Not chance me, advice me!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
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<p>Hi everyone, I'll be straight to the point, I plan to apply to Carnegie Mellon school of computer science, SCS. This thread will not be about chancing me if I could get in or not so I better find other place. I have determined I'll go to CMU and work my butts off in SCS program or I'll go to Somalia, if you know me in real life you would know I'm serious ( as for I already have a saving for a 1 way flight ticket, to CMU or Somalia). So for this thread, if you are kindly enough, please give me feedback I'll take both negative and positive feedbacks, so you can be as honest as you want. I hope from your feedbacks, I can learn and improve myself, to better prepare myself for CMU.</p>

<p>Here are my stats.
3.7 unweighted GPA up to sophomore year( no honors, and mostly ESOL classes I'll explain).
For junior year I earn 5 As including 2 APs (Comp Sci & Statistic),2honors (precal, Physic), 1 A-, and 1 B (Spanish my worst nightmare).
Geometry and chemistry in the summer. All As.
1770 SAT first time. I'm studying to retake in September.</p>

<p>For seniors year I'll be taking 5 APs- US, Gorverment, Cal BC, Econs, Physic C. And English 11 honor( this is weird I'll explain too). And 1 study hall.</p>

<p>For extra-curriculars.
NHS officer.
Math HS, ran for president. I'll know the result at the beginning of next school year.
FBLA. Will run for office.
GIVE-tutoring. I tutor disadvantaged students every weekends.
Amazon seller for awhile then I stopped after making 2 thousand dolllars, because I felt like I was ripping money off people. I'm working with my Comp Sci teacher to run a competition and use this 2 thousands as a reward. I hope this will be a source of motivation for students to take CS class. CS is not popular at my school.
Lead programmer of a FIRST robotic team. I helped successfully programmed a serve-drive system using inverse kinematics and P element in PID control. I'm now forceing myself to stop coding, and start helping/teaching new members ( we are working a controlling system using the kinect).
This summer I'm currently a full time paid intern at a tech company, in research and development department. I cannot tell what we are working on, but I can say that the new technology being developed will benefit many disabled people ( autistic children for example).</p>

<p>And I'm a self-imployed IOS developer. I just published my first app on Tau day 6/28. You can find and purchase it here=> Tau</a> Calculator for iPad on the iTunes App Store
I'm making an iPhone version of the app. Love Tau <3. And I and my step dad are discussing to make an app for electricians (of course if it is not already on the app store^^). New ideas are welcome^^. </p>

<p>I'm fluent in java, objective-c, JavaScript, jquery, PHP, HTML, C++, somewhat python( starting to use).... But what matters is I can learn and apply a new language on demand. I learn all these from real Hand-on projects, where if I screwed up, someone can **** on my head(well not literally). As a programmer I practice Agile methodology. I have written a total of about 12000 lines of code in the last 9 months across projects ( thanks to line counter feature, genius.) </p>

<p>Now I'll explain my situation. I'm a foreign student. I moved to the US my freshman year with NO English ( sorry if I make any grammar error in this thread). I was placed to 3 ESOL classes my freshman year, and classes like cooking classes. Then my sophomore year I was placed to 2 ESOL classes and finally was allowed to take some regular science, math, and social study classes. I managed to earn mostly A, A-, and B for Spanish. And junior year I didn't have to take any ESOL student and could take any class I want as a normal student. I then eagerly sign up for the most challenging classes in my interests. I signed up for 3 math classes ApStat, Ap CS, Precal H., physics honor. I also took chemistry and geometry in the summer to get caught up with normal students. And I wont have to take English 12 because I'm a foreign student and my last ESOL level counts as English 12 ( well being foreign isn't bad after all). </p>

<p>So base on my stats you can tell that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but as Henry Rollin have said "I don't have talent, I have tenacity." So maybe it will take me twice longer to understand something but I'll work 10 times harder. I may get my standardized test score up, I may not, but I'm trying my 100%. So any advices on how I can improve are welcome.</p>

<p>As for why Carnegie Melllon, I first learn about the school through Professor Randy Paush. He has been my inspiration, motivation, and model of dream-fulfilled-by-hard work. In fact I name my first Java program, I wrote for one of my teacher, after him.
And I love the interdisciplinary culture at the school, where left rain and right brain collaborate. I can imagine a picture in my head where I, in SCS department, and my teammates from other department hurryly crossing the Randy bridge at 12Am to my room and start a hackathon for an idea we have dream of.
And I need an interdisciplinary environment because I'm not perfect. If you ask me to code anything, I almost always can sit down and start coding it ( sometimes I need a little research^^). But if you ask me to draw an icon, I'll scratch my head and smile back at you, for I can only draw stick figure and sometime I have to write commentary for that figure. </p>

<p>And I plan to further study for a Phd in robotic because robotic is simply a part of me now. And there is no other place like robotic department at CMU.</p>

<p>I realize I can do all this anywhere if I have enough passion and determination. But if I was going to work my butts off at school and taking jobs to pay for school, and use hard earned money from my parents, I rather it be at CMU SCS because this is where my dream of robotic start, this is where my passion for computer science strengthened, and I want this is where I'll realize all these dream and passion. </p>

<p>I realize this is not an easy quest. But if there is an easy path, like walking on embers from Va to Pittburges you bet I will. I appriciate your time and effort of reading this thread. And I thank you for your feedback. If through your feedback, I improve myself and get what I forever want, great, if not well at least I get some experiences along the line and become a better person ( and see you in Somalia). </p>

<p>Lastly, thank you very much.</p>

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<p>When you retake the SAT aim for at least 2100</p>

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<p>That’s what I’m trying to achieve but whether or not it happens I’ll see. Thank you</p>

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<p>Here is my advice: CMU is looking for balanced and mature young adults. I suspect “CMU or Somalia” won’t look well in your application.</p>

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<p>I mean ill travel to Somalia to stick my hand out and say hello, can i learn your culture? Dont worry I have no intentions for piracy @_@</p>

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<p>What was your math subscore on the SAT?</p>

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<ol>
<li>I think i can bring it up to 750 now with some practice. I have the most problems with reading and writing. 520 reading, 570 writing.</li>
</ol>

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<p>^ 680 is not bad. I agree, you should be able to raise the math score to 750. This will help your ap. Personally, I think you also have an interesting story and a good explanation for your low CR and Writing scores. Good luck</p>

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<p>Hmm…interesting. You definitely seem genuinely passionate about both CMU and software.</p>

<p>The issue is that your SAT is 400+ points below average. SCS especially cares about math aptitude: the 25th percentile for the math section is a 760. If you can boost your score and get good SAT2s (definitely take Math Level 2), I’d say you have a solid chance, though not a guarantee by any stretch.</p>

<p>Putting all your eggs in one basket is foolish, of course. There are other schools with great robotics cultures - BU and RPI are two of them. Why not at least give them a look?</p>

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<p>Just tell them something like what you just told us in a more organized and thought-out format when writing your application. Make sure they know you only want CMU. Also, have someone fluent in English (try to get an English professor; many of my high school teacher have horrible grammar).</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone for replying. Your replies definitely help me in some degrees minor or major, thanks</p>

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<p>You have a pretty interesting case, so if you rewrite what you wrote here on your essays (moving here and why there are a limited amount of honors/APs on your resume) you should be fine. Just get a 2100 or a 34 on the ACT (take the ACT its not as tricky, as foreign students generally do better on it).</p>

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<p>Uh… Somalia, really? You do know that large swathes of the country are essentially war-zones and there’s really no government or law enforcement in place, right? There are plenty of countries in Africa you could visit to learn about a new culture without having a high chance of getting killed, like Kenya or Tanzania.</p>