Chance/Match Asian Male - CS/Data Science, 3.9-4.0 UW, 1500 SAT, NC resident

[hexex]

Demographics

• US Citizen
• State/Location of residency: North Carolina
• Type of high school: small but highly ranked private school
• Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Asian Male - Not a Senior
• Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): Sibling legacy @ Duke - Child of Faculty 2x @ Duke

Intended Major(s)
Computer Science/Data Science
Thinking of relating these fields specifically toward linguistics (or music but that’s pretty competitive). So possibly Computational Linguistics?

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

• Unweighted HS GPA: N/A - Estimated between 3.9 - 4.0
• Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): N/A
• College GPA (for transfers): N/A
• Class Rank: N/A
• ACT/SAT Scores: 1500 SAT First Try. Will Test again next year

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

Note: School typically only offers AP classes for Juniors and Seniors
9th: All regular level classes
10th: All regular level classes except for AP Calc BC and AP CSA which I skipped/tested into
11: N/A
12: N/A

Awards

• American Computer Science League 2x Finalist & 1x Bronze Medalist
• North Carolina Data Science Competition 1st Place Winner
• 2022 USA Track & Field 100m 2nd Place Southeast Regional Winner
• 2023 USA Archery Winter Virtual Indoor Tournament 9th Place
• Some minor regional Science Olympiad Awards
• Some minor regional Debate Awards

If Honors count then the following will also be listed

• 1 of 4 students selected by the NC Department of Information as a panelist for an annual State-wide Tech Conference
• 1 of 12 students selected by my school to attend an international AI conference in Switzerland (couldn’t actually attend, however)

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

• American Computer Science League Co-Coach; Led 5 members to Finals & 1 member to place Silver
• AI Research with a UC Berkeley Graduate Student; Paper passed 1st journal review of Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (but unfortunately later rejected; expect to make changes and try in a different conference)
• AI coursework with a Duke professor
• Planned & instructed a 40+ hour “Ethics of AI” course with 12 students; Hosted Duke and NCSU professors & the UKG Lead Product Manager
• CTO and programming instructor for a tutoring nonprofit with 4 chapters across NC
• Data Science Club - Uses data collected from school drives to improve profits but not much quantitative data yet (ironically)
• TA for an AI course at a local organization
• Created an app to provide educational resources to students but little measurable impact
• Varsity Track & Field/Varsity Indoor Track & Field for 3 years

Other (music & linguistics):

• Chinese-English Family Translator; Helped parents study for & pass USA Citizenship test
• Self-studied Spanish & Portuguese; Translate & transcribe Spanish & Portuguese song lyrics into English; upload them for English-speaking audiences
• Independent Music Producer; Created 50+ songs with 8500+ views
• Latin Music Content Creator; 8000+ views around videos of me playing Corridos, Norteños, & Bossa Nova
• Organized Music Production 6-hour Class with 16+ participants; Installed recording studio within my school available to students
• Duke Summer Program Courses revolving around music

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

N/A but if I had to choose
Calc BC teacher 8/10 - mentor for the Datathon as well as working together for some extracurricular events
English teacher 7/10 - worked with me while organizing the ethics of AI class. Mentor for the Data science club

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.)

Not a super big issue.

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; 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)

Might botch this part

Safety/ Likely

• NCSU
• U Pitt
• ?

Match (might leaning to reach here)

• UNC CH
• UVA
• ?

Reach

• Duke
• Boston U
• CMU
• MIT
• ?

[tsbna44]

@hexex

but highly ranked private school

You had me sold at talk your counselor.

But if you were at a public, I’d move UVA to reach UNC, from what I understand, depends on your county. Va Tech would be a match and frankly comparable to UVA.

Agree with the reaches.

So NC State and Pitt are both great - different but great. If you’re good with them, you’re done.

If you want more - size, geography, cost (you could find inexpensive OOS schools to get close or match in state), then what are you looking for.

But as is, you’re in great shape - even without testing again.

A higher test would greatly help Duke and CMU and if you added an MIT type or Rice, Vandy, UMD, etc.

But as is - you’re great!! Congrats.

Still talk to your counselor.

[hexex]

Thanks for the response. But just to be clear, what do you mean by “you had me sold at talk [to] your counselor”? Why should I talk to them?

What impact does being at a private school have on my app as opposed to a public?

[tsbna44]

Usually highly rated private schools have built in college counseling. Often times the 30% rank at a private might get into a top top school whereas maybe not at a public - depending on the school of course.

Because the school is private, they might have a better idea of where kids end up so might be able to match you statistically.

If you want large schools - which you’ve chosen other than Duke, you might consider UMD and Va Tech.

But given the folks are at Duke, if you decide you like that size, a Vandy, Emory, Rice, WUSTL etc would be great. Emory has a Quant Sciences major you might like - you have to dual with another.

But Pitt and NC State are great and I think safe.

I just think your counselors might be a better guide in this case.

[hexex]

I’m also considering international universities. Where would Canadian schools like the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo or British schools like Cambridge & Oxford fit into this list?

[ucbalumnus]

@hexex

What impact does being at a private school have on my app as opposed to a public?

If it is some kind of elite high school (“highly ranked”), then it may have dedicated college counselors who are likely to have greater information about each student’s chances at each highly selective college, compared to typical school counselors.

[ucbalumnus]

@tsbna44

NC State are great and I think safe.

NCSU does have competitive secondary admission to majors like CS.

[tsbna44]

And OP should review that for any school vs direct admit. But I was talking about first year admission.

Fair point though to OP - may want to focus on direct admit schools. Or know the required gpa to get in/ stay in/ choose your formal major once enrolled.

[Cavitee]

I’m guessing you are at DA, if so you’ll get into Duke, UNC and more than likely UVA.

• DA parent whose daughter went to UVA (got into UNC and UVA but didn’t apply to Duke but best friend did and was accepted with lower stats than my daughter but mother works there)

[hexex]

I’m actually not at DA. Although some consider it a feeder school to Duke, in my opinion many of the students are also children of faculty or have legacy that make them generally more likely to get admitted anyway.

It’s interesting to see their decisions, however. Not sure how much being at a different school will impact my decisions.

[hexex]

Very true. From what I understand, NCSU, UNC CH, and most of the Canadian universities require you to apply for your major again once you get admitted.

What would happen if you were admitted into the school but rejected from your major?

[tsbna44]

At schools with secondary admission, you usually go 1-2 years and then apply for the major or specialty you want. Both UNC and UVA are set up this way for business, as an example.

For many, it’s a reasonable hill but not all will make it.

If that happens, you pick an attainable to you major or transfer to a school where you can study what you want. Or in an engineering school, which CS is at NCSU, perhaps it could either be another major in engineering. You could reach out to the school and ask this very question.

You should be aware but my guess is many that don’t make it likely don’t belong anyway. But if you want to not have this happen, choose a direct admit school.

What NC State says:
Students complete the standard set of engineering first-year courses, which include courses in the humanities, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computing. Students may apply to join the Department of Computer Science as degree-seeking students via the CODA process.

[hexex]

Just curious, but does anyone know how much these hooks will help me during Duke Admissions? I’ve heard that legacy is what usually tips someone into acceptance if they’re on the edge, but given me also being child of faculty, is there any additional benefit?

[Cavitee]

By faculty are they professors? Good friend my child had parent who was a very well known doctor on staff at Duke hospital and accepted with under 1400 on the SAT (when it wasn’t TO)

[sfogooner]

Reasonably high number of people seem to get in with CODA. They do have the statistics on the website. Also some AP scores like AP Calc AB/BC -5 count as an A for GPA calculation of the CODA courses.
For example CS is shown below:

[ucbalumnus]

Except that it does not say what kind of college GPAs the admitted and rejected applicants have. It would be more helpful if they posted admission rate by college GPA ranges.

[sfogooner]

Agree. Not sure if it is purely GPA based or if there is a holistic element to it. Close to 90% get their first or second choice major. You can mitigate some risk by using AP scores.

[hexex]

That’s interesting… Do you know anything else about their application that might have influenced it other than test scores? It’s possible they were strong in extracurriculars.

And if their parent were very well known and compensated highly, then they may have also donated (lol). I personally know someone similar who got into Duke after their family donated a building.