Reverse Chance an Asian male for CS (actually I just want to know if I'm on the right track for T20s

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a sophomore that goes to one of top 10 public high schools in CA. Any feedback is appreciated!

GPA: 4.0UW/4.14W (taking more APs so expecting a 4.3W by senior year)

PSAT: 1470/1520 → Expecting 1550+ SAT

SAT Subject tests: Planning to take Math 2 and Physics, expecting 780+ on both

APs: CSA, Calc AB, Bio, all 5s → Taking Stats, USH, and Lang by junior year and Physics C, Lit, Calc BC senior year

Sports: Volleyball and a sport not in my school that I can’t be recruited for in college

Clubs: STEM, starting a Coding Club next year

Awards:

AIME Qualification

USACO Gold

ECs:

4 years of ASB

Competed at the international level of the non-HS sport for the USA team last summer, took home some medals

Paid work at a coding school for kids

Selected to go to Sacramento for free to learn about the government

Interning at an after-school as a Math Olympiad coach

Here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish in the next 2 years (in the order I expect):

Create a coronavirus website (currently in the process - I have some creative ideas)

Develop an app and enter it into a competition

USACO Platinum

USAPhO qualification

Attend a summer camp next year (hopefully a well-known one)

Do math or CS research, hopefully with a professor

Become president in ASB, my non-HS sport, STEM, and varsity volleyball

Assuming the above all happen: would you say that I have the stats and ECs for T20s and Ivies, and my admission would be based on my essays and LORs?

Also, after my trip to Sacramento, I realized I enjoy politics. Should I do more ECs related to politics or focus on the above ECs?

Thank you so much!

2

You already almost have the stats and ECs for T20s and Ivies, and your admission would be based on my essays and LORs. Keep in mind though that doing research now is almost unattainable because professors are inundated with requests from undergrads who had internships and resume-builders taken away from them by COVID, and thus are less receptive to high schoolers.
You’re on the right track.

3

Thank you for the response. You have a good point about COVID affecting research opportunities.

4

I think that you are doing very well. There are only three things that I would emphasize:

First of all, understand that to do very well with a career in computer science you do not need to attend a “top 20” university. I work with CS graduates from MIT and Stanford and UNH and U.Mass Amherst and some of the IIT’s and a wide range of other schools. You can get a great education at a wide range of schools and “prestige” does not matter to software engineers. What you can do and whether you are a responsible person to work with does matter.

Secondly, make sure that you are doing things that you want to do. If you participate in extracurricular activities that you want to participate in, then you are likely to do them well.

Finally, I expect that you already know this but understand that “leadership” means helping other people in a fair and level headed way.

I think that you are doing very well and will succeed regardless of where you attend university.

Also, do not freak out if you do eventually get a B at some point.

5

Thank you. I will stop worrying about what colleges to apply to and continue my ECs, which I (thankfully) enjoy.

6

Your profile looks a lot like most other URM applicants. Here are the things working against your 1) CS major 2) California 3) Race 4) ECs. Your stats are excellent, so no worry there. But the issue with getting into a top-20 is that you look too much like everyone else. Kids with this type of profile are a dime a dozen at the top 20 schools. Read through the threads here – you’ll see lots of kids with similar stats who get rejected across the board at top colleges.

It would be refreshing, however, if you were to realign yourself as a politics person. That is not at all typical among URM applicants. Here is what I would do if I were you:

  1. Spend some time doing politics related ECs and see if you really like it
  2. Use the existing skill sets that you already have (prob programming/CS) on some political datasets.
  3. Pick a college in the T20 that you like the most and apply binding ED. There are many that have nonbinding EA but these generally don’t help for URMs.
  4. Keep your grades up - they are the most important. Obviously spend time studying for the standardized tests. But once you hit the 1500/33 threshold you don’t need to improve further.

Your biggest challenge will be coming up with a story/narrative that is compelling for an admissions committee. For this you will need to stand out. Good luck.

7

Sorry typo. I meant ORM, not URM. Apologies

8

@sgopal2 If I find that I enjoy politics and do some strong ECs related to politics, do you suggest that I write about it in my essays? Might be a little bit early to ask that, but the reason I’m asking is that I was planning to write my essay on my non-HS sport (I have a pretty unique story, I think).
Thank you for your response, btw.

9

Absolutely write about it. The essays are the most important way to tell your story. Carefully curate your EC list. You don’t need to list everything. Put everything together so that everything fits together in a neat one liner…“He’s the Computational Politics kid from California”

Other stuff like sports can help, but you don’t want to dilute the message. The people reading your apps don’t have a lot of time. You’ll only have about 1-2 minutes of their attention.

10

Come back and ask once you have a SAT score and SAT subject scores. In addition, saying that you will USAPhO qualification and USACO Platinum are easier said than done. IF you continue on what youre doing, I think you’ll get into a T20. However, as mentioned above, I don’t understand what you are trying to do. It doesnt seem like CS at all. You need your ECs to be more focused.