What are my chances for Carnegie Mellon SCS? (Computer Science) - International Applicant

Hi,

I am an international applicant that lives in Costa Rica (URM, Latin; adds diversity, I believe Costa Rica is considered pretty ‘rare’), but is a US Citizen. I recently applied to Carnegie Mellon’s Class of 2022 in the School of Computer Science, majoring in Computer Science. Do you believe I have good chances?

SAT 1 Math: 790
SAT 1 R+W: 700
SAT 2 Physics: 800
SAT 2 Math Level 2: 790
GPA: 4.07 (W)

Really big upward trend senior year (took all AP classes - Stats, Calc AB, Chemistry, Micro/Macro Economics - except one) and achieved A+ in all these during first semester (4.9W GPA for senior year alone)

Extracurriculars:

  • Owner and developer of Minecraft server (hired staff members, managed team, entrepreneurial) for two years
  • Lead developer for MeepCraft.com (ex-biggest Minecraft server) for two years
  • Taught a class in 9th grade to elementary students on how to set up Minecraft servers
  • Built two amazing computers (water-cooled etc)
  • Self-learned/worked with Java, Swift, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and MySQL.
  • Published app on App Store
  • Formulated business ideas and made an extensive app prototype for my future company (can’t talk too much about that here, but its explained on my application)
  • Physics Distinguished Scholar Award - award granted by the teacher to one student who he considers to have a strong combination of passion, enthusiasm, and academic strength for the subject
  • MUN (won two honorable mention awards in conferences and attended an international conference in New York - NHSMUN)
  • AP Scholar Award
  • Developing an app and website to connect community service groups with volunteers in my country
  • Summer engineering program at UC Berkeley (with NSLC)
  • Swimming (non-competitive) through most of high school

Essays (I believe these can pull me in):

This is not an easy thing to chance, in fact most of the chance threads for top schools are becoming more difficult. That being said, you have to assume that most of the computer science skills you have will be had by fellow applicants. So your URM and international will help while your sats are a little low, expect most applicants for CS to be over 1500. If it’s your clear #1, apply ED, though I’m not a big fan of it as it limits choices. You have a solid application for other top CS schools, especially the public ones like Berkeley and Michigan. You could apply EA to Michigan and ED to CMU as UM’s is flexible and non-binding. Also your ECs are a little scattered, focus on the CS part more, mention MUN and the others but you’re going to get in based on your comp sci/math things. Good luck!

@theloniusmonk You can’t apply ED after the deadline… I think you have a decent chance. I disagree with the previous poster in literally all of your ECs are CS related or a sport except for MUN. I do think you should have tried to obtain leadership at school, but your ECs do display knowledge. Good luck!

CMU SCS should be considered a reach for just about everyone.

Thank you very much for your replies. I also consider that my recommendation letters are reaaally good (read the one from a tutor that I worked one on one with for 30 hours to skip a year of Precalculus, and she, in summary, stated that I was very dedicated, was in the top 5% of students - in ability - that she had ever tutored, that I had great team-working skills, and many other great attributes). I also have great recommendation letters fron my AP Physics/Ap Econ and AP Calc teachers. My essays I consider to be very good, and they really showcase many of the traits that those schools normally view (leadership, not afraid to take risks, passion, desire for learning, vision, collaborative work spirit, entrepreneurial spirit, initiative, preoccupation for my community, etc).

However, I may view this from a biased perspective. Would any of you mind reading my essays and tell me what you think about them? (Just to see if they are considered competitive for this type of school)

@theloniusmonk @ab2002 or anyone else

You are not an international, if you are a citizen. You would, however, be considered a non-resident for public schools.
Apply, and make sure your schools are within budget by using the NPC on each college website.

@“aunt bea” : money is not an issue. My schools are within my budget. Although, thanks for the concern!