The Final ChanceMe - CS at T30s+

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m aware my profile isn’t as buffed out as some people’s, but I’ve come to terms with the choices I’ve made. If someone could help me determine whether I have a realistic chance anywhere, I would appreciate it greatly.

Intended Major: Computer Science
State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
School: Large + competitive public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F

SAT: nah
ACT: 36 (36/35/36/36 +11W)
Unweighted GPA: 3.74 (minus senior year, which isn’t… ideal)
Weighted GPA: 4.33 (same as above)
UCGPA: something like 4.04
Rank: n/a

AP: CompSci (5), Lang (5), USH (5)
currently taking CalcAB, Japanese, Gov, and Lit (not taking the Gov test)
dropped out of Physics C (yeah I know :slight_smile:

Extracurriculars:

  • Marching Band (4 years) - drum major, “section” leader for concert - we’re mildly competitive and we brought home some trophies this year but I didn’t write that down)
  • Coding Club (2/3 years) - President - we do lessons and stuff
  • Flute (8 years) - I’m pretty advanced but terrible at auditions so I don’t have any significant achievements. Will likely submit a recording supplement
  • Choir (1 year) - school’s top ensemble
  • A different choir (2 years) - studio recording choir that performed with music organization/s, I’ve arranged for them
  • Japanese club (4 years) - board member - cultural studies+activities
  • Student Tutor (1/2 years) - English, History, Japanese, Physics, ACT
  • Youth Group (4 years) - service officer
  • Church orchestra (3 years) - arrangement, vocal, flute, default conductor (apparently)
  • School’s talent show pit (3 years) - I only put this because I had an extra activity slot

Job/Work Experience:

  • Teaching kids JavaScript at a code teaching business

Volunteer/Community service: nothing that can be written down

Summer Activities: all I did was summer school

Awards

  • Top 3 in a regional Japanese speech competition
  • NMSF
  • NHS
  • AP Scholar
  • ILMEA Senior Chorus

Letters of Rec: History teacher + CompSci teacher + English teacher. should be at least good if not great, was not any “best of my career” type student
Essays: Anywhere from 6/10-9/10 imo

-Destroyed by my ED school
-Applied to Purdue EA, UCB, UCLA, BU, USC (not expecting anything)
-Applying EDII to WashU (visited/etc)
-Applying RD to Case Western (deferred), BC, Duke, Emory, NYU, Northeastern, Rice, Tufts, UM Twin Cities, Notre Dame, UVA, UW Madison, UMich

I’ve applied for a BA in CS to all schools that offered it, BS to schools that didn’t, and for second choice majors, I either picked some random humanities major or went undecided

Already in some safeties that aren’t so great but w/e. Please let me know how many of these are reaches and how many of these are filthy pipe dreams

2

“UCB, UCLA,”

Based on what you wrote in another thread, it appears to be very unlikely that you will be able to afford to be full pay at UCB or UCLA. Assuming that this is true, IMHO your chances are essentially zero for these two schools.

You have one of the best universities in the world for CS in-state. Based on a different thread it looks like you do have some financial constraints (as does nearly every student). Why do you have such a long list of out of state public schools? Did you at least apply to UIUC?

3

I got accepted… as an English major, which was my second choice. A poor choice, considering CS+Music and undeclared engineering was also an option. :frowning:

That’s alright, I wasn’t expecting to go to those schools anyway. I’m shotgunning top schools because my parents think it’s the best option and I’d prefer to leave this state as fast as possible.

4

Oh, I reread your comment. I don’t know about those public schools. They’re schools I personally want to go to, but it depends on whether my parents want to pay for them or not (after talking to them post-previous thread they mentioned that they’d do as much as they could, although an out of state public is understandably a bad choice. going to out of state publics is apparently pretty common in my area)

5

Agree with @DadTwoGirls, the UC’s, for non residents, will be $65K per year. No financial aid for non-residents. It does not appear you will qualify for other federal aid, so assume $0 to attend.

USC will be about $77K with Room and Board. NMF’s get ½ tuition only, so that’s about $26K per year. Your parents would be on the hook for the rest ($51K per year).

6

“I got accepted… as an English major”

I have no idea how hard it would be to change majors at UIUC. Superb grades freshman year, if you can do it, might or might not help with the switch from English to CS at UIUC.

If you are able to switch from English to CS at UIUC, you pretty much cannot find a stronger university for CS. UIUC is really excellent for CS. As one example, US News recently had it ranked 5th, behind only MIT, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, and UC Berkeley, but ahead of Caltech, Harvard, Georgia Tech, UT Austin, Cornell, Princeton, and many, many other excellent universities.

If you get a degree in CS from UIUC, finding a job in either California or Massachusetts or Texas or anywhere else in the US should not be difficult. Employers everywhere in the US will know how good UIUC is for CS.

7

With your stats and profile, I would be advising my child to find a place he/she can attend for free, even if it is one of those “safeties that aren’t so great.”

8

This is very true. Unfortunately, I’ve been told it’s virtually impossible to switch into CS, especially coming from a non-STEM major. The risk of graduating as an English major is, coming from someone that’s only interested in CS, dangerous enough to rule it out unless I get rejected from literally every school (which is definitely an option considering my list).

Upward mobility has its price… Luckily, there are other random safeties I’m applying to for merit aid (mostly from the previous thread), so all of these are just the results of me shotgunning in an attempt to avoid going to UIUC/lower school and getting Asian shamed. At this point I don’t expect to get into USC or the UCs, considering my stats. Would you say any of the other schools are realistic, not from a financial standpoint, but from an academic one?

9

In a bad way? I still have UIUC, even if it’s kind of expensive/wrong major, and my parents won’t let me off without shotgunning to a bunch of T30-50 schools (my dad actually got annoyed that I wanted to apply to IIT)

10

No, sorry. If my child’s heart was set on CS, I would be willing to pay something if the “free” option did not offer CS.

Perhaps it is beyond the point in the process to be weighing merit aid vs prestige. Any of the schools you have listed would be fantastic, but you know the story of competitive admissions.

Many kids that grow in the bubble of a competitive high school can have misconceptions about the quality of education that can be obtained at a school outside the T30. Be open-minded and know that it is highly likely that you will land in a place that will launch you to great things.

11

Dude your stats are literally the same as mine. I think you have great chances at Minnesota and Purdue and fair odds at Emory and Northeastern. The rest of the schools are so selective that it’s anyone’s guess.

12

Did you apply to CS in the College of Science or Engineering at Purdue? If engineering, dropping physics may be a problem.

Be aware that your GC may be asked to submit midterm grades at many of these schools so don’t slack off senior year.

13

Good Luck. If you are interested in continuing in band in college, Rice has the MOB, which is a scatter type band. If you mention the MOB on your application it might make you stand out in your application. Rice allows you to major in anything you want including CS (except music and architecture which require audition/portfolio). You do not have to declare your major until the end of sophomore year. Many people change majors and/or double major.