Please chance me: Stanford, GTech, UT Austin, UCal, CMU

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello,
My Daughter is interested in Computer Science major and business minor. She is interested in Stanford, GTech, UT Austin, 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.

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

Thank you very much for your help

2

stats are good. if she is OOS at publics, her chances will be average. GTech UT Austin and Cal are all tough for OOS CS. CMU and Stanford will be reaches.

3

Don’t take SAT again

4

GPA and class rank are important.

5

Thank you very much for your help, her GPA is: Unweighted 4.0; Weighted: 4.75; Class rank is: Top 3 out of 200 class.

6

She has good chances at getting into all of these schools except for Stanford. That’s not to say that she isn’t qualified, but rather that with the sheer amount of applicants with similar statistics, her lack of leadership extra-circulars may be used against her. The fact that her schools does not offer CS related extra-circulars is likely not going to be a valid excuse, as the top schools expect their applicants to actively seek out ways to investigate their interests. That being said, her GPA and SAT scores are phenomenal, as well as her staggering number of AP courses. Just based on the numbers, she has a very good chance at getting into Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, UT-Austin, and Carnegie Mellon. As a Berkeley student, I can only speak for the double major aspect here. There is no Business Administration minor offered at Berkeley, and you apply in your second year. Many students do get double majors in CS and Business, but it’s difficult because the CS classes are notorious for being GPA killers. The required intro CS class has 1400 students enrolled at one time and the average grade is a B, with only 19% earning higher than an A, and 56% getting between a A- and B-. The Business school application is basically contingent upon a 3.8 or higher college GPA after two and a half semesters. So while some do succeed in earning a double major in CS and Business Administration at Berkeley, many end up disqualifying themselves from both majors as the CS major requires a 3.3 average in all prerequisite classes. Many of the students in these CS classes have been coding for over a decade and really wreck the curves, and grade deflation is certainly as aspect to deal with at Berkeley. Again, your daughter has a good chance at getting into every school that you listed except for Stanford, simply because their admissions process is so brutal. Good luck!

7

If she writes good essays, that could offset her writing SAT score. She is a very competitive applicant so make sure the Common Application essay and the supplements she writes are great

8

Stanford reach for everyone.
CMU SCS reach for everyone.
UCB EECS reach for everyone.
UCB L&S probably high match, but then need 3.3 in CS courses to enter L&S CS major.
UT Austin auto admit for school within top 6% in Texas, unclear how competitive CS major is.

9

If she’s not doing many CS extracurricular activities, then there’e isn’t a good chance for her to get accepted into CMU and Stanford. Furthermore, being in-state for UT computer science is a great for admissions chances, but her ranking is also a very significant factor to her admissions. However, take into consideration that UT Austin has rejected people with 1500+ SAT scores in the top 7% of their class for computer science. In terms of GTech and UCal, I believe she’s a good match for them.

10

She should look into UTs Turing program and UT will be a safety for her if she’s in the top 6% of her class. Out of all of these UT has the worst crowded campus… but Austin is nice and warm. They enroll about 500 CS students.

GT, she’ll get accepted if her essays and recommendations are good and show knowledge of the school. GT has a nice well defined campus and can house all students. Atlanta is warm, but it is a city. They enroll about 500 CS students.

Forget about CMU, it’s too expensive. The campus is nice but dreary in the cold weather. I’ve read anecdotes from instate TX kids who accepted CMU over Texas and wished they went to Texas. CMU has only 150 students in each incoming CS class and 1/3 don’t have any programming experience. I have no doubt that the academic experience is superior to Texas, GT, and Berkeley but really lousy weather can ruin the overall experience.

Cal is nice and crowded but it’s not really worth it if she gets into Texas CS. They are the same school. They enroll about 400 in EECS and another 400 in their liberal sciences CS which is some sort of almost CS degree.

Stanford, she has a 1 in 20 chance against equally qualified students.

Like someone said above she doesn’t need to retake the SAT. Once you cross the 1520 threshold there is really no difference. She’s above the average for all of these schools CS programs.

Employment opportunities are the same across these schools.

Difficulty in admission for CS goes…
1 Stanford, CMU ~5%
2 UT Turing, Berkeley, GaTech ~10%
3 UT ~20%

Student Coddling/Faculty Staffing & Interaction
1 Stanford, CMU, UT Turing
2 GaTech
3 UT, Berkeley

Undergrad Research opportunities… if you are into that
1 Stanford, CMU, UT Turing
2 Berkeley, GaTech, UT

School enrollment sizes
1 Stanford, CMU
2 GaTech
…
3 Berkeley
4 Texas

Core Campus sizes where the students are and go to class (not including other lands owned)
1 CMU 140 acres
2 Berkeley, Stanford *180 acres
3 GaTech, Texas 450 acres

*Both Stanford and Berkeley own lots of surrounding land. 1000s of acres.

11

Thank you all for sharing your time and thoughts. This week we visited GaTech, Cal and Stanford. Among the three she liked GaTech, Will be at UT Austin at the end of the month to attend a Touring scholar information session.

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. I agree CS major and Touring program are not guaranteed. Her unweighted GPA so far is 4.0