What CS Schools could I get into?

College Search & Selection
1

Demographic : Middle-Class Indian Male
Intended Major : Computer Science
Education: Texas - Competitive Public High School
Class Rank: 5th out of 810 (Top 1%)
GPA: 4.74 (W) / 3.96 (UW)
SAT: 1570 (800M, 770R) Essay: 18
SAT II: Math 2 (800), Physics (800)
Parents: Both have bachelors degrees
Classwork: All AP/PreAP Courses throughout High School
AP Exams:
AP Computer Science Principles (5)
AP Computer Science A(5)
AP Statistics (5)
AP Spanish Language(5),
AP Lang (5),
AP Human Geography (5).
AP US History (4)
AP Physics (4)

EC’s:

*FIRST Robotics Team (REDACTED) : Team Strategist
Worked on programming autonomous and tele-operated robots in NI LabVIEW; developed subsystem coordination using motion profiling and vision tracking.

*Computer Science Team - Vice President
Competed in various local/national circuit competitions, grew school’s computer science program; started peer tutoring system for all CS courses.

*Sewa Houston: Student STEM Mentor, Volunteer
Mentored students of less fortunate communities in the Greater Houston Area through various STEM classes and activities.

*Technology Student Association: Vice President
Competed nationally in computer-science related events, attended conferences on future of STEM Education and networked with IT professionals.

*Mu Alpha Theta / Math UIL Team : Vice President
Represented school in Texas UIL competitions(2x District Finalists, 1x State Qual.); organized school-wide peer tutoring for all math courses.

*UT Austin Center For Space Research SEES Internship
Worked on natural disaster response projects and research by analyzing geospatial information technologies and image analysis of NASA and ESA datasets

*NASA Aerospace Scholars Program: Mission Leader
Completed online training module with high scores; attended JSC on-site training and met with former astronauts. Learned more about Mars Exploration methods currently being researched.

*Grow with Google Developers Scholarship Program
Learned key skills in creating mobile/web applications in Android Studio; developed several interactive multi-screen apps for teaching basic math.

*Neural Networking Analysis Research
Worked under mentorship of Rice Professor (REDACTED) in analyzing communications between neural networks; wrote paper on complexity of these networks.

*HP Software Development Internship
Worked on designing and modifying software enhancements; developed new infrastructure for testing newer applications and data structures.

Honors
USA Computing Olympiad Gold Medalist - National (11)
TSA National Conference Coding Gold Medalist National (11)
National AP Scholar Award - National (11)
Presidential Service Award Gold - National (9)
HP CodeWars Advanced Division Finalist - State/Regional (11)
Lamar University ACM High School Contest Winner / First-Year Keys Success Award Recipient - State/Regional (11)

2

You are definitely a competitive applicant. Are you applying for EECS or L&S Computer Science? As long as your family can afford to pay $260K for 4 years at UCB, you have a good shot at an acceptance.

3

Demographic : Middle-Class Indian Male

Intended Major : Computer Science

Statistics:

Education: Texas - Competitive Public High School

Class Rank: 5th out of 810 (Top 1%)

GPA: 4.74 (W) / 3.96 (UW)

SAT: 1570 (800M, 770R) Essay: 18

SAT II: Math 2 (800), Physics (800)

Parents: Both have bachelors degrees

Classwork: All AP/PreAP Courses throughout High School

AP Exams:

AP Computer Science Principles (5)

AP Computer Science A(5)

AP Statistics (5)

AP Spanish Language(5),

AP Lang (5),

AP Human Geography (5).

AP US History (4)

AP Physics (4)

EC’s:

FIRST Robotics Team (REDACTED) : Team Strategist

Worked on programming autonomous and tele-operated robots in NI LabVIEW; developed subsystem coordination using motion profiling and vision tracking.

Computer Science Team - Vice President

Competed in various local/national circuit competitions, grew school’s computer science program; started peer tutoring system for all CS courses.

Sewa Houston: Student STEM Mentor, Volunteer

Mentored students of less fortunate communities in the Greater Houston Area through various STEM classes and activities.

Technology Student Association: Vice President

Competed nationally in computer-science related events, attended conferences on future of STEM Education and networked with IT professionals.

Mu Alpha Theta / Math UIL Team : Vice President

Represented school in Texas UIL competitions(2x District Finalists, 1x State Qual.); organized school-wide peer tutoring for all math courses.

NASA Aerospace Scholars Program: Mission Leader

Completed online training module with high scores; attended JSC on-site training and met with former astronauts.

Grow with Google Developers Scholarship Program

Learned key skills in creating mobile/web applications in Android Studio; developed several interactive multi-screen apps for teaching basic math.

Neural Networking Analysis Research

Worked under mentorship of Rice Professor (REDACTED) in analyzing communications between neural networks; wrote paper on complexity of these networks.

HP Software Development Internship

Worked on designing and modifying software enhancements; developed new infrastructure for testing newer applications and data structures.

Brainy Learning Club : Programming Instructor

Taught younger students basics of programming and computer science through interactive lessons/labs; created new Java-based curriculum for the center.

Honors

USA Computing Olympiad Gold Medalist - National (11)

TSA National Conference Coding Gold Medalist National (11)

National AP Scholar Award - National (11)

Presidential Service Award Gold - National (9)

HP CodeWars Advanced Division Finalist - State/Regional (11)

Lamar University ACM High School Contest Winner / First-Year Keys Success Award Recipient - State/Regional (11)

4

GaTech, UIUC, as well as Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD
UT Austin is very strong too, and less expensive, if you are a Texas resident.
Do you want a smaller school or OK with large public schools?

5

@Coloradomama I would like to go to larger schools preferably. Do you suppose I would have a chance at higher tier schools such as Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Rice, Caltech and such?

6

Compare your SAT to the averages at each school. I don’t really know how to chance you, as admissions is wholistic at smaller schools you mention. Rice likes National Merit Finalists, did you take the PSAT?
Rice is very small though, only 4000 undergrads, and Caltech is even smaller only 1000 undergrads.

Since you have a relationship with a Rice U professor, can he/she write you a recommendation?

Rice used to only ask for one recommendation, though, maybe they will accept more.

CMU, likes to see AMC 10 and AMC 12 scores, did you take those math exams? Send those scores to
all your schools. Math Olympiads may be better than Computing Olympiads, for getting into Caltech and CMU (and MIT).

Cornell, if it moves into your first choice, and you have the funds to pay cash, apply Binding ED to up your chances there. Ditto on CMU.
CMU though is so tiny, the School of CS has less than 200 seats per class, so its very hard to chance anyone for this school. You appear to be in the ballpark though for test scores, but its a lot more than that. Its going to depend on
what exactly you did in that long list of activities, and what sort of recommendations you get, and how you sound in the essays.

Admissions is hit or miss in the small schools you list, thus I think you want to apply to some larger public programs as well.