Hello, first of all I would like to say i know I don’t have a great chance, but Columbia is my dream school, I would like to go for computer science
I am currently a junior
Gpa- (Unweighted) - 90/100(3.6)
EC’s-
Mentor at middle school robotics
robotics at high school
ceo of a non profit
stem club
100+volunteer hours
planning on starting my own computer science related club
SAT-
1330 (only took it once)
What colleges do you guys think are more realistic, and what can I do to improve my chances at elite colleges?
Get your grades and SAT up to 3.8+ and 1500+ for a realistic shot at ivies and top 20 schools. Then apply ED to your favorite if finances are not an issue.
If you don’t get your stats up, I’d advise to apply to lesser schools.
Well first, congrats on your sat score! While you may want to bring it up some (probably near 1400 a least), you should also try to raise your gpa to have higher chances. While elite colleges tend to have potluck decisions, you appear quite qualified imo to be accepted into any elite school, given that you write exceptional essays. Has your robotics team won any awards? In your application, I would suggest stressing your leadership in the clubs you mentioned. Also, assuming that you already have a challenging curriculum, then you should be in great shape.
Colleges that I would recommend for computer science programs are RPI, RIT (good co-op programs), Georgia Tech (if you are instate), and Carnegie Mellon. I would also suggest you check out your state school if financial aid is an issue. If you prefer liberal arts colleges, Harvey Mudd, Vassar, and Swarthmore have excellent computer science programs (albeit they are hard to get into). Good luck with everything!
For course rigor-
I took all CP’s freshman year
All honors as a sophomore except for english
And currently i am in-
Math analysis honors
English 3 cp
AP Micro Macro
APUSH
AP Physics 1
Spanish 4
I’m not going to say you have a good or bad chance of getting in, but you need to recalculate your GPA… to convert to a 4.0 scale, go through your course history with:
A/A+ (100-93) = 4.0
A- (93-90) = 3.7
B+ (89-88) = 3.3
B (87-83) = 3.0
B- (82-80) 2.7
C+ (79-77) 2.3
And so on and so forth. I went through and calculated mine (93.5 unweighted/ 95.6 weighted) and found I have a 3.7 unweighted and a 4.0 weighted.
You have similar “stats” as mine, and just remember that prestigious schools love passion. Stay involved in your extracurriculars but make sure to have a rising trend in grades.
I’d recommend that you give up the idea of a dream school and work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be happy to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Cast a wide net and recognize that (assuming no major hook) Columbia with under a 6% acceptance rate is a reach for pretty much everyone.
I’d suggest you get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) and read up on different colleges. You can probably find the books in your HS guidance office or library.
[Disclaimer: I’m just a high school student too, so my advice might not be as accurate as the information your GC can give, so just take the information that makes sense to you/check it with what others say! ]
Nice job so far - but in terms of elite colleges, I think you have to really pull up your GPA (if after recalculation it is a 3.6) and your SAT/ACT scores so that they are at least in the middle 50% of the schools you are looking at. While you don’t have to aim for a near-perfect 4.0, I think a 3.9 or above will land you in safe territory.
While it’s true that people with good GPA/ACT get rejected, the general percentage of people who get accepted with near 4.0’s or perfect test scores are probably a lot higher than those with lower GPA’s and scores. So, I would say the number one priority is to boost your scores.
Secondly, I would also recommend really pursuing one of your extracurriculars (like robotics) to as high a level as you can. You really want to show passion, just like @horncollege said. Additionally, I would say colleges prefer to see you get state-level or national-level awards in Robotics than to start another club. Of course, starting a club will not hurt, but receiving meaningful awards is much more important.
Finally, I think you will really need to have strong recommendation letters as well, so make sure that you are forging strong relationships with teachers/mentors!
Then again, you could possibly be rejected while getting a 4.0 + a 36 + robotics awards, but the chance of rejection will be much, much lower than if you had none of the above.
Hope this helped, but remember that I’m still learning too so not all of my advice may be 100% accurate!
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