Hello there! I’m a current TAMS Senior who is in the process of applying for CS schools. Cost is not a problem for me (I own stock in multiple companies since 2015 and have doubled the value). Here are my stats:
Male, Straight, White, Christian, Highest functioning Autism
Google Lime Scholarship recipient this year
4.0 GPA (Unweighted) No AP classes at our school, 12 Dual enrollment classes through Univ of North Texas
Straight A’s throughout High School
ECs:
FRC Programming lead (4 years)
CS Club President
Member of Bible study program
Founder and President of the school’s table tennis club
Mu Alpha Theta (Math Competition league) Member (Participated in the Harvard MIT Math tournament and the Texas A&M University High School Mathematics Contest)
AI Club VP
36 ACT Composite Score (Spring,2020)
1,570 SAT Comp Score (Spring,2020)
SAT Subject Tests:
-Math 2 (800)
-Chemistry (800)
-Physics (800)
-US History (790)
National Merit Scholar Finalist/1480 PSAT Comp Score (Fall,2019)
I interned at Queens Web in Austin remotely this summer as a Software Development Intern
Strong LOR’s from Manager and from CS and Calc professors at UNT
Great essays and they were reviewed through Kath Path Essays service.
Applied to the following schools:
USC for CS+Video game programming Minor (Curious at my chance for trustee Scholarship)
UCB for CS L&A BA
UT Austin for CS Turing Scholar
Stanford University for CS (AI Track)
University of North Texas (Safety) for CS (Accepted already)
Thank you guys so much for this forum! This is very helpful!
We are not from Texas so I am not familiar with the system there. However, given you stats, are you auto-admit for UT Austin?
If so, having a school that strong as either a “likely” or a safety, then I could see why you are reaching high for your other schools. I think that you are competitive for Stanford and UCB although obvious neither are even remotely close to being safeties. I think that your chances are pretty good at USC.
I think that you are likely to do well wherever you end up. If you do get “CS Turing Scholar” at UT Austin, I honestly do not know whether I would attend USC or UCB over UT Austin, particularly given the difference in price. I got a master’s degree at Stanford and am biased since I greatly enjoyed my time there. There were many students in the master’s program from undergraduate schools that were ranked lower than UT Austin.
UT Austin automatically admits the top 6% rank Texas high school students to its campus. However, this does not include admission to competitive majors like CS, so even if the OP is an automatic admission student, there is no assurance of getting into the CS major.
@DadTwoGirls Thanks for responding! Yeah, they do have an auto admit but not to the major. My top choice is USC because that’s where my dad attended for CS like 20 years ago. My brother is attending Stanford right now for CS but a ton of my friends from the CS club are planning on going to UT Austin. IDK which to decide. If I get the Merit scholarship for USC, I’ll go. But, maybe I’d lean towards UT Austin because its cheaper at the moment for me.