Also, since Purdue is on your list, you might look at the Purdue Data Digest, here: https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/; and especially the links to “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations” and “New First-Time Beginner Profile”. You can plug in your stats to some of the interactive links on these sites, and perhaps get an idea where you might fall relative to recently admitted OOS applicants to Purdue.
Also, have you visited the campuses of any of the schools that you have listed? Sometimes that will help you narrow down and weed out some of the schools on your list.
Your post has raised significant concerns for me on a couple of different fronts.
You describe yourself as “mid stats” yet as @tsbna44 has mentioned, you have a 34 single sitting score with a 36 superscore, a 4.0 UW GPA (4.7W), and you’re the class salutatorian.
A 34 composite score is at the 99th percentile, and a 36 is at the 100th percentile. Your worst single sitting score is better than 99 people out of 100, and your super score is the best possible (source). And yet you have three sobbing emojis after posting about a score in the 99th percentile.
You’re ranked #2 out of 383 students, so that’s in the top 0.5% (i.e. 99.48% percentile).
The average high school GPA is a 3.11, or a 3.56 for academic courses (source). You have a perfect 4.0 GPA.
You describe yourself as “alright” at coding, yet you’ve won first place in a national coding competition, you’re top 5 in the world out of 40k in another coding competition, you’ve coded a game that is making you more than $10k/month, and multiple other signs that you’re an excellent coder.
I feel quite confident that less than 1% of people have ever been recognized on the news for something positive in their lifetimes, whether it’s the local news or not. Yet you have five sobbing emojis because the recognition was not at a national level.
In looking at your post, a few possibilities arise in my mind:
You honestly don’t think of your accomplishments as being pretty amazing.
You are intentionally downplaying your accomplishments so that people can talk about how wonderful you are.
You know you’ve done some awesome stuff but don’t want to sound like a braggart.
If you don’t think you have amazing accomplishments, then I would think about why. Are your standards that high for yourself? Are someone else’s standards that high? What kind of internal talk do you use? Additionally, I would seek professional help to help you work through some of these issues and to see if there are any underlying biological causes for them.
If this is a situation of case #2, just don’t. It smacks of insecurity and bragging at the same time and is very unattractive.
If this is a situation of possibility #3, a Chance Me/Match Me (like your college application) is a place to mention your accomplishments as facts. It’s like saying, I have brown hair and brown eyes. Nobody is going to judge you for just stating the facts. Now saying, I have gorgeous brown hair and soulful brown eyes is going over the top, but just listing what you’ve accomplished is not bragging, it’s just what you’ve done (very well).
Why am I going on about this? If this is a case where it’s situation #1, I really want you to get help because it’s a very unhealthy mindset and I want better for you. If it’s #2 or #3, this is a place to learn how things come across to others, and as smart as so many are, sometimes people need things explained in very clear language so that they don’t make those kinds of mistakes in the future.
Also, as indicated above, you’re a 99th percentile or better kind of kid. Meaning that your performance is better than 99 out of 100 others. Imagine how those 99 other people are feeling if you’re denigrating your awesome accomplishments? So if someone’s at the 90th percentile, or 60th, or 30th, or 5th, how do you think they’re feeling about themselves and what they do, if the 99th percentile accomplishments are only “mid” or “alright?”
It may also make them feel as though you’re looking down on them, and that’s a surefire way to not be as successful in life as you want to be (as when you get out in the real world, you will be working with people with a variety of skills and levels, and you will not get the teamwork and cooperation needed from folks that feel as though you’re looking down on them).
If you feel this way about your heritage, this really saddens me and is something else I would discuss with a professional counselor.
So you came here for a Match Me/Chance Me and you’ve now gotten this message that does virtually none of that (I’d call UMN an extremely likely admit, Purdue a toss-up leaning towards likely, and the rest as low probability schools). But I think this is a message that you, and others, need to hear. I’ll be back with some other colleges you may want to research.
Below are some additional schools in warmer climates that you may want to consider (two of which are not in the target/likely section). Several of these have already been mentioned upthread, but they are sorted by my (conservative) guesses as to what your chances for admission might be:
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
U. of Texas – Dallas: About 21k undergrads here at this school with strong CS. The school attracts a lot of National Merit Finalists (did you take the PSAT) as it offers them a full ride, so there’s a strong cohort here.
Likely (60-79%)
U. of Central Florida: About 59k undergrads here and also has strong CS. I’ve heard that there are extensive honors college classes throughout the STEM fields here, too, which isn’t always the case.
U. of Maryland: About 31k undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo: About 22k undergrads. I placed this here simply because I don’t know. @ucbalumnus or @gumbymom may be able to share better chancing info.
U. of Florida: About 35k undergrads
Virginia Tech: About 31k undergrads…placed here due to some unpredictability. If applying make sure to be very thoughtful in your responses to the short answer prompts.
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Cal Tech: About 1k undergrads. Very much a fit school, and very much a low probability school (3% admit rate), but if it’s the right fit, it could be a good option to consider.
Harvey Mudd(CA): About 950 undergrads but part of the Claremont Consortium which has over 6k undergrads, so a smaller school within a mid-sized environment. I’d say this is leaning towards the lower probability category (more likely than some others in the low probability category).
Congratulations on your accomplishments and being a competitive applicant.
UCLA, UC Berkeley and Cal Poly SLO are test blind so your ACT score is not considered for admissions or scholarships but only for course placement.
Based on admit rates only, both UCLA and UCB are Low Possiblity schools.
UCLA CS admit rate for 2024 was 4.1% and UCB was 1.9%.
Cal Poly SLO was mentioned by @AustenNut and their projected CS admit rate is around 9%.
You are an outstanding applicant and but why pay close to full costs for the UC’s and they will be near the top of your budget, when your academic profile would likely garner some significant merit aid at several of the other schools.
First of all I’m really sorry my post came off this way.
I understand my high school performance has been good compared to the average and thats why I only posted my reach schools. I have huge respect for a ton of people who have it much MUCH harder than me due to variety of reasons (like have to look UP to these people if anything) and I cannot express how grateful I am in words to simply be in this position to even have time to do ECs and have good teachers who have always been supportive of me.
The sobbing emojis were just a joke is commonly seen on social medias and didn’t expect it to be taken so seriously (noted to never do that again), just things that make me so similar to the bunch of other asian kids.
In my eyes I feel myself as one of the thousands of highly qualified applicants to these reach schools and didnt want to sound like bragging. Thats why I focused on my weaknesses as well and tried my best to sound not bragging. I understand now that this messed up the tone of the post and now know never to make this mistake again. and in the end, i guess it really doesn’t matter which school I graduate from more than how well I utilize the opportunities there. I just wanted to learn what my chances were to these schools and got useful information about that, so thank you all for helping me.
For CPSLO, HS GPA is used with academic courses from grades 9-11. Up to 8 semesters of AP courses can get +1 honors points (non-AP honors courses only count in California high schools). A semester college course counts double, and is eligible for honors points up to the limit.
Bonus points can be gotten for having more courses than the CSU minimum in various subject areas. Math gets the largest bonus points. Be sure to report on the CSU application any high school level math taken while in middle school (e.g. algebra 1, geometry) so that it counts for CPSLO purposes.
When you know better, you do better. You weren’t aware of how your message could have been interpreted, and now that you are, I don’t see you doing the same kind of thing in the future. We all mistakes…the important thing is to learn from them and it sounds like you have!
You ARE highly qualified! I would not be surprised if you were accepted to any or even all of the schools on your list. But as you’re aware, there are many more highly qualified applicants than there are spots. The odds are against you, but they are not impossible.
I’m not quite sure I’d go that far. You’re 100% correct about the importance of utilizing the opportunities at any school you attend. But there is a difference between choosing a college with only one or two CS professors that have to teach all CS courses vs. attending one with CS faculty across a range of specialties with great breadth and depth. And there are some schools whose names will open certain doors more readily for you than other schools (but which only matters if you’re interested in those particular doors…like certain areas of investment banking).
But to provide a visual, if one were to think of colleges and CS programs on a continuum of worst to best, the orange arrow on the far right shows where your original list might be (as far right as possible). But the blue section shows the CC suggestions…most of which accept far more applicants than the ones on your original list, and schools that are still in the top 5-10% of possible options.
Essentially, they’re suggestions of very good schools/programs, from which your performance and how you utilize the opportunities at those schools will be able to help launch you almost wherever you want to go.
Just wanted to post on this thread again that school is wrapping up (with the exception of AP exams coming up next week). I feel bad for not understanding the implications of the tone I used.
Anyways, coming back from the tangent I wanted to ask about an actual chance me for my reaches and how I could best improve my chances at them with the little time I have left (summer). Would they all be “low probability” or would some be more likely than others?
I’m not a particularly strong essay writer and dedicating a large chunk of my summer to filling out college apps. Are there any obvious weaknesses in my app (ex: leadership, lack of non stem ec) and any suggestions you experienced people may have?
To give you a frame of reference, this is how I categorize schools:
Extremely Likely: 80-99+%
Likely: 60-79%
Toss-Up: 40-59%)
Lower Probability: 20-39%)
Low Probability: less than 20%
Please note that low probability does not mean impossibility, particularly in your case. It just means that there are so many strong candidates that are applying for so few spots that the odds are just that. You may very well receive several offers from low probability schools, or you could receive none. I don’t have the expertise to say that your odds are greater than 20% at any of your reach schools.
In terms of improving your chances, I’d say that in terms of ECs, leadership, awards, etc, that your application is pretty much set. What you can do, however, is take a good look at the schools on your list and note what they indicate they value on their About Us/Mission pages. Some value leadership, others innovation or creativity, others service, etc. Look at what they’re looking for and then see how you can show them what a good fit you are for their values and what kind of student they’re seeking.
If you’re concerned that you could end up in the spring of your senior year with only two admits (UMN and perhaps Purdue) and would like additional suggestions of schools with higher odds of acceptance, let us know, and I’m sure folks would be happy to offer ideas.
