Please Chance Me

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi all,

I was wondering what my chances are for getting into a good computer science school. I know computer science is super competitive so lately I’ve been thinking about switching to a less competitive engineering major. I’m casting a pretty wide net, but here are a couple of my top choices. I live in California, by the way.

University of Washington, UC Berkeley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas-Austin, University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, and Caltech.

I am a senior right now.

Major Choice: Computer Science

SAT: 2250 (CR: 770, M: 800, W: 680)
Got the same on the PSAT, so I’m a national merit semifinalist.
SAT II: BioE: 700, Physics: 760, Math 2: 800, Chem: 740
AP Tests: BC Calculus, Computer Science A, Biology - all fives

GPA- unewighted: 3.88, weighted: 4.19
I calculated this according to UC standards, meaning I did not include ninth grade or any non a-g courses.

Course Vigor:
10th grade- Took AP CS, Analysis H, Chemistry H. Took accelerated English too, but I don’t think that means much.

11th grade- Took AP Bio, AP BC Calculus, Physics H, and American Literature 11 H.
12th grade- Taking AP Chem, AP Stats, AP Psychology, AP Physics, and a community college Multivariable Calculus course. I’ll probably get all 'A’s this semester, but will any of the schools even see that?

EC:

Summer 2014 interned at a USC bioinformatics research computer lab. Helped with some programming.

Since early this year, I have had a paid internship at a local tech company. Worked there for about 6-8 hours a week during school and about 10-15 hours during last summer.

Decent letters of recommendation, probably.

My essay is maybe an 8.5/10.

Give me a heads up if I’m missing anything major here and I’ll update it. If you think you need to see all my specific courses, just tell me.

Thanks.

2

GREAT Stats! I think Caltech is the only one I would put as a true reach. Cal is a total match as an in-state student. UW is exceptionally easier to get into than many others mentioned. UMich and Carnegie have average scores that are much lower than yours. Since you are a CS major, even a ‘good’ essay will be sufficient for many of these schools, the exception being Caltech. Have you thought of Cal Poly or MIT(as a reach)?

Chance me please! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1816784-chance-me-for-elite-school.html#latest

3

Apply to more of the UC’s since you are instate for them. Also, apply as a Comp Sci major because it gets tricky trying to change majors later.

UW will be expensive since it is a public school and will charge you $60+K per year.

I don’t think you will make the cutoff for Caltech, but you can always try.

Do you have any EC’s that are non-tech related? Right now, that is your weakness.

4

Thanks fore the quick reply! I’m applying to MIT, but it seems incredibly hard to get into. I haven’t looked into Cal Poly, I’ll research it a bit.

5

I’ll be applying to a couple of other UCs, I just didn’t include them in the list. I don’t have any other particularly impressive non-tech related ecs, other than a couple of casual high school clubs. I don’t really think I’ll make the cut for Caltech either, but my father went there and it’s not too much trouble to apply.

6

Overall, you seem to be lacking consistent ec’s. With that in mind:

UW - Likely Accept
UC Berkeley - Hesitantly Accept because you are in-state, but you are going into an extremely competitive field
UIUC - Accept/Waitlist
UT-Austin - Waitlist
UMich - Waitlist
CMU - Reject (sorry too competitive)
Caltech - Reject

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1815927-chance-me-upenn-ed-uchicago-ea-columbia-rd-and-others.html#latest

7

@aunt bea UW is about $45K, and OP will likely receive a $7,500 per year Purple and Gold merit scholarship, bringing the cost down to around $37,500, which is a lot less than “$60+K.”

Your GPA is right in there, and with your fine SAT, I suggest you apply to Washington’s Honors Program: http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/

Good luck!