Sophomore searching for top CS/Math schools

College Search & Selection
1

Hello,

I’m brand new to this forum and was looking for some help constructing a list of colleges.

The only standardized test score I have at the moment is the PSAT. I got 720 on the reading/writing and 700 on the math.

I have a 4.0 GPA and am among the top 4 students at my high school.
Here is my planned schedule for the rest of high school:

Freshman (AP HumanGeo, Honors Lit, Bio, Alg. 2, French 2, Intro to Engineering, PE, Audition orchestra)
Sophomore (AP World, Honors lit, Chem, Precalc, French 3, AP CS, Journalism(making the school newspaper), Aud. Orc.)
Junior (AP USH, AP Lang, Honors Physics, AP Calc AB, AP French 4, advanced CS projects, Journalism editor)
Senior (AP Gov, AP Lit, Research Project, AP Calc BC, AP French 4, AP Chem, Journalism editor in chief, journalism work period)

That would be 12 AP tests total (only one AP french test).

Now for my extracurriculars:

I have club swimming practice 20 hours a week, 42 weeks a year. I made it to State freshman year and this year. I will almost certainly make it junior and senior year and be a captain senior year.

I joined FRC robotics club this year. My main role is to teach Java to three freshman. I will encourage them to take the AP CS test this year and they will likely pass with 3s. Next year, I will have the option between being robotics president and chief of software design.

I will apply for a summer internship at Microsoft junior year (I live in the Seattle/Bellevue area).

I am learning German from my best friend who is from Bavaria. I should be able to get 600+ on the SAT subject test.

I would like to major in Math and Computer Science to become a university professor. Here is my current list of schools I would be applying to:

Rice
Caltech
MIT
Cornell
Princeton
Stanford
Harvey Mudd
Berkley
Carnegie Mellon
Swarthmore
University of Washington

Any suggestions about what colleges I should apply to/should not apply to would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

2

Do your best to get direct admission to the CS major at Washington, so that you won’t have to face the highly competitive secondary admission process that undeclared students have to go through to get into the CS major.

It looks like your list has no true safeties (Washington may be a safety for admission to the school if you keep doing well in high school, but direct admission to the CS major is unlikely to be a safety for anyone). Of course, a true safety must be affordable, so you need to talk to your parents about what they will contribute and run the net price calculator on every school that you are considering.

Note that math is also a competitive admission major at Washington.

Berkeley will be expensive for an out-of-state student. The EECS major is one of the most selective majors for frosh admission. The L&S CS major requires admission to L&S first (entering as undeclared), with a 3.30 GPA in the prerequisites needed to enter the L&S CS major. The math major (in L&S) just requires C grades in the prerequisites to declare.

3

Your list is mostly reaches. Although it’s okay to keep the list for now, you might want to cut it down to around 4-6 by senior year. Also, the list contains a variety of rather different colleges, although all great at math. I suggest creating word documents for each school and write down specific reasons for why you like each of them. Name programs, clubs, or environmental and structural advantages each school has. Not only will this help you narrow down your list (you’ll realize there are schools that you don’t actually like too much or as much as the others), these reasons can help you write your “Why College” essays later.

I did this near the end of my Sophomore year, and I created new documents for each college I added to my list. It has helped me keep focused on the schools I actually like, and whenever a new school comes up, I can easily compare it to the rest of my list.

You have a strong profile so far. If you continue this, you can choose any school to apply to, finances permitting. Be sure you apply to the ones that fit you best.

4

In terms of universities not listed in your original post, these are a few that should be considered:

UChicago
UPenn
WUStL
URochester
UCLA

With respect to smaller colleges that may be appropriate for you, professors from these schools appear to be the first to have actively initiated and designed a model CS curriculum for liberal arts colleges:

Williams
Swarthmore
Hamilton
Amherst
Vassar
Washington & Lee
Colgate
Allegheny
Bowdoin

Some of these smaller schools have extensive math offerings. Their course catalog listings can be quite descriptive and interesting to read through. Most would be excellent choices for PhD preparation.

(Source for some information: Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium.)

5

Do you have any usaswimming AAA cuts? If so you may be able to swim at an Ivy. Compare you times to each school’s team.

Also consider Case Western, Lehigh, Penn.

6

I am from an upper middle class family, so finances aren’t an issue for me.

The main reason I was considering applying to so many reach schools is their low acceptance rates. If they have acceptance rates of around 10% and I apply to 10, then I should get into at least one.

I am an extreme introvert and if you are familiar with Myer Briggs theory, an INTJ. I want to avoid party schools and would prefer smaller schools.

I don’t want to apply to any more reach schools like UChicago or UPenn unless they have an amazing computer science department.

I’ll consider URochester, Case Western, and Lehigh.

I’ll probably only get AA times in swimming.

7

Even if you have a 10% chance (optimistic) at each of 10 schools, and each decision is an independent event (they are not), the chance you will be shut out of those 10 is 35%.

8

I’d add in Carleton, if you prefer small schools. Top notch in math and CS, and among the very highest producers of kids that go on to get Ph.D.s, which would, of course, be mandatory if you want to be a college professor.

9

You need to know more about statistics. A highly qualified applicant may have a better than 10% shot, but a less qualified has a less than 10% shot. Your test scores (I know just PSATs now) need to come up. And 600+ on one subject test isn’t very competitive. You need to add some matches with higher acceptance rates.

10

If you apply to 10 schools with 10% acceptance rates, that does NOT mean you’ll get into one.

Seconding Case Western. I’ve heard there’s not much drug use, at least compared to other top schools.

Here’s some matches/safeties without tons of partying:
-Baylor University
-Biola University
-Florida Institute of Technology
-Gordon College
-Mount Holyoke College
-Point Loma Nazarene University

11

A 1420 on the PSAT as a sophomore is terrific. There’s no reason to suppose the OP won’t have elite-level scores by the time he’s actually applying. It is true, though, that subject test scores under 700 won’t add much to an application. Fewer and fewer schools are even requiring them, however.

12

OP here’s some general thoughts (no list of schools, except you might want to take a look at Rose Hulman). You have a good list there for the reaches/dream schools. Now go back and do the research for Match and Safeties.

RIGOR (CLASSES/TESTS):
Why are you taking AP French 4 twice?
Does your school offer Honors Precalculus – or only a regular, non-honors version of Precalculus? The reason I ask is because I’m wondering if advanced math comes easily to you. If it does, you might prefer to go directly to AP Calculus BC and skip the AB version of it.
If you consolidated both of those (AP French 4 and AP Calc BC), then you would have room in your schedule to take both AP Physics and AP Bio. your senior year – which would give you a stronger STEM profile when you apply to STEM colleges/majors. Also CS is in the Engineering dept of some universities – in which case they would strongly look at your Calculus, Chem and Physics choices. They’ll also require SAT Subject tests in Math 2 and either Chem or Physics. Usually it’s best to take these subject tests immediately after (or before) you take the AP test in May or June.
Also for your AP test scores, you may want to shoot for 4s and 5s (not 3s). Shoot for 750 - 800 for your SAT Subject tests. You only need 2 - 3 good ones in your areas of strength.
A 600 in German will be meaningless for those schools for admission – although it might be helpful as “certification” in the language if you ever want to do an internship or study abroad in Germany. On the other hand, if you can bring it into the 700 range, it could be meaningful for admissions because then you would’ve “learned 2 world languages” – which I believe is considered a desirable trait in admissions.

ExtraCurriculars:
Ideally, it’s really helpful to achieve awards at the state and/or national level for the most elite schools.
Are you likely to be recruitable for swimming? If so, then this is your strongest Ace.
Does your robotics team tend to win at a regional, state or national level?
Have you ever tried any of the academic Olympiads? If not, you might want to give the math and programming (and maybe even the linguistic) ones a try to see if you like them (and can excel at them) – just google USAMO, USACO, and NACLO. The reason that I suggest looking into this is because while robotics is a great EC and it will look good to have demonstrated leadership there – it’s always difficult to measure individual achievement, and give it the strongest weight, in a team setting…unless you’re the president of the team and your team wins State or Nationals. But for the tippy top schools, it would also be good to show individual achievement. And these Olympiads give individuals an opportunity to do that.

13

Northeastern has a great CS program and would be a match for you if your stats continue as expected.

Also check out these for match/safety:
Boston University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Rensellear Polytechnic Institute

14

Here is a list of CS course offerings at many smaller schools:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19082841/#Comment_19082841

15

I got those PSAT scores without any studying. My math score was lower because I didn’t have time to finish. I plan to take prep in SAT/ACT this summer in addition to PSAT(to get National Merit Scholarship). After that, I expect to get a 800.

My school does not offer honors precalculus. It also has never allowed a student to skip AP calc AB. However, I’m pretty much a genius at math: I have gotten full points on every test so far. While in class, the teacher lets me sleep or do homework for other classes. So… I might ask my counselor/teacher if I could independently learn calc AB and enroll in calc BC next year. However, is there any benefit to that? I don’t think it will raise my weighted GPA (and class rank).

My school does not offer AP physics. Ironically, our honors physics is actually significantly harder than it.

For other APs my school has bio, es, and psych.

Would it be better to do a research project senior year or another AP? Especially because the computer science projects class junior year is also a research class.

16

I take it your high school has a slow paced calculus sequence (first year AB = material in first semester college calculus, second year BC = material in second semester college calculus), rather than the BC course being a one year course covering the material in the first two semesters of college calculus?

If so, then you are kind of stuck with that sequence, unless you can take calculus at a nearby college in 11th grade and then make use of that advancement to take some more advanced math courses (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, discrete math) at the college in 12th grade. Whether that is possible or worth the effort is something only you can determine, though it seems that many Washington resident students mention to a Running Start program where high school students take college courses at nearby colleges.

If French 4 is the highest level of French in your high school, and you will complete it in 11th grade, you may want to consider taking an appropriately advanced French course at a nearby college if you want to continue in French, or take an academic elective in high school, rather than taking French 4 again.

17

If a 600 on German wouldn’t look good, what would? In all honesty, that was a complete guess. If I could reach the equivalent of 4 high school years of experience what would be a reasonable score, considering I am nearly on par with the heritage speakers? I know I would be competing with native speakers. Do colleges care that I’m learning this language by myself?

18

@ucbalumnus “I take it your high school has a slow paced calculus sequence”

I was thinking that too. If you are going for top schools, I would consider taking BC Junior year and MV Senior year. That has become fairly common for top students.

19

University of Michigan