I’m currently a junior wanting to major in computer science. I’m aiming for MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon. I understand that all of them are high reaches for everyone, but I just wanted to see where I fall among those who will apply next year. I plan on applying to FSU, UCF, and UF (all in-state), as well as Georgia Tech.
Here are my stats:
SAT: 1460 (750 reading, 710 math) I know this is a really low score, so I’m preparing to take the ACT (getting a 35 or a 36 on most of my practice tests).
PSAT: 1460 (750 math, 710 reading) ^ see above
Subject Tests: Haven’t taken any yet, but I’m going to take Math 2 and Biology E in May.
Weighted: 4.00
Unweighted: 6.40 / 7.00
Rank: 4 / 473
AP: Human Geography (5), Psychology (5), World History (5), Calc AB (4), English Lit (taking this year), Comp Science A (taking this year), Environmental Science (taking next year)
Course Load: IB Math HL, IB English HL, IB History HL, IB Biology HL, IB Physics SL, IB Spanish SL, Theory of Knowledge
Extracurriculars and Community Service:
- MIT Launch Club (11 - 12, Vice President) - Basically an entrepreneurship club that teaches students how to make their own (technology-based) startup.
- Math Club (9 - 12, Junior Officer) - We compete at local competitions and host monthly math challenges to encourage math at our school. I’ll be a Senior Officer and de facto President next year.
- Quiz Bowl (10 - 12, Vice Captain) - We’ve competed in a bunch of competitions, and have made it to the state championships.
- FRC Team (9 - 12, Member of Programming Team) - Internationally ranked, and we consistently place in the top 10 teams in the worldwide championships each year. I’ll most likely be a leader of the programming team next year.
- Taught STEM classes at my local library (10 - 12, 75 hours) - I’ve created several STEM classes that educate both kids and adults about some of the benefits and uses for technologies like robotics, ai, etc. This year, I plan to start my own volunteering project letting people donate old computer parts at the library and using them to build new computers for underserved communities (not sure if this would work though).
Awards:
- National Merit Commended (most likely, but it’s insignificant either way) and AP Scholar with Distinction (again, insignificant, and don’t plan on mentioning this)
- State Science Fair: 5th place (9), 4th place (10), I’ll be competing in 11th and 12th grade as well.
- Florida Junior State Science and Engineering Honor Symposium (JSEHS): Pretty selective to compete in, and I’ll be competing this year and next year. Hopefully I can place in the top 4 this year to qualify for the national competition.
- ACM Mobicom App Contest: 2nd place. Highly competitive to even qualify as a high school student (it’s a prestigious academic technology conference, so its target audience is experienced professionals and professors).
- I-SWEEEP: 3rd place. It’s an international science fair, and I most likely will be competing again my senior year.
- Volunteer of the Month for my entire county’s library system (pretty expansive, 5 or 6 branches with 300-400 volunteers).
- My Representative (in Congress) is planned to give a speech about my app and my research to his fellow representatives
- I can speak 5 languages, and am learning my 6th and 7th. (Not an award, but somewhat distinctive)
I plan on applying to compete at several other science fairs and science competitions (Intel ISEF, Florida Junior Academy of Science, MIT Think, FRC Dean’s List, Sigma Xi SRS, Genius Olympiad, Google Science Fair, Regeneron STS, and Siemens). I haven’t done any research yet unfortunately, but I’m currently applying to several selective summer research programs (RSI, MITES, MOSTEC, CMU SAMS, UF SSTP, UC Berkeley SPARC, NASA OSSI, SSP, and MIT LLRISE). As a backup plan, I’m arranging to do research at a local university. My math teacher has written me a few recommendations so far for some of the research programs I’ve applied to, and her letters were quite good, so I’ll be asking her for a recommendation when I apply next year. I’m a middle-class Asian male if that matters.
I have a few questions: Do you all know of any other science competitions or summer research programs that are cheap? I’d really like to be able to list more awards that what I currently can. What other colleges would be a good fit? Do I have a realistic shot of being admitted?