Need help with two questions...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
1

Hello,
My Daughter is interested in Computer Science major and business minor. She is interested in Stanford, Georgia Tech, UT Austin (Touring), UCal, CMU. We are from Texas.

Here metrics are:

SAT 1580/1600 (780M, 800CR); Her writing is low 15/24 (pretty low); this is the reason she is thinking of writing SAT again; but again she is not one who enjoys writing and wants to do CS doesn’t see the need/value of writing excellence.

SAT Math II: 800 (Math)

PSAT: 1500/1520

AP Courses: By the time she finishes senior year, 15 courses.(including AP CompSi(5))

Some leadership positions in her school clubs. Other than online CS courses, not much CS related ECs (like coding competitions) as her school doesn’t have CS related interest. She is not interested in coding competitions as she is interested in data sciences and AI.

Ethnicity: Asian - Indian - Female

We are not qualified for financial aid.

Please help us with two questions:

  1. Doe she need to SAT again to improve on Writing section? It all depends on if these Universities need writing or not. It looks like Stanford needs it, does GTech need it too?

  2. How these universities map to CS major and Business minor for her scores.

Thank you very much for your help

2

Georgia Institute of Technology does not look at the Writing section as much as main SAT score, GPA, Extracurriculars, and Essays. Georgia Tech does not require its prospective students the writing section. But, since Stanford requires stellar stats in all aspects of the application, I would recommend taking the SAT w/ Writing again.

UCal, Gtech, CMU, and Stanford are all amazing schools for Computer Science. UT Austin is also a great choice because it is your state’s flagship college. I think Stanford is a reach (just because of that ~5% acceptance rate), UCal is a match, CMU is a match, Georgia Tech is a match, and UT Austin is likely (in-state).

A final touch to the resume: I would have solid extracurriculars and leadership positions. I recommend starting the common app essay as early as possible.

I can see that your daughter worked hard in high school. And I am certain that she will be successful wherever she goes. Good Luck!

3

I would NOT take the SAT again. 1. There is no point, they require a writing score but don’t seem to put much weight on it, and 2. Heaven forbid she is not feeling well that day and does significantly worse. Some school see all the scores.

4

I would not there is that article floating around that once in the 98th percentile its all the same.

5

My attitude for dealing with life is to try the best. In my opinion, I still think it is important to take it if she is concerned because if she doesn’t, she could possibly regret the decision in the future.

6

If she wants to, I would retake the SAT to up her writing score. A few of the schools on her list care about that I believe.
It cannot hurt to try again, she may have had a bad day or just an essay prompt that did not resonate with her.

All very good choices for CS. Carnegie Mellon has tight ties to Wall Street and a very top business college, and ranked 1 for CS as well. Its slightly more theoretical in approach compared to GaTech CS. GaTech is balanced and strong in math, though, and business as well. She will have coding projects at all the schools, and group projects are becoming very popular at GaTech to learn to work on a team. GaTech has some of the best student clubs like Big O Club and three or four robotics clubs, including a medical robotics club, that is very compelling. These after school clubs get students to do extra projects, get involved in research work, hear special lectures and make friends with other CS students.

Is your daughter interested in entrepreneurship? Check on the incubator activities at each school, GaTech has
a strong start up culture and undergraduates can get pulled into small companies, and Atlanta has many of
these thriving companies.

Other universities you mention and locations may be similar for that.

Carnegie Mellon’s School of CS is small, elite group, and has a big push to accept more girls. Be aware, she will have to choose a major at CMU at application time, either business or CS and School of CS has a much lower acceptance rate than any other major at CMU besides musical theatre. Its probably better to apply directly to CMUs School of CS from high school, rather than try to transfer in, as the GPA required to transfer in, is very high.

GaTech now offers automatic acceptance for their in state valedictorians and salutatorians so that has shifted who applies to GaTech and made OOS acceptance much harder. Pay attention to the extra essays at GaTech, and all the schools have those individual questions on the Common App

U Cal Berkeley does not use the Common App and has an earlier deadline, I think Dec 1st firm deadline.

. The Common App does not open until mid August, Son made the mistake of filling it in in early August and lost all the routine info and had to start over.

Consider Case Western Reserve U, Harvey Mudd College as well as U of Maryland, for other strong CS options.
U of Maryland has very good Presidential awards for OOS students, and special cyber security focus.
U of Maryland is often overlooked as a top math/CS/physics university, with some of the strongest academics.

Harvey Mudd College is known as the school where more girls major in CS than boys. Its very small, and has
some of the most challenging classes, but no research work as its undergraduates only.

7

Your daughter has a fine record and very high scores. Congratulations. However, a warning, as a parent with high scoring kids: I don’t know that its easy to determine match schools just from test scores anymore. GaTech does reject plenty of out of state students with all perfect scores, I mean 800 in both verbal and math, and a higher writing score. GaTech does seem to favor students who participate in FIRST robotics, and reject some well rounded and high scoring students in our region.

Berkeley is also a gamble and not easy to determine if its a “match” because they are wholistic in admissions. Being Asian Indian American, unfortunately will not help her, but being female is a slight edge. All the schools you mention are wholistic in admissions. Some schools have state laws, such as in CA for the public schools, that prohibit admission by race, but I think privates and GaTech can still select or reject students by race, to balance out the number of different races in the undergraduate population. So that is the wildcard for your daughter.

Look at Maryland and CWRU. They are not safeties but may be a higher probability than even GaTech for her,
so you need to consider a few easier schools, to be sure she has choices at the end of this process !! . I don’t know how her stats line up for her in state choice, but I can imagine that will be easier, but many lawsuits in Texas about race and admissions, so be careful on using any top school like UT Austin as a “safety” without talking to their CS department about impact, and likelihood.

U of Michigan is another very popular choice for engineering, business and CS , and easy to fly to, but they care about writing scores. Its a bit harder than GaTech for OOS admissions however.

Finally look at Purdue University. Its really rising in the ranks in CS, offers solid business degree, and may be a school you can say she will for sure get into, as they tend to take qualified students like your daughter, no matter what the essays say.

8

If you insist on retaking, then consider the ACT or an AP test. In my opinion, it would not be wise to retake a 1580/1600 SAT regardless of the writing score.

9

I think all schools will take highest scores, and not penalize for a bad day, but yes, I see @Publisher’s concerns that OP has very very good scores, and why mess around? I think the reason to try is her writing score is too low for Stanford, Berkeley or U of Michigan. Many schools demand a good writing score and will use that writing score 15/24 to reject her. So if OP wants to get into Stanford, she needs to improve that score. Its not too likely she will drop in her math score, most student improve each time they try the SAT. But taking the ACT is a very good idea. She might ace the ACT and that could help her.

10

Thank you all for sharing your time and thoughts. This week we visited GaTech, Cal and Stanford. Will be at UT Austin at the end of the month. She liked GaTech as the information session we attended was from CS department specifically and was very informative.

My suggestion to her is NO on SAT retake, UT Touring program is my preference, but will get behind her decision.

She would be eligible for automatic admission into UT Austin as she is in top 3 students out of 200 in her class, with a 4.0 GPA

UH and UTD are her true safeties.

11

My son got into Cal for EECS with Regents nomination and Caltech with an 8/12 on essay portion of the ACT. Schools don’t give a rat’s ass about the essay score.