Target schools for a high stats/meh ECs rising senior

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
State: Texas
Asian male
Middle class

Intended Major(s) - Computer science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.57/5.0
  • Class Rank: 18/≈1300 (top 1.5%) at ultra-competitive public school
  • ACT: 35 (36 science, 35 math, 35 reading, 35 writing)
    SAT: 1550 (800 math, 750 reading)

Coursework
APs taken -

  • AP Human Geography (5)
  • AP CSP (4)
  • AP World History (4)
  • AP Calculus BC (5)

APs currently taking

  • AP Chemistry
  • AP Statistics
  • AP Lang
  • AP US History
  • AP Comp Sci A

Senior year courseload
AP Gov
AP Macroeconomics
AP French 4
Dual Credit Multivariable Calculus
CS 3 Data Structures
AP Physics C

Extracurriculars

  • Violin in school’s chamber orchestra (9-11th)
  • Carnatic (Indian classical) vocalist and violinist (9-11th) - have done quite a few fundraisers and 1+ hour concerts
  • Business Professionals of America (10-11th) - participate in both IT and economics related events
  • Computer Club (11th) - participated in a few regional programming contests, but didn’t win anything
  • Part of a student run non-profit where I teach coding workshops for younger kids and help organize very small-scale hackathons (11th)
  • Summer internship at a small tech company
  • Selected for a research internship at local university for the upcoming summer
  • Going to try to do a personal project over the summer

Awards

  • National champion in a computer science event in BPA
  • 3rd place state in an economics event in BPA
  • 2x Texas All State Orchestra
  • Carnatic music award
  • Congressional Award Bronze medal (100 hours volunteering, 50 hours physical fitness, 50 hours personal development within a one-year span)
  • A few random CS certificates I earned through certification tests and online courses
  • National Merit Semifinalist (1500 PSAT)

Essays/LORs/Other
I’m a pretty strong writer so hopefully essays will turn out good. Recs will probably be decent since I’m a very good student and participate in class, but they definitely won’t stand out.

Schools
Safeties: UTD, A&M
Schools I’m thinking of applying to: UT Austin (really hoping for UT to pull through cuz of my high rank), Georgia Tech, Purdue, UIUC (CS+econ), UMD, Umass Amherst, Northeastern, Rice, Harvey Mudd, Cornell (ED), a couple more ivies, CMU

Out of the schools I listed above, which ones, if any, are target schools, and which ones are reaches? Also, are there any other target schools that I can apply to?

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What’s standing out for you regarding schools on your list? Why are you considering ED at Cornell? Are you looking for a bigger state school? Do you like the cold? Are you looking for a bigger state school? It’s OK to have some variety in your list, it’s hard to know what you really want?

Pick out your top 3-4 schools on your list and write down a few things you like about each school (and don’t like). That will make it easier to narrow down some suggestions for you.

If you like Cornell, you might want to consider Bucknell and Lehigh
If you like UT Austin but want to be in the North East, you might look at Penn State,Pitt & Rutgers

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What’s your budget?

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Tbh, I’m not rly sure what I want in a college other than a good social life, a strong curriculum, and good internship/job/recruitment opportunities. I don’t have any preference in terms of weather, and I think the schools I listed (with the exception of Harvey Mudd) all fit my criteria.

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Cost isn’t an issue for my family thankfully.

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By “cost isn’t an issue” you mean you have explicitly discussed this with your parents and they have told you they can pay up to $320k without incurring unreasonable debt?
Just want to be sure.

Pretty much all the schools on your list are reaches or very high targets. Do you have additional “likely” schools on your list that you haven’t mentioned?

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I am an only child so yes, they don’t have a problem with paying.

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Do you have any suggestions on possible target schools?

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You are a strong candidate and are likely to get one or more offers at the schools on your list. I could definitely see you being accepted to the most selective among these. But most of these schools (or CS programs for those that have direct entry to the major) have far more highly qualified candidates than they can take. There have been stories of very high stat individuals in the top 6% of their classes who got into UT, but couldn’t get a CS or business major. The Georgia Tech results thread was stunning in terms of the students who were denied or waitlisted. Same for almost all of these colleges. Essentially, all of these colleges have denied admission to students who had a very similar background to you (though they also accepted many like you). Most of these CS programs probably have admit rates below 10%. The CS + Econ path at UIUC probably improves your odds, but I’m not sure how much better the odds are. And a lot of these programs which were likelies for top students like you a couple of years ago have become much more competitive in the last year or two.

I have categorized your list based on my very fallible sense of what might be your chances of acceptance. These categories are not based on you being unworthy in any way; it is simply a matter of my sense of the odds and the numbers of top applicants these programs are receiving. If I had to guess, I’d probably put you at the likelier end of each of these categories, but that is just a guess.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • UT – Dallas (if you’re a National Merit Finalist)

Likely (60-79%)

  • Texas A&M (extremely likely for admission, but with the secondary admission for a CS major, this makes it iffier)

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • U Mass-Amherst
  • UT – Austin

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Cornell ED (drop to Low Probability if no longer ED)
  • Northeastern

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • UIUC (CS + Econ)
  • Georgia Tech
  • Purdue
  • Rice
  • Harvey Mudd
  • Carnegie Mellon
  • U. of Maryland
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Thx for making such an organized post. Those odds are actually better than I was expecting, and I’d be happy to get into even one of those target/reach colleges.

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Sounds like your do have some preferences and truthfully those are more important than things like location and appealing architecture!

Take a look at how the curriculum varies by school. If you like the Co-Op program at Northeastern you could look at Drexel. Some schools have a set core some have more of an open curriculum. Take a look at WPI’s project based curriculum.

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I’m glad you found the list above helpful; just remember, I’m only one random person on the internet :blush:. Your list feels as though it is primarily just a listing from a ranking site for top CS programs. Have you visited any colleges? If so, what were your impressions of them (positive or negative)?

With respect to finding out what you do want, what is your ideal kind of social life in college? Are there any particular activities you would like to try or to continue while in college (for instance, any of your ECs)? Are there any particular parts of the U.S. where you would like to live after you graduate? What are your thoughts about the importance of intercollegiate athletics/particular sports or Greek life? Do you prefer an urban, suburban, or rural location?

For instance, I decided to look into Carnatic music at U.S. colleges. There is an Indian Classical Music Association at Purdue. Wesleyan has a South Indian Vocal ensemble (and it’s considered one of the top liberal arts colleges for CS majors). Or if there was a community organization, like the Indian Fine Arts Academy or San Diego, you could looking into UC San Diego, San Diego State, or U. of San Diego (last one is private).

Any sense you have about what you’re interested in can help commenters here to provide better suggestions.

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Check out RIT. Strong CS, well established co-op program with big name employers, and a focus on performing arts for non-music majors. With your stats you should qualify for merit, so you can use the money you saved your parents to do the accelerated BS/Masters program. And they will take your AP credits, so you could even finish with a Masters in 4-5 years.

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Texas A&M is automatic admission to the campus for top 10% rank Texas applicants. However, admission to the engineering division is not automatic: https://engineering.tamu.edu/admissions-and-aid/apply-now.html . But the bigger issue is the 3.75 college GPA needed to enter the CS major in the ETAM process. 3.75 is the automatic admission college GPA for any of the engineering division majors, but CS and a few other majors are so popular that there is no space for any more in the competitive admission process for those with college GPA below 3.75.

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So your list is great - and you will have many opportunities at those schools.

So I ask you this - your parents can afford - and it’s more than $320K because some like Cornell are already more than $80K a year, there’s inflation - and then extra living costs - for things like your social life.

With your GPA / ACT, you can get wonderful scholarships at fine schools - Alabama, Arizona, Miss State, Florida State, Utah and so many more (UAH if you want smaller) - to the point where you could be out $20K a year or less - would that help your family? I mean, why spend if you don’t need to, especially for that major.

Or you might find strong schools that are strong with merit that are a tad below - a Colorado School of Mines, a Case Western or Rochester - or a Minnesota instead of a Purdue if you like large. South Carolina and Arizona State are two more - and are the two highest rated honors colleges in the country The point is - you are an outstanding candidate - and you will have many opportunities if you play it right and could save your parents $200K+. Just because they can spend doesn’t mean they need to - especially in that major.

I would also look at SMU and W&L - because again, you might snake a full ride.

Looking at your list - I think UMD and UMASS are target although in CS you never know. The rest (other than your listed safeties) are safeties. Obviously you get into UT but do you get into the major?

Most importantly now - go visit some schools - because you aren’t sure what you want.

Assuming you are in Texas, go to a Rice, a Trinity, a UT or A&M…find the small, medium, and large. Go to a rural, an urban…a suburban, etc.

Go to one with big sports, greek…go feel the vibe…so you can come back and say - well a CMU - that’s too small for me, but neighboring Pitt, in the city, with so much beyond tech…just the energy feels “better” for me.

Then you can make a better list…a list that’s right for you but not one culled from - I heard these are good in CS.

Good luck.

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For one of the more hilarious threads in recent CC history you may want to catch this one before the juicy parts disappear:

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The co-op program was what drew me to Northeastern so I’ll definitely look into Drexel.

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I’ve visited UT once and I liked the feel of the large campus in the city. For location, I guess it would be good if the college was located in a tech hub like Austin to make it easier to find internships and opportunities. I think I’d prefer a college with a larger social atmosphere and in terms of extracurriculars, I definitely want to continue both Western and Carnatic music throughout college if possible. I plan on playing in the college orchestra wherever I go.

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I’ll get a full ride to UTD and I think AnM will give me some money as well because of National Merit if I want to save money. UTD is a great fallback plan for me since it has a solid CS program and pretty good job outcomes.

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You’re a very strong student who has challenged himself in and out of the classroom. You’ll have some great opportunities from your list. It’s an appropriate list, too, but I see Northeastern and UMass Amhearst as the square pegs. As someone above said, RIT, Case Western, and Drexel might be better choices - look into them. These would be Likelies/Matches for you. Use your EA and ED options wisely.

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