<p>ACT: 33
SAT II: 800 Physics 800 Chemistry 790 Math 2
Singapore GCE A levels:
Higher 2s: Physics-A Chem-A Math-A
Higher 1s: Chinese-A Project Work-A Economics-B General Paper-C</p>
<p>**
Extracurricular:**</p>
<p>-Varsity Judo (National Runner-up, round of 16 in International Cadet Judo C'ship).
-Film society.
-A bit of art and graphic design, but nothing special.
-IOS game making (non-commercial).</p>
<p>Work Experience:</p>
<p>-Web builder for a local distributor
-Production assistant at a local studio
-Conscripted soldier (2 years)
**
Volunteer/Community service:**</p>
<p>-Various local charitable organisations (MINDS ACRES etc)
-Founder of a design group that offers free graphic design for charitable NPOs.</p>
<p>Test scores are fine, EC good, good that you have iOS development experience during high school. I think you have as good a shot as any other high-caliber candidate. </p>
<p>I have a place in NUS (National University of Singapore) so I guess that’s my safety :)</p>
<p>I’m not entirely confident of getting accepted at CMU for computer science actually. It’s probably the most competitive faculty of the entire school, from what I’ve heard.</p>
<p>I think my main weakness would be my school transcript. I wasn’t doing well in school in year 3,4 and 5 but my final A levels result is decent.</p>
<p>Would that significantly affect my application? And are the universities generally accepting of an explanation for my bad grades in school prior to A levels.</p>
<p>I think you have a good chance of getting in. test scores are great and so are the ec’s because they really show interest about your major. make sure to have some safety though because you never know.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. Btw will the UCB EECS be a reach for me? I’ve heard that the acceptance rate is close to 10% overall, and it would probably be even lower for Asian applicants.</p>
<p>Should I just apply to LCS instead and major in Computer Science there? Or is there any way that I can apply to both?</p>
<p>Anybody who thinks Stanford or Harvard is a low reach for anybody clearly doesn’t know anything about the college process or those two schools…If he had a 36 ACT and better grades he still wouldn’t be a low reach for them. An cornell being a match with a 33 ACT? Common.</p>
<p>I’ve heard from many people that top schools like the Ivy schools or Stanford do not really care if you ACT is 33 or 36, because they are not short of Asians who can perform well in tests. Instead they prefer students with outstanding ECs or work experiences that demonstrate passion and exceptional ability (relative to peers) in the relevant major.</p>
<p>Is it true or are a few marks on the ACT still extremely important?</p>
<p>Oh and I believe a 33 in the ACT will be above average in the class of 2012.</p>
<p>The upper ivies are going to be very high-reach. Cornell mid-high reach. My CS friends who go to ivies have placed in intel STS, ISEF, have used super computers, etc.</p>
<p>CS at CMU is probably #1 in the nation. However, for undergrad I would go for high-ranked schools even if sacrificing the reputation of individual departments/programs. It makes the networking and finding a good job after school much easier.</p>