Please evaluate me!!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>What are my Chances at:
Cal Poly
USD
UC's
USC</p>

<p>Would like to major in COMPUTER SCIENCE / ENGINEERING</p>

<p>Stats:
Junior White So. Cal. Male
SAT:1830 (700M, 500V, 630W)
SAT IIs: French 760, Math IIc 700
ACT:27
GPA:4.0 (W)</p>

<p>Curriculum:
9th-, Spanish 2, Biology, English, Drama, Geometry
10th- Spanish 3, Chemistry, English, AP World History, Algebra 2
11th-AP French, Physics, Honors English, AP US History, Trig/Pre-Calc, Health
12th- WILL BE-AP Stats, AP Calc AB, AP Physics, English, Economics, 3-D Media Design</p>

<p>ECs:
School tennis team (9,10,11)
Boy Scouts (9,10,11)
Club FISH (9,10,11)
Tutor (9,10,11)
Club TAP (9,10,11)
100+ C.S. hours (9,10,11)
Church Youth Group (9,10, 11)
Academic Decatholon (9,10,11)
Computer Programming Summer Course (11)
Leadership:
Ping-Pong President at my school
Leader of my Boy Scout Troop</p>

<p>Awards:
Academic Decatholon Medals in Math and Essay
Academic Letter
Eagle Scout
California Scholarship Federation(CSF)</p>

<p>THANKS IN ADVANCE!</p>

2

<p>Grad'06:</p>

<p>UCLA/UCB: Reach (Engineering)
UCSD: Reach (Engineering)
UCD/UCSB/UCI: Match
UCSC/UCR/UCM: Safe Match
Cal Poly SLO: Slight Reach (Engineering)
USD: Safe Match
USC: Reach (Engineering)</p>

3

<p>The 500 verbal can totally derail you. Take prep classes to raise that score for much better chances at all of your schools. Seriously, nothing is a match with a 500 verbal.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

5

<p>agreed try to raise your math 50 points.. your verbal by about 150-200
and your writing 70 that will put you in the 2100-2150 range.</p>

6

<p>The reason I do so poorly in Verbal and Writing is because English is my second language and I never speak it at home.</p>

7

<p>Will colleges take that into consideration when looking at my application?</p>

8

<p>Make sure that they know about. It could be a topic in you essay. You might have your guidance counselor include it their recommendation.</p>

9

<p>Thanks, I also heard that for the UC application, it is one for all of them and you check the schools you want your application to go to. How does that work exactly? Is there an extra charge? Does that mean you only need to write 3 essays?</p>

10

<p>Also, I heard that for the UC system, the GPA is twice as important asthe SAT when they are reviewing the application (2:1). Is that true?
How many additional points do they give for honors classes?</p>

11

<p>is it true?</p>

12

<p>"Thanks, I also heard that for the UC application, it is one for all of them and you check the schools you want your application to go to. How does that work exactly? Is there an extra charge? Does that mean you only need to write 3 essays?"</p>

<p>Yes, you check as many schools you want to apply to, and you have to pay a fee (I think it's $55) for each school. You only have to write one set of three essays for the entire UC system, and they get sent to each school you checked off.</p>

<p>"Also, I heard that for the UC system, the GPA is twice as important asthe SAT when they are reviewing the application (2:1). Is that true?
How many additional points do they give for honors classes?"</p>

<p>I don't know the answer to the first one, but honors classes get a 0.5 point addition in calculating the UC GPA.</p>

13

<p>What? No AP CS? Seriously consider taking it next year. If your school doesn't offer it, self-study. It's rather difficult to be a competitive CS major applicant without taking AP CS first.</p>

<p>Do USACO as well.</p>

14

<p>tanoev:
what is USACO?</p>

<p>and right now i am taking a "Intro to Computer Systems class at a Community College." i wanted to do C++ programming but they canceled the class b/c not enough people wanted to take it. this summer i am also taking a website development class which last about 1 month. next fall i am taking a 3d media animaion class at my school (hardest computer class available there) becuase AP CS is not offered. I will also take a programming class probably C++ at a community college during the fall and maybe self study AP CS and take the test in may. do you think that could be enough?
if it is not enough by the time i do my college application should i just not put an intended major and put undecided, or should i put just engineering or should i still put CS? which one will give me the best chance of getting in to say UCI, UCSB, or Cal Poly.</p>

15

<p>go to ace.delos.com/usacogate
USACO = USA Computing Olympiad = masochistic speed coding :)</p>

<p>Just display your passion for CS, not necessarily your accomplishments in CS. UCI shouldn't be too hard to get into...</p>

<p>Also considering coding your own game. It's fun, and it demonstrates your commitment and ingenuity in CS. Note: the more difficult the language you use, the better; Java games are more impressive than Flash games because more of it is coding from scratch and not using built-in tools, and C++ games are even better. (Personally, I used a couple of Visual Basic games to improve my CS skills, which was interesting, since Visual Basic is business-oriented.)</p>

16

<p>by the way i boosted my sat to an 1870 (720m 620w 530v). i am taking that intro to comp sci but it is not challenging enough and it does not teach me programming.
should i go buy a book on C++ programming? is it easy to use? will i learn to program quickly if i read it?</p>

17

<p>C++ can be a really hard thing to do once you get into the Object Oriented Programming (OOP) features, but it isn't bad at the beginning. Find a book that looks like you can understand it, you'll know when you see it. You will need a C++ compiler on your PC.</p>

18

<p>Try Java if you don't like C++...but really, Java & C++ aren't that different...
C++: faster, builtin QuickSort, platform-dependent compiler, more memory leak potential
Java: slower, QuickSort NOT builtin, platform-independent bytecode, less memory leak potential</p>

<p>Syntax of the two are virtually identical...</p>

<p>Generally, you grow to love whichever one you learn first</p>

<p>Intro to Comp Systems IS NOT the same as Intro to Comp Sci. Don't mix the two up on your app, or that will reflect pretty negatively...</p>

<p>Intro to Comp Systems sounds like tech support stuff
Intro to Programming = AP Comp Sci A & most of AB = learn how to program
Intro to Comp Sci = some of AP Comp Sci AB = learn REAL CS, which is entirely different.</p>

<p>For CS Majors:
Intro to Programming is expected of competitive students
Intro to Comp Sci is expected of ambitious students</p>

19

<p>And as to the difficulty of learning a programming language:</p>

<p>Programming requires a large initial investment of time and energy. Your first language will always be your hardest. From then on, it gets easier.
My first language: QuickBASIC, took 3 years to make anything even remotely useful (that also could have been since I started when I was 8 years old and didn't understand a thing lol)
Second language: Visual Basic, took 1 year to learn
Subsequent languages:
MATLAB: 6 months
Java: 3 weeks
Rex: 3 weeks
Prolog: 2 weeks</p>

<p>see the trend? Since you're first starting out, it'll be rough...but know that once you get over that first bump, it's smooth sailing...</p>

<p>*I gave the time it took for me to code comfortably in the language. I continued to learn many new things about the languages in the months and years to come.</p>

20

<p>I see you're really good at math! Work on you're verbal scores though! You appear to be a good writer. What other language do you speak? Try to capitalize on it in ur app.</p>