Will I get into a T20 College with bad grades for CS?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am currently a junior, but I am wondering what my chances are with the grades I currently have. All my on level classes are A’s, but my AP classes are falling behind. I believe I have a strong profile outside my grades, but I wanted to see if my transcript would keep me out of top colleges.

Grades:
I have mostly A’s, but I have a few B’s and one C.

Sophomore Year:
AP Computer Science: A, A
AP World History: B, B
AP Chemistry: C+, B

Junior Year:
AP Calc. AB: B, A-
AP Physics A: A, A-
AP Biology: A, A
AP Lang.: B+, B+

Senior Year:
AP Calc BC
AP Physics B
AP Env Sci.
AP Lit.
AP Gov

Scores:
AP Chem - 5
AP Computer Science - 5
AP World History - 4
SAT 1 - 1370
SAT 2 - 1550

Leadership:
Founded non-profit that creates coding/cyber tutorials (over 100k viewers)
Founded cyber security startup
Founded school’s cyber club
Founded coding seminar at local middle school
President of school’s coding club
Vice President of Business Club
Secretary of Mock Trial team

Activities:
Intern as a software developer at computer vision startup
Compete in hackathons
Compete in Mock Trial competitions
Drone Cinematography
Large coding portfolio
Volunteer for special needs (I have an autistic brother so I’m not just doing this for college)

Hackathon Awards:
Cruzhacks College Hackathon - 1st place (only high school team competing)
Codeday Winter - 1st place
Codeday Fall - 1st place
TinoHacks - Category Winner
Saratoga Hackathon - 3rd Place

Summer Activities
Stanford Intensive Law & Trial Camp - freshmen-sophmore summer
MIT LaunchX - junior-senior summer
Cyber Security research project - junior-senior summer

My dream schools are MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Northwestern, USC

Am I competitive enough to attend these schools for CS?

2

You are competitive enough, but your chances are not very high to begin with (no one has a good chance when acceptance rates are 6%). Every nick in your resume reduces those chances, so a low grade, a low test score, mistakes in the essay all chip away at your chance.

Good news is there are plenty of schools that have great CS programs and you’ll get into one of those.

3

@twoinanddone That is simply not true. A “perfect” profile is no more likely to be accepted than a slightly imperfect application. Once a kid has passed a certain threshold by way of GPA and SAT, they start looking at other things on the application.

That being said, some grades are more important for others when applying for CS. The B+ instead of an A in AP Lang will not affect a kid’s acceptance rates to CS. However, a B in AP Calc BC may have a negative impact. CS is math heavy and those math abilities are what predicts a student;s success in an engineering degree, especially CS.

You ECs and awards are really good, and will likely count for more, because they are all connected to CS.

Also, that 6% acceptance rate is somewhat deceptive, About 1/2 the students who apply to MIT are not really competitive. However, even with a 20% acceptance rate for the highly competitive applicants, there are four highly competitive applicants who are rejected for every one who is accepted.

There are a number of CS programs which are the same level as those you have there, depending on which state you are from, may have higher acceptance rates…

4

The C+ and B in Chem and Calc could be an issue. The top CS schools are crazy competitive.

Certainly throw in your reach applications but focus your time on finding match and safety schools.

5

Probably not, but if you can pay full freight and don’t apply for financial aid, who knows?

6

Perhaps add UIUC and Purdue to your list as well, although those 2 schools are just as competitive for EECS.

Berkeley and UCLA are going to be reaches for CS just because of the low acceptance rates.

You mention Saratoga in your first post. If you go to one of the Silicon Valley pressure cooker high schools, there may be some grade deflation, but most of the kids will have roughly the same grades/test scores as you or higher.

Finally, this might be nitpicking, but AP Physics A/B have been discontinued. I assume you mean AP Physics 1/2.

7

So it looks like your unweighted 10th-11th GPA is about 3.6-3.7 and your unweighted 9th-11th GPA is about 3.7-3.8? You will be competing with others who have 4.0 or 3.9 unweighted GPAs when applying to the most selective schools or CS majors.

If you are a California resident, include some of UCSC, UCR, UCM in your UC application as likelies.

8

Yes, my bad. I meant AP Physics 1

9

@Hamurtle What do you mean by grade deflation? Does living in silicon valley decrease my chances because of competition?

10

“Once a kid has passed a certain threshold by way of GPA and SAT, they start looking at other things on the application“

While this may be generally true, you also need to know those thresholds.

When a school says “The average self-reported unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale was 3.94. Fifty-four percent of students reported a perfect 4.0”, the reality is that a 3.7-3.8 hasn’t passed it. When the 25th percentile SAT Math is 790, the 770 that’s great everywhere else, isn’t for that program.

And I say “may be” because almost every top school that breaks down admit rate by SAT, GPA, etc shows rate for 800 > 750-790 > 700-740, etc. (Lehigh is the only exception I’ve seen, and they’ve always been weird, IME).

OP, I’d say UCLA, Northwestern, USC are targets, but add some safety schools. The others are reaches, IMO. Lower grades were early, and are trending up, which is good. A’s the rest of this year and next, or at least limiting lower grades to one or two in English/History will help your case. Your EC’s also help.

11

Living in Silicon Valley helps to a certain extent if your grades are not at the top. Although a C+ in a core science class might not be helpful.

If you can present yourself well in your essays and recommendations, that might help.

12

@Hamurtle Ahh I see. Do you think ap test scores would sway admissions to take that grade lightly? I got a 5 on the AP chem test but a bad grade in the class (the teacher was new and was unusually harsh). I hear that the grades matter more than the test scores, but my guess is that it will lighten the blow.

13

@dandantheman good AP scores may help somewhat. My son is somewhat similar to you in his high school GPA and is a sophomore at WashU. Mostly 5s on his APs even though his high school grades could be better. And his college GPA is higher than his high school GPA.

He graduated from a Silicon Valley pressure cooker and was well prepared for college. So you should be fine wherever you go for college.