Chance cs major shotgunning hypsm + t20s

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Guidelines

  • Please check back to answer questions.
  • Please do not share identifying information.
  • Please do not include your race.

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
  • State/Location of residency: Midwest
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.):

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

No budget

Intended Major(s)

Computer science for most

Information systems for Cornell & Stanford

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it): 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities): 4.51
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • Class Rank: doesn’t rank but 1
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: ap lang
  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed): ap calc ab, ap calc bc, ap csa, ap stats, linear algebra
  • Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics): ap bio, ap physics c mech, ap environmental, ap chem
  • History and social studies: apush, ap world, ap macro
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed): 4 years Spanish class
  • Visual or performing arts:
  • Other academic courses:

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work:

Awards

  1. ISEF grand award in category
  2. National jshs 1st place in poster in category
  3. International agriculture award
  4. State award for community service + 10k scholarship
  5. National merit semi
  6. Random national awards but not competitive

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Independent research in major related field
  2. Volunteer tutoring for international nonprofit org, vice president of coding branch, lead 15 tutors
  3. Robotics, qualified worlds
  4. Science fair state advisory board
  5. Invited speaker at state stem summit
  6. Webdesign internship
  7. Summer field job in cornfield
  8. Mock trial
  9. tennis
  10. Volunteering
  11. Research summer camps

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

Essays: 7-8/10

LOR: from csa teacher 10/10, from ap physics & ap lang 7/10

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)

EA:

  • MIT - deferred
  • Gtech
  • Purdue
  • UIUC
  • USC
  • UC Berkeley
  • UCLA
  • UC Irvine
  • UCSB

RD:

  • Stanford
  • Harvard
  • Princeton
  • Duke
  • CMU
  • Penn
  • Columbia
  • NYU
  • Cornell
  • Northwestern

If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): state school - got in
  • Extremely Likely:
  • Likely: Purdue
  • Toss-up: NYU, UCSB, UCI
  • Lower Probability: USC, gtech, UCLA,
  • Low Probability: everything else
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You have an impressive application, but all of those schools receive many fold the number of fully qualified applicants versus the number of seats they have. No one can look at your stats and chance you beyond what the general acceptance rates are. Just know, if you are rejected, it’s not based on your stats. It’s a math game.

All that said, the experience will be radically different between many schools on your list. Every year this site gets transfer questions from students who got into prestigious brand X only to find that they didn’t like it. Do your homework now to ensure that you don’t make that mistake.

Good luck.

1 Like
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So you’re looking for a full ride? Have your parents run the net price calculators to check if you qualify for financial aid (and if so, how much)?

4

I am wondering why Wisconsin is not on your list. It is a very good choice for CS (and also for math). The RD application deadline is January 15, so you just barely have time to get an application in.

Does this mean that your parents are fine spending something close to $400,000 over four years. It is not clear to me what “no budget” means.

CS is an area where graduate school is not needed (although a master’s is possible), which suggests that you only need to budget for 4 years.

I think that Purdue is very likely, and is also a very good university for your intended major.

The rest are reaches. They might come through, or might not.

To give two examples. Stanford in their alumni magazine a number of years ago had an article about admissions. They estimated that 80% of applicants are academically qualified to attend. You are clearly in that 80%. Unfortunately they accept something closer to 4% of applicants, and that 4% includes recruited athletes and legacy students. Similarly, MIT admissions has said that 85% of applicants are academically qualified. Again you are in that 85%. At least the 4-5% acceptance rate at MIT does not include recruited athletes and legacy students, since MIT does not recruit athletes and does not consider legacy status.

Regardless, I think that Purdue is a very good choice and is quite likely. I think that it is realistically possible that you might get a few other acceptances from this list, and you can do very well with a degree in CS from any of them. It also looks like you are very well prepared to succeed wherever you attend university.

If you do get accepted to MIT, you get to pick any major that you want at the end of your freshman year. In addition to 6-3 “computer science and engineering“ you might want to also consider 18C “mathematics with computer science“.

And be aware that most of these schools (MIT particularly comes to mind) will be a lot more difficult compared to high school. You will need to learn to put in the effort and keep ahead of your class work. It looks like you are well prepared to do this.

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Are you a US Citizen? I’m assuming no budget means - spending $400K over 4 years is ok.

Why would you apply for IS if you want CS?

If your school doesn’t rank, then you are not #1 - so don’t say that. It’s a falsity. Your school counselor will guide where you are.

You have a great profile, including things like a summer job in a cornfield. Do you have tenure and increasing responsibility in any of these 11 ECs. Quality is more important than quantity - so if you do something for a year and stop, etc. - I’d rather see four years and that you are making an impact.

Sounds like you should touch up your essays. Of course, scores are subjective.

You have a lot of non-top 20 for someone who is shot gunning HYPSM and top 20s. I’m glad btw - and top 20 isn’t necessarily best in your area.

You have a solid app. Obviously, your tests won’t be seen by the UCs. Where is Yale?

So you have an assured. Since you love perceived rank and are open to IS, you might apply to U of Arizona as a safety. Why? It’s #2 in IS after Carnegie Melon and tied with Ga Tech and MIT by US News - not a source I give credence to - but this way, you get an assured high rank, which is what you seek.

I’ll just say it seems to me your schools are all reaches. I’d say Purdue is likely - will agree but it’d be a sure thing if from Indiana. Otherwise, I think your EA are all reaches - but if from Illinois, then maybe UIUC a match. The UCs are a bit tougher to know - so good luck there. Your RDs are definitely all reaches. I wish you applied to top schools like UMD and UMASS, which are rated by many above Harvard, Northwestern and more - when it comes to CS.

Here’s a rank I like - but of course, there’s many rankings and often they say different things.

I’m glad you have the sure thing and you might consider Arizona for MIS.

Hopefully you land one - but it’s just too hard to know. I do think Purdue is certainly reasonable. If you like MIT, you might check into RPI too.

Best of luck.

computer science open rankings

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Are you a domestic or international student?

Does “No budget” mean no limits or no money?

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Sorry I meant no budget as in I am not app,going for financial aid

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Sorry for confusion, no budget means I’m not applying for financial aid, I can afford it

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Like you have indicated, Purdue is likely and probably UIUC if you applied CS+X. One of UCSB/UCI is also likely. But then you will have public schools with twice the cost in the mix. UCSD is not in the list?

10

Sorry I meant ucsb

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Some of the elite schools are not the best choice for a computer science degree

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I applied IS because in my research I had to communicate a lot with my community and see how to integrate the technology into it to make impact.i agree I should’ve applied to more of those but to be honest I didn’t do a good job of researching. I didnt like the culture at Yale just from what I’ve seen, so I didn’t think I would enjoy even in the off chance I got in.thank you so much for the feedback and advice!

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I just said Yale because you said HYPSM :slight_smile:

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Congratulations on a wonderful and competitive profile.

I will only address the UC’s but all but 1 UC on your list (UCI) has CS admit rate below 15%.

You will also need to calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s using the linked calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

Campus CS
UC Berkeley 1.9%/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30 Campus UC unweighted 3.89-4.00 Campus Weighted uncapped 4.31-4.65
UC Irvine 29% Impacted Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.12-4.29 Campus UC unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA 4.1% Impacted Major/ Capped weighted GPA 4.25-4.32 Campus UC unweighted 3.90-4.00 CS Weighted Uncapped 4.66-4.92
UC San Diego 12% Selective Major /UC Capped weighted GPA 4.19-4.31 Unweighted Campus 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara 10% Impacted Major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.23-4.31 Average Unweighted Campus 3.91
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