Demographics: Asian-American
State: Florida
Intended Major: Computer Science
SAT: 1470/1600
ACT: 33
Rank: School doesn’t rank
GPA: 3.379 UW, 3.97 W using core classes (UW scale of 4, W scale of 5)
Coursework: Every class was honors or AP with the exception of PE ( 1 semester required course). 4 AP’s from 9th-11th grade. Senior year 4 AP’s, other 3 honors
Senior year APs: Chinese, Government, Physics 1, Statistics
Awards: National Merit Semifinalist, science fair chosen to be displayed at school science fair in 11th grade, AP scholar
Extracurriculars: Played violin since I was 6 years old, in a youth orchestra since 6th grade (still doing it this year) that practices 2 hours every week during school year, camp counselor for 3 years (job), internship at a museum for a year where I built a rube goldberg machine to teach physics to visitors, volunteered at a youth activity center for a few months one year, college summer program for 2 weeks summer prior to 9th grade for foreign language, President of Chinese Club and First Priority, Member of Chinese Honor Society, Programming club, Rho Kappa, NHS
So far, my college list is only FSU, UF, UCF, and University of Washington at Seattle. I have no idea what types of schools are my match/reach and I’m looking for good computer science schools. My main concern is my GPA, because it is pretty low for most competitive schools. I’ve had 3 C+'s, majority B’s then A’s. School is semester-based.
University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Amherst, MA) - Top 20 computer science program and I think you should get in. Provides a very rigorous CS education. Expensive OOS (~$40,000!), but I think you should get a scholarship. The CS program should be significantly stronger than UF and FSU IMO (though I’m not sure you should pay OOS tuition for UMASS - it’s not really that much better - hopefully you get money).
Northeastern University (Boston, MA) - It’s ranked 63 in computer science but I think it should really be in the top 40. They’ve made some phenomenal CS faculty hires and have gotten much more selective. Will be fairly expensive barring a big scholarship though.
UMN Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul, MN) - Solid engineering school with a very good CS department (stronger than UF and FSU, if I may). Scholarships for OOS students, though I’m not sure whether you’d qualify with your GPA. Nonresident tuition is reasonable.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) - Solid engineering school with a good CS department. Should be in the top 50 or so. Fairly expensive barring scholarship.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA) - Solid engineering school with an OK CS department. I think the CS program is unfortunately weaker than Northeastern and RPI and probably on par with the Florida schools. It’s a unique and fairly progressive school that emphasizes project-based learning. Fairly expensive barring scholarship.
Don’t forget, as a National Merit Semifinalist you could qualify the Florida Incentive Scholarship (FIS, or Benacquisto ), which pays full COA to attend a Florida Public University (that’s tuition, room and board, and other cost).