Chance/Match Me please: CS enjoyer with unusual EC [3.98UW, 4.3W, 1600] [OH resident, <<$80k]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • Rising senior
  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Ohio
  • Public High School, not super competitive
  • Other special factors: Don’t really have hooks

Cost Constraints / Budget
It’s hard to summarize exactly but most $80k-$90k per year places will be uncomfortable, even though parents always hate to admit stuff like that. Stuff less than that is probably doable. I’m really hesitant when it comes to taking out loans.

Intended Major(s): CS ideally but in some cases I’d also be fine with something close to that like CEng or some kind of CS+X. I know CS is crazy right now.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.98
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.30 (AP classes are out of 5, honors out of 4.5, everything else out of 4)
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t do class rank. Probably up there somewhere.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT (36M, 36S, 36E, 32R), 1600 SAT (got 1550 the first time and was fine with that but the school had a free one and I got a bit lucky)

List your HS coursework

  • English: AP Lang (4)
  • Math: AP Calc BC (5)
  • Science: Regular Bio and Honors Chem but self-studied AP Chem (5), AP Physics 1 (5), gonna do AP Physics C next year
  • History and social studies: APUSH (5), decided not to do AP Gov
  • Language other than English: German, 3 years so far
  • Visual or performing arts: A year of orchestra but never really loved it
  • Other academic courses: APCSA (5)

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

I’m going to do some math and CS stuff through dual enrollment next year but it’s still not completely clear what that schedule will look like. Hoping to learn discrete math and some other cool stuff.

Extracurriculars

  • My main EC is finding programming bugs. I’ve reported around a dozen security issues to Google over the span of a few years and they paid me a total of around $25k for this. I’ve also done the same process with some smaller companies (not paid unfortunately). In my opinion it’s a cool pastime and honestly I could talk about it all day.
  • Worked with a friend to make a tool for school districts that patches some of the bugs I found on older devices, and also some bugs that were being used by students to get around web filters. Advertising is hard, but we got it to districts with 50k students across 8 states. Still works well and the admins are happy with it but we haven’t seen much growth in a while.
  • I like coding for fun. I’ve taught myself (to varying levels) like five languages and I do all sorts of little projects ranging from Sudoku solvers to Calculus calculators. Still a lot to learn though, especially about AI.
  • I won a “make the most useless product” hackathon for our city with a group of friends. (Not sure if this is good or bad, lol.)
  • Won a local coding comp with a friend (for highschoolers, hosted by a local university) after we fell short the year before.
  • I write for fun. Got a short fanfic novel with almost 100k words, but I’m not sure if I’ll mention this.
  • Pretty normal stuff like soccer (not varsity), piano, and video games.

I “do” CS club, but it’s a pretty fake club and it unfortunately sucks. I’ve tried to join our (semi-successful) robotics club in the past but it never really felt like there was much of a role for me. I’ll try it again this year and see if anything changed.

Awards

  • Top 250 global Google Hall of Fame, top 25 for USA (list is mostly adults)
  • Listed on US National Vulnerability database a couple times
  • I guess I could re-include my hackathon and coding comp here, but not sure if I should
  • Probably National Merit stuff but I need to look into how that works

Essays/LORs/Other

  • After a lot of back and forth, I decided to write my Common App essay about how a video game got me interested in bug finding, and how I changed my mindset along the way. I’m a decent writer so probably like 8/10.
  • My computer science teacher will probably be my main recommender but he’s pretty young. I know him well in school, and he knows I can code pretty well, but he doesn’t know me too well out of school, so I don’t know how good it will be. 8/10 is a guess.
  • For a secondary teacher I have a few options I could ask and they’re all probably decent and write letters often, 7/10.

Schools

(Probably all EA but I’m not sure.)

  • OSU is the big one for me.

I hope I get into OSU, since it’s not just a fallback but a pretty good choice since I have a special circumstance where I could go with less tuition. But with how crazy CS is, it’s probably a target and not a safety, so I’m looking for actual safeties (hopefully with some merit aid?) that you guys recommend. Case Western is pretty good so I’ll look into it and add them to my list, but I’m sure there must be others.

Then I figured I might as well try a bunch of higher ranked CS universities just to see what happens:

  • CMU, UIUC, MIT, Georgia Tech, Purdue, UMich, UWM, University of Maryland

When it comes to schools higher than OSU, if I think it’s a lot better and it’s affordable and there’s something I like about it, then I’ll go. (Obviously, if I get in.) Right now, UIUC seems the coolest to me based off personal preferences, and it’s also not THAT expensive.

My personal preferences:

  • I definitely like college towns more than big cities
  • I think larger colleges are good since there’s a lot of potential friends, but smaller colleges are fine too
  • Not a fan of hot weather all the time (Florida, California, etc)
  • Again, hopefully not too pricey

Basically I’m curious which actual safeties would be good and whether I’m missing any schools that fit my preferences. Also curious if my nontraditional angle could make up for the lack of Olympiads/Clubs. It’s honestly hard to find any data for it online.

Thanks! Any advice would be appreciated!

2

Well schools like UMD and UIUC will be $60kish - one a tad less, one more etc.

So you need a budget because you said you don’t want loans. You say $80-90K are tolerable but uncomfortable. they’re not if you will need loans.

So please get a real $ figure first. A I can pay and don’t need loans budget.

In general if you’re picking OSU over the top schools, then find schools like Alabama that will be $20k a year all in and not harder schools that will cost more. Or KU that’ll be sub $30k. UMass is high rated like UMD and would be less.

No reason to apply to schools you wouldn’t go to - in other words, if OSU beats Ga Tech, why bother ?

I can’t imagine if you get into Ga Tech, you wouldn’t OSU.

CMU and Ga Tech don’t match what you like anyway.

But if you want a high powered school with lower costs and easier admission - MIT or CMU light - check out RPI.

Ps - I see the next poster said it but CMU and MIT, have your folks do the net price calc. You might qualify for need aid.

Good luck.

3

This is the time to sit down with your parents and talk about the uncomfortable stuff. What do they think they can afford without loans? Do you think your family might be eligible for need-based financial aid? If you are not sure, sit down with your parents and run NPCs at some of the private institutions on your list (from your list I see Case Western, CMU, MIT).

UMich is very expensive OOS and will be at the uncomfortable level of cost, no matter what.

4

In general, if EA is offered, apply EA. If the school has rolling admission, apply early. The reason is that some schools fill up their admissions class or popular majors early, so they become much more selective later (University of Maryland is well known for this).

The only issue would be if one or more schools has restricted EA, where you agree not to apply to some set of other schools EA (some restricted EA schools only restrict against applying ED). But it does not look like any restricted EA schools are on your list.

Agree with others that getting a price limit from your parents is important before you make your list.

1 Like
5

All of this really brought a big smile to my face because you sound like 18-year old me :slight_smile:

You have great stats, interesting and fun ECs, and a strong list of schools.

MIT is very intense, and CMU can feel cutthroat to many students, so be sure to research both thoroughly to determine whether they’re a good fit for you. Don’t rely solely on name and reputation but look deeper, because you’ll be spending four important years there.

If you decide that CMU is a good fit, applying Early Decision can significantly boost your chances there.

Good luck!

1 Like
6

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I will try to get an exact number for budget and filter out my list based on that.