Chance Computer Vision Enthusiast for Stanford, MIT, HYP and Other T20 Schools [4.0 GPA, 1580 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hello, thank you all for helping me out! Im going to keep it general for this post to avoid getting doxxed.

Demographics

  • US domestic
  • Type of high school: Competitive Public High School
  • Other special factors: None

Cost Constraints / Budget
None

Intended Major(s): STS (Science, Technology, and Society) and/or Applied Math. Minor in Public Policy?? Might go for CS as well.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.85/5.0
  • Class Rank: N/A (school doesn’t rank) but confirmed by counselor to be top 5
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 (800 math, 780 RW)

List your HS coursework

Total AP’s: 7 (+5 senior year)

Only including 11th & 12th

  • English: AP Lang (11th) and AP lit (12th)
  • Math: AP Calc BC (11th)
  • Science: AP Chem (11th) and AP Physics C (12th) and AP CS A (12th)
  • History and social studies: APUSH (11th) and AP Econ (12th)
  • Language other than English: AP French (11th)
  • Visual or performing arts: Honors Band (9th-12th)

College Coursework

  • Multivariable Calculus (12th)
  • Linear Algebra (11th)

Awards (top 5)

  • Regeneron ISEF Grand Award and Special Award (11th) (international)
  • Acceptance to a highly selective summer program for research (1-2% acceptance rate) (11th) (international)
  • Sole Author Publication at a Top Conference in AI, gave a talk, won a travel grant (11th) (international)
  • USAMTS Gold medal (top 5% of contestants. This is a competition for math research) (11th) (national)
  • Sole Author Publication at a Q1 Machine Learning Journal (11th) (international)

Other Awards no particular order:

  • AIME 2x qualifier with distinction (10th and 11th) (national)
  • School Book Award (top 5% in class rank) (12th) (School)
  • Scholastic Writing Awards: 1 Gold Key, 1 silver key, 3 honorable mention (9th and 10th grade) (regional)
  • Finalist/Honorable Mention at another Science Fair (less prestigious than ISEF) (11th) (international)
  • Poster presentation at a CS conference, “most innovative” award (11th) (international)
  • Oral presentation at another CS conference (+ publication) (10th) (international)
  • Presidential Volunteering Service Award Gold (9th) (national)
  • All regional band (regional)

————————————————————————————

Extracurriculars
Sorry that these are super generic descriptions. They get more generic as you move down :sob:

Self Directed Research Project in Computer Vision (11th):

  1. Reviewed over 50 papers, emailed some of the authors of the papers, reproduced a dozen of papers to get a new/innovative idea in the computer vision field to solve a societal problem.
  2. Won Regeneron ISEF Grand/special
  3. Published sole author at top AI conference with a travel grant, presented the research to experts in the field (was offered lab position from this explained later)
  4. Published extended version to Q1 journal

Selective summer program (12th): Mentored research related to security in MLLMs

  • this project proposal also won a $5000 research grant as well

Lab Member in Specialized field (11th - 12th): Lab works in the exact field my previous computer vision research was dealing with, looking to publish a paper

Personal Project (10th-11th): Produced a 3 episode anime series (73 minutes of animation) based on an original storyline I wrote. Voiced, animated, composed score, and sang the opening theme. Plot was inspired by a series of events that took place in my life and I was trying to work out my feelings and stuff lmao. Won film fest.

Self-Directed research project under professor (10th): produced 2 publications + 3 research awards. This one was also computer vision research

Organization I founded (9-12th): I created this organization to teach kids coding skills in my community. Revenue of $11,000+ over last 3 years, and I established chapters in different towns as well this year.

Policy work (11th - 12th): From my research i basically made a dataset which informed a policy memo that I proposed to my state legislature. still working on this

  • I’m also making a platform to connect politicians and researchers because I found it hard to get my research in the hands of politicians

Clubs and other stuff: debate club captain, math club captain, band 4 years, varsity swim 4 years, freelance animation, senior editor of newspaper for technology column.

Schools (open to suggestions as well)

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): state flagship
  • Extremely Likely: Purdue
  • Likely: NYU (double legacy)
  • Toss-up: UIUC, Berkley, Umich, CMU, Cornell, Rice
  • Lower Probability: Caltech, JHU, Duke, Penn, Brown, North Western
  • Low Probability: HYPSM (looking to either REA stanford or EA mit)
2

Note that MIT’s EA is non restrictive and you can then also EA at other private schools that are non restrictive. My understanding is that REA at Stanford doesn’t get you much advantage if any, unless you are a legacy in which case it is said to be helpful.

1 Like
3

Alright noted. Im just a bit hesitant to ea MIT because for some reason everyone at my school is going for MIT early, and I doubt MIT will take more than one kid in early.

4

They defer about half of those that they don’t take early, then you get a second chance and can fill out the FUN form with more info.

3 Likes
5

When I saw “Computer Vision” my first thought was that there is a fair amount of applied math in computer vision. Then I saw applied math as a possible major, and your 800 on the math SAT. This all fits together and makes a lot of sense.

Let’s assume that you get into your state flagship and Purdue. Let’s suppose that you also get into one or two out of HYPSM. You do not need to go to the more famous school just because you can. Look at the programs for each school that you get accepted to. Look at the required classes for your major, and the required general graduation requirements. Look at whatever they offer in computer vision, or anything else that you want to study. If possible, visit your top choices, whatever they are. They attend a school that is a good compromise between what is the best fit for you, and what is affordable.

If you do get into MIT, they have a major 18C “mathematics with computer science” which is something that you might want to look at. There are likely to be similar majors at some other universities.

You might also think about whether a master’s degree or some other graduate degree is possible for you, and if so whether your parents can afford to pay for this also if you attend one of the more expensive schools on your list (master’s degrees are usually not funded). There will be quite a few graduate students at the schools that you have as reaches who did their undergrad either at the schools that you have as assured or extremely likely, or at schools that are similarly ranked.

To me it looks like you are doing very well. Congratulations! I think that you are a very competitive applicant for any school on your list. Your reaches are of course still reaches, but to me it looks as if you are very likely to do well wherever you end up.

2 Likes
6

It is generally better to apply EA when possible, unless you cannot due to REA rules at some other school you apply REA to.

7

I think you are competitive. But those schools are a reach for anyone. Also consider a school many have not heard of that has a friendly rivalry with Caltech, Harvey Mudd. It’s my personal favourite STEM school. Still a reach, but not as bad as many of the others you are considering.

1 Like
8

You are obviously well qualified for all of the schools you are targeting. You are thinking about applying EA to either MIT or Stanford (both non-binding). Let’s assume that you get waitlisted or rejected to both by April - you’d want at least one “HYPSM” option available in addition to your more likely options (e.g. NYU, Purdue). You may want to consider applying EA to your preferred HYP option instead. The Stanford & MIT EA admit rates are much lower than the HYP EA rates (I believe Princeton’s EA rate is close to 20%, the highest one). If MIT & Stanford want you, I believe they would admit you under EA or RA. You could be sacrificing an opportunity to lock in a potential HYP EA option. (NOTE: If these were ED, I wouldn’t be giving the same advice; you would apply to Stanford or MIT ED). I don’t necessarily advocate students playing a game with EA; early admissions is supposed to signal that the school is your top choice to the committees, but the reality is that many applicants will attempt to employ some type of strategy in hopes of gaining an additional option or two to choose from before May for a number of reasons. B.A. and B.S. programs are different; whether you’re pre-doc or non pre-doc will matter. Educational philosophy and school environment matter. Are you interested in attending an engineering dominated school or science dominated, or mixed? Is there any chance that you could end up pursuing public policy full-time, taking priority over applied math? Which would provide the best place for you to pursue your undergraduate education?

9

You are super well qualified, and truly have a shot at any…I think your list is fine and reasonable. Assuming your recs have no huge surprises and you work your essays, I wouldn’t be surprised if you get into any of those schools (and I rarely say that), and I think you will get into a number of the Lower and Low probability schools…. it is hard WHICH as it depends on who applies this year:) Best of luck :slight_smile: You have worked hard and deserve much success..

10

The degree title BA or BS really does not say much about the program. Check the details of what the program requires and offers to see how it may differ from some other program.

3 Likes
11

Without cost constraints, it might be worth adding UCSB CCS CS major to your list.

Also consider UC Berkeley, which doesn’t enforce prerequisites for undergrad courses (thus, open enrollment for EECS/CS/ECE/engineering majors) and allows undergrads to take grad courses in CS with a permission code: Getting into CS Classes - EECS at Berkeley , which might make it easier for you to take upper level/grad classes early. Berkeley is also strong in public policy (e.g https://cltc.berkeley.edu/program/ai-policy-hub/ )

Also, ask the PI at your lab if they know any other labs working in your field that they could give you a warm introduction to - if so, it might be worth applying just for the opportunity to hit the ground running there from the first day of university.

1 Like