Ok, so I had a freak out today when I looked at the CS-specific admissions for Carnegie Mellon. They went from being a “Fit” school as far as average ACT, to a reach school.
All I know is that ACTE M and C (English, Mathematics, and Composite?) are all 35. That could be an average or a percentile… I don’t know. Any additional admissions statistics are useful.
Quick stats:
I don’t like committing to go to a school so I won’t do early action
Male (apparently that matters I heard word the admit rate for women was around 30%)
ACT 33 (Eng: 30, Math: 34, Reading: 35, Science: 31)
GPA 3.948 UW (6 AP’s on transcript, Senior year has 5 more for a total of 11)
SAT Subject tests… yet unknown… taking in November (yes yikes)… What is a good subject test score for this school (I am doing Math 2, and Biology)
I don’t have any research, not the connections/money to do it (we don’t really do that in Washington State).
Hooks:
-Piano/Cello since kid, I write music
-App on app store?
-Assistant teacher at a programming class
-Graduated from 5th-9th grade accelerated program
So as of now, with my understanding of admissions things are looking bleak.
Is this school just looking for super duper duper smart brainiacs, or is it looking for doers like Georgia tech, or people with personality?
Should I look at flying to their Tartan day? Or otherwise visiting the campus?
Should I try to get a Alumni interview?
I suppose this is in some ways a good thing. I am taking the ACT again this Saturday… This realization has lit a fire underneath me.
Is it worth it to use Zee Mee? I definitely would like to show them a video of my app and it probably wouldn’t hurt to upload a musical composition if it wouldn’t annoy them. The specefically say you can just share them with slideshare and that they are apart of the application. However I wonder if these supplemental materials are more for their more art oriented colleges. Would it be appropriate to ask the school how much they weigh Zee Mee profiles for CS admissions in specific? Is it ok to ask their admissions to advise me on this (how much to curate, should I curate stuff)?
Early Action doesn’t commit you to a school. That’s Early Decision. An important difference.Early Action is often required for merit aid, and it lets you know earlier if you’re in.
I have seen the statistics page, however I am wondering if we know anything more then that. It is kinda cryptic I dont know really whether I am looking at averages, percentiles, or the entire population.
Sorry, my bad on the term. Would CMU still have merit aid for RA students?
Now that I look back on it I totally should have done their Early Admission program. I have been ready to ditch the boringness of highschool to FINALLY study CS since like 8th grade. If I had known about that I would have gladly ditched my senior year to begin studying early. I am not shure if I could have gotten it, but at least I could give it a good shot.
Not intending to be discouraging - I think you should call and inquire. My husband &son just went for a 2 day visit - (my son was EE and minor in CS) - that CS is extremely difficult to get into - very high stats for SAT/ACT testing and low acceptance rate. There are only 640 or so undergrads in CS.They brought home a fact sheet about CS – 6750 apps last year & only 166 Freshman. Not sure but I think acceptance rate is below 10%. If I find more info I will post it.
CS has 6% admit rate. Have to imagine that ED admit rate is somewhat higher (no idea how much) and that RD rate is therefore lower than 6%. So male, unhooked CS applicant: long odds. I say this as a mother of another male unhooked CS applicant.
CMU is refreshingly transparent with their admission stats, going as far as to provide middle 50th % SAT scores by college.
From the link @“Erin’s Dad” provided, here are the middle 50th % of admitted CS students:
740-800
780-800
740-800
Sorry for typo- my son WANTS to be an EE major with CS minor. Re ED vs. RD - we called as not published (or at least we could not find it) - not sure specifically regarding CS, but got the strong impression not a big difference between ED & RD admit rates. Also, only 1/5 of applicants do interviews.
@CT1417 – thanks for the stats - consistent with what i recall seeing on a sheet they gave out!
@CA1543 – all of these majors and minors and schools’ rules have all started to blend in my head. Son ruled out Columbia b/c their core made a dual major impossible. He must have thought he could handle a dual major at CMU as it is still on the table (CS & math), but I really cannot keep it all straight!
@cubby208 not sure if someone has already answered your post #1 but yes, if you think your compositions or other supplemental materials are good enough you should submit them. That option is not just for the college of art.
Hi! I’m a current sophomore in CMU SCS, and I’d have to say academics get you into the door, but the extra stuff like extracurriculars, personality and ‘being a doer’ might be the things that take you the extra mile and get you in. That said, there is zero doubt in my mind that you need to show you are very, very solid academically especially in terms of mathematics. The CS curriculum here is very difficult and mediocrity will simply not do. More so than other schools, I’d say academics is a focus. If you really want to come, I’d say you should do everything in your power to show your interest which include getting an interview and flying into Tartan Day. I’ll list out some of the things I had on my resume to give you an idea of what got me in.
Note: I’m an international male student from Canada.
SAT: 800/770/760 (M/R/W)
SAT Level 2 Math: 800
SAT Physics: 800
SAT World History: 750
GPA: Around 97/100 for the final two years of high school. We simply do percentages not the 4.0 system.
I also have around 5’s in all 5 AP Tests taken (I took a total of 9 AP courses in high school, but a few of them were in senior year thus I chose not to take them)
Other than that, I did a lot of volunteering on the side, I was a national level flute player and I did and performed well in numerous math contests like AMC, AIME, and a few Canadian ones you guys probably have never heard of.
In terms of essays, I’d say mine’s weren’t great. That said, CMU doesn’t really give you a topic that allows you to showcase your writing skills and personality. I applied Regular Decision and listed the following as my preferred majors in descending order: SCS, Tepper, IS.
In sum, I guess what I’m saying is solid mathematical skills are very important. You’ll notice that I had nothing related to CS itself on my application other than AP CS. They don’t really expect you to have done that much CS at all. However, academic aptitude in general is a must while things like extracurricular will also help for sure.