another university with a decent international reputation
Python course certified by MIT from edX
Member of the school student government
Secretariat of the school’s Interact Club
Organised a coding boot camp held over the course of a week
Hey yours stats look pretty good. You could perhaps look at schools like MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UC-Berkeley , Cornell for reaches. UIUC would be a match. Schools like GeorgiaTech, UCLA could be looked at. Not too sure about Canada but UToronto, McGill univserity etc. are good. Perhaps try to give your SAT score a boost or try writing the ACT?
Thanks for the reply. It wouldn’t be possible for me to retake the SAT because the next available date is in October, around the time I’ll be having my school exams. I’ll also probably be busy with essays and all.
Georgia Tech and UCLA can be considered matches? How about safeties?
University of Washington would be a fantastic match school.
And Georgia Tech is EXTREMELY competitive for OOS. It shouldn’t even be considered a match, since it’s basically a reach for everyone nowadays.
UCLA also a reach but worth applying to . . .
So which universities/colleges can I even consider applying to?
I think you should pick two or three schools with the most well-known computer science departments (Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Cal Tech, etc.) as your high reaches. McGill is strong in comp sci, too, and would probably be a match/safety for you. I would also recommend University of Illinois-Champaign, which isn’t as selective but has an excellent comp sci program. NYU Tandon is a good safety, too: almost half of its students are international, and your chances of getting in are very high. Do you have a location preference to help narrow your list down?
Do you have a preference for location, other than in the US? Urban, suburban or rural? Size of school?
For example, Trinity University in San Antonio Texas is small, Tier I for CS, and would be a match/safety.
University of Texas also Tier I for CS, large university, appears to be a match, and is in Austin TX, a huge hotbed for CS now.
UT will have over a hundred students in intro CS classes, Trinity will have less than 25.
Good luck with your search.
Adding to my last post, Carleton College in Northfield, MN also superb, Tier I for CS, but located 25 minutes south of Minneapolis/St Paul and is a small LAC with small class sizes. You appear to be a match for them, too.