I’m a high school junior looking to major in CS, and I just found out about USACO like a week ago. Yes, I know that’s really poor timing. I wanted to know, is it really important for college admissions to get a good rank? Obvsly, I’m probably not going to make above silver before my college apps. I have prior programming experience, and think that if I basically drop everything else in my life and focus on practicing, I can make at least bronze. Is it worth doing that?
To be clear, I’m not aiming as high as others on this site are. My reach isn’t MIT or anything like that, I’m aiming for more like a UC, maybe UC Berkeley/LA you know. With that in mind, do you think USACO Bronze/Silver can make or break my app? Is not having it a big deal? (for context, I’m pretty good on my other ecs and academics - president of the robotics and gwc clubs, and a few others, and a 34 act).
No … you do not need a good rank in the USACO and I can’t think of any university that ranks the USACO “very highly” as one of their criteria.
" I basically drop everything else in my life and focus on practicing "
WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?!?!?!?!
Maybe Clemson, since Brian Dean who heads up the USACO, would care if you did extremely well.
I’ve already said … don’t do (whatever stuff) because you think it will look good for College Admissions. Do it for yourself. Do it because you enjoy it.
Agree with the above person. Was in the same boat as you, found out about USACO summer before junior year and dedicated myself to it and go to Platinum by February junior year.
If you really want to do something cool in CS, research is better for college and possibly something you may enjoy more given you would be casual about USACO. I had a better experience overall doing research and I thought it made be better acquainted with CS, making me realize that CS is what I want to do.
Agreed with above that you should be doing USACO for the fun of it rather than trying to get into college. We do know what it is and students will include it on their apps but it’s not a thing you have to have (or a thing that necessarily gets you in barring everything else, no matter what your division). You might also look at Codeforces if you like that kind of thing.