Chance a random white guy for comp sci [WA resident, 3.83 GPA, 1400 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics: Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.)

I’m a white, male student from a Washington State public school.

Intended Major(s): Computer science besides UIUC applying CS + Economincs, my back up major is cyber security

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1400 SAT retaking hoping to get higher

UW/W GPA and Rank: UW: 3.83 W:4.36 and my school doesn’t do rank, GPA Is only due to freshman year w/o freshman year i’m sitting at a 3.93

GPA breakdown
Freshman 3.6
Sophmore: 3.92
Junior 3.95
Senior 4.0 (hopefully)

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

When I apply i’ll have 4 honors, 6 ap classes, and 12 DE classes, AP hug, AP Euro, APUSH, AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Comp Sci-A.

Senior course load:

AP Calc AB
AP Comp sci-A
Spanish 3
Civics
Tech school / de classes

Awards:

Eagle Scout, Student of the year 1000$ scholarship, student of the quarter, A+ (Comptia Certificiatiion), Deans List Network+ (comptia certification)

Extracurriculars: Include leadership & summer activities

  1. BoyScouts Eagle Scout, been a scout for 10 years
  2. CyberPatriots (Cyber Security Competition)
  3. Key Club
  4. Part Time Job at Mcdonalds (Crew Trainer)
  5. Working at the fair during the summer
  6. student ambassador for school, gave tours to prospective students
  7. Learning Spanish independently
  8. Building Computers and researching builds for my friends
  9. Learning to code python
  10. Snowboarding for 14 years

Essays/LORs/Other: Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.

Going to cook about my love for cyber security, and related skills that i’ve gotten from learning more about it.

LOR:

  1. Asked my pre calc teacher who’s taken interest in my interest in cyber security, has really seen me grow over the year.
  2. asked my Comp sci teacher, who gave me student of the year, and she was what got me interested in cyber security, and i have expressed that many times in her class.

Schools: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc

All the schools that i’m applying to are EA and UW is RD

  1. University of Washington
  2. Washington State University
  3. Oregon State University
  4. CU Boulder
  5. Colorado School of mines
  6. UT Austin
  7. Purdue
  8. UIUC
  9. UMich
  10. UW Madison
  11. Georgia Tech
  12. University of minnesota twin cities
  13. Texas A&M
  14. University of Utah
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Congrats on your wonderful academic work, extracurriculars in cs and scouting and training McD’s crews , and certs.

While your school does not report rank, I wonder if the guidance counselor would report decile?
Could make a difference for admissions at some of the most selective colleges, or for scholarships.

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Washington St, Oregon St, Minnesota and Utah are likely. You have a good chance at Mines, Madison and Boulder. The rest are reaches. You also have one school with secondary admission to CS (Texas A&M).

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Isn’t everyone here a “random” guy (or girl)?

Congrats on your fine record. Eagle scout is impressive.

Essay - it could work but I’m not sure I love it - especially if it’s a rehash of activities 8 and 9 that will be listed. Don’t rehash.

Do you have any budget isssues? Or will you choose lower cost over higher because you have some “lower cost” - WSU, Oregon State and Utah - so if they’ll win out, you can pare your list.

WSU, OSU (hopefully with WUE), CU, CSM, UMN and Utah are ins - and some with merit.

Purdue, UW Madison, and A&M are maybes.

UW, UT, UIUC, MIchigan, Ga Tech are reaches.

Have you been to all? They are not all the same - and perhaps you can visit some to ensure they are right for you.

Mines is a lot smaller than the rest - are you looking for mid size? The others are all big time sports, large schools, etc - but some urban, some suburban, some rural-ish (#2-3). Do you have a preference and/or for weather?

Let us know about budget - but it’s a fine list assuming these will all be affordable.

Good luck.

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For Purdue, take a look at its Data Digest, here: https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/. Especially the links to “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations” and "New First-Time Beginner Profile; you should be able to glean some useful information on the statistics for admitted/matriculated students at Purdue in your areas of interest.

Michigan recalculates GPA for admission purposes by eliminating all plusses and minuses; so a B+ becomes a B, an A- becomes an A, etc.

If you look at the Common Data Set for Georgia Tech, Section C7 will tell you how the school weighs academic and non-academic admissions factors; for example, GPA is “very important” whereas standardized test scores are “considered”. (You might consider looking at the CDS, Section C7 for all the schools that you are considering; and focus on those that weigh GPA more heavily than standardized test scores.)

You might also consider looking at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

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Have you and your parents used the net price calculator on each school’s web site?

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I’m gonig to visit boulder and mines this august! i’m super excited, thanks for the input!

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Which ones do you think I’ll get merit aid at? CU boulder is one of my top choice so i’m curious if i’ll get merit aid there?

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Here is the information for merit scholarships for OOS applicants at University of Alabama at Huntsville: UAH - Admission & Aid

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Merit doesn’t matter. Total cost matters. In other words, Florida State, as an example, or Mississippi State, will be cheaper full price than CU Boulder after merit.

CU Boulder gives small merit to some kids. I don’t know about now but three years ago it was $6250 a year - or as they liked to say - $25,000.

As I asked up thread, what’s your budget - comments were made on your list but without a budget figure, we really can’t evaluate.

CU is over $60K a year - so if you get any merit, you’re likely in the mid 50s. Is that affordable? They have some larger merit but it’s highly highly highly unlikely you’d get it - and quite possible with your stats you get none - and not even into the engineering school but an exploratory program.

Talk to your parents about costs - what can they spend? What do they want to spend?

Getting merit is not relevant - the cost they are willing to spend each year is.

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