Chance Me: 3.85 UW, 1520 SAT, MIT hopeful [TX resident, top 5% rank, Computer Engineering/CS]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • Male from TX
  • High Income (probably won’t get a cent of aid)
  • Attend a low performing Title 1 inner-city Public High School (School average SAT <1000)

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • Budget isn’t a huge factor, expecting to take out some loans

Intended Major(s)

Electrical And Computer Engineering / Computer Engineering / Software Engineering / Comp Sci

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.85
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.41 (Dragged down by classes like Student Council and athletics)
  • Class Rank: 18 out of 400+
  • SAT Scores: 1520 Composite (highest in school), 760 M, 760 RW, no super score

List your HS coursework

17 APs - Completed 11 prior to senior year (8 5s, 3 4s), literally taken as many as I can, pursing AP Capstone Diploma

  • English: 1 Standard(middle school), 2 honors, 2 APs
  • Math: 3 Honors, 2 APs, Currently Taking AP Calc BC
  • Science: Honors Bio, Honors Astronomy, Honors Chem, AP Chem, Currently taking AP Physics
  • History and social studies: 1 honor, 3 APs
  • Language other than English: 2 French credits from middle school lol
  • Visual or performing arts: Advanced Theater Production (1 year)
  • Other academic courses: 1 AP engineering course, many honors and standard Engineering courses (I have been taking multiple high school engineering classes yearly since 6th grade)
  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work: Comp Sci A, see above section

Awards

  • AP Scholar with Distinction
  • NMSF (awaiting Finalist)
  • District Best Actor, BiDistrict Best Actor, Area All-Star actor (One Act Play)
  • Top 10 State Mock Trial
  • District Champion Programmer
  • State Level Model UN competition - Outstanding Delegation, Delegates Choice
  • My school’s MUN Team Best Orator
  • My school’s award for best all around APUSH student
  • Recognition from district for being top 5% in STAAR testing (Texas standardized Testing) for every test
  • Regional Qualifier Wrestling
  • Honorary Ambassador to CBO (I helped many people with their essays)

I know a lot of the awards are seemingly unspecific but I don’t want to dox myself. The district awards I am also sure don’t seem very impressive but I do go to one of the biggest districts in the nation with top public schools, as well as schools like mine

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

  • Theater (Freshman - Senior) - Actor and Male Cast Manager - I have mostly supporting roles, but a two top billed roles, have been supporting in my schools musical
  • Model UN (Junior - Senior) - Minister (basically Vice President) and Founding Member
  • Student Council (Freshman - Senior) - Class President
  • Mock Trial (Junior - Senior) - Lead Witness
  • Coding Team - Recruited Programmer
  • Community Service Club (Sophomore - Senior) - Vice President - We did huge mural project I was a key part of
  • Wrestling team (Freshman - Junior) - Varsity Athlete and JV Team Leader - quit to focus on MUN and Mock Trial
  • NHS (Sophomore - Senior) - member
  • Drone Team (Senior) - Team Captain and Head programmer
  • Worked 2 jobs, never more than like a cashier or drive thru head

Essays/LORs/Other
Essays are all probably 8.5/10 to 9.5/10
LOR - Teachers knew me super well, probably both 9/10s
Heavily involved with Community Based Organization (CBO)

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): UT Austin
  • Extremely Likely: CU Boulder
  • Likely: Colorado School of Mines, UC Santa Cruz
  • Toss-up: Georgia Tech, UC San Diego
  • Lower Probability: UC Berkeley
  • Low Probability: UPenn, Princeton, Columbia, Rice, Carnegie Mellon
  • Abysmal: MIT, Stanford
    ^Why not reach with a safety like UT Austin?
    Early Actioning anywhere without REA or ED, everywhere else Regular Decision

I know my application does not seem like a STEM application, but I hope that my unique and diverse spread of extracurriculars actually serves to enhance my application rather than confuse it. It may sound kind of mean but I hope that my about average stats (for like ivies and MIT) will look good compared to others who are in my school.

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So as I assume you know, Texas is like a top 10ish college for your interests, and assuming no aid would cost you in the low $30Ks I believe.

So would you actually serious consider all those other colleges? If so, what is it you are really looking for that Texas is not?

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This is a fair point but comp sci and engineering are holistic at UT so not guaranteed for those majors. I still think likely but just pointing out it’s not a guarantee so looking elsewhere is still a good idea.

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Congratulations on being a very competitive and qualified applicant.

The UC’s are test blind so your SAT score will not be used for admissions or scholarship purposes, only course placement.

You need to calculate your 3 UC GPA’s (unweighted, capped weighted and weighted uncapped): UC GPA calculator

For your intended majors, the UC’s admit by major so I would place the UC’s as follows:

UCSD is a Lower Probability: CS/CSE/CE admit rates were under the 10-15% range.

UC Berkeley is Low Probability: CS admit rate was 1.9% and EECS was 7.6%.

You definitely have a chance at these UC’s but far from a guarantee.

Best of luck.

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Yes, so one of the possible answers for the OP would be that they were looking for colleges with direct or free choice admissions to those programs.

And to be clear I wasn’t intending to ask a rhetorical question, I am thinking it would be helpful to know things like this.

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Your budget is a factor - because you can only take out $27K in loans total over four years and for good reason.

But if your family runs the MIT Net Price Calculator, you might find it is affordable.

Congrats on your profile. I think MIT will be tough - but I’d say that for anyone.

You might need to redo your list because School of Mines, UC Santa Cruz, UCSD and UCB will be big money - and unless you can afford $70K a year, loans won’t get you there.

An Alabama, Mississippi State, UAH, Ole Miss, etc. will all be $20K or less.

I get it - that’s not what you are seeking - but you have to be realistic about budget.

I don’t know your finances - but assuming your ability to pay is small, this is a reality.

Good luck.

Welcome | Net Price Calculator (collegeboard.org)

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Continuing the discussion from Chance Me: 3.85 UW, 1520 SAT, MIT hopeful:

Thank you for the reply!

I think I might have been downplaying it or maybe misrepresenting it in the question, but the budget is not a factor. I am fortunate enough to have grandparents and parents save a lot of money for me and my siblings for higher education, and now that neither of my siblings actually went to college, so I have the ability to pay full tuition anywhere, and while it maybe won’t cover everything, with loans I will be more than fine.

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up to $27K over four years including $5500 the first year…that’s all you can borrow.

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Thanks for your comment!

I believe that a lot of these other universities offer more than just better programs, like alumni networks, to strong internship or work opportunities, and extensive research. I understand that UT Austin is undoubtably the best bang for my buck from a financial standpoint, but I think these other universities have resources that can advance my career more meaningfully.

Another factor is I really don’t like the big southern college culture, and while I think its the most limited at UT Austin compared to other southern state schools, one of my major goals in college is to expand my horizons, and explore more cultures and societies than the one I have lived in my entire life.

I mentioned previously in a reply to tsbna44 that budget really well and truly wasn’t a factor, so with that in mind it makes sense for me to seriously consider these other schools.

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I am aware, and am lucky enough to have this not be a consideration. The loans are really just a way my parents are trying to make sure I have some financial involvement in my college journey, my costs likely could be covered even without them. :smile:

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but I think these other universities have resources that can advance my career more meaningfully.

So I feel compelled to note that I think for engineering fields (and actually in general, but particularly engineering), this is not really accurate. Once you are at any of these programs, what will take over is how you actually do as an individual, including classes but also things like internships or coops, and the impressions you make on people during such experiences. In fact, in the end, engineering kids who go to Texas are going to end up in the same jobs as engineering kids who go to MIT and such. What is really going to matter is your interests and abilities as an individual, no matter which of these colleges you end up at.

Of course if you want to go to a different sort of college than Texas for a different sort of college experience, including one that would cost a lot more, that is fine as long as you and your family can comfortably afford that. I would just be very cautious about trying to justify that based on career outcomes and such. The “return” on your “investment” is much more likely to be the experience itself, and not anything it really changes about your career prospects.

Given this, I am not so sure Georgia Tech specifically makes a lot of sense for you. But I do understand better why you are applying to publics out West.

But did you consider the Upper Midwest? Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, say? Great engineering colleges, definitely not Southern. Again, it is OK if you would rather go West, but I thought it worth mentioning.

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Note that the UCs require 2 years of a language other than English. Middle school courses can count toward this if the high school accepts them as equivalent to its courses: Subject requirement (A-G) | UC Admissions

In California, at least some districts treat 7th and 8th grade language together as equivalent to one year of high school language - so please check with your school.

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These are excellent SAT scores. 760 in math is however low for MIT. 760 in math is only very slightly below the 25th percentile for Stanford, and is good coming from a low performing inner-city high school.

UT Austin is a very, very good university, both overall and for your intended major. When I was a graduate student at Stanford (master’s degree) the other students in the same program had come from a very, very wide range of universities, and I am pretty sure that the average ranking of the various universities that students had come from is lower than the ranking for UT Austin. A bachelor’s degree from UT Austin, if you do well and get some internship experience, would make you competitive for top masters programs, and this plus a masters from Stanford or some other highly ranked university is likely to cost you less compared to just a bachelor’s degree from many of the schools on your list (including MIT and Stanford).

Also, MIT graduates and Stanford graduates routinely work alongside graduates from a very wide range of other universities. In engineering and computer science once you have your first job no one will care where you got your degree, and the high tech industry is on the upswing in Texas.

I do not understand why you would prefer UC Santa Cruz over UT Austin (the banana slugs at UC Santa Cruz are way cool, but once you’ve seen one…). This however assumes that you get your desired major at UT Austin, and my understanding is that this is not guaranteed.

I would avoid debt unless there is a compelling reason to take in on. I suppose that the difference between UT Austin with no debt or Stanford with debt might come down to how much debt is involved, but again a bachelor’s at UT Austin plus a master’s at Stanford might cost less and could be a very good combination.

But the competition for internship and research opportunities is also intense at the highly ranked universities. I did find good opportunities as an undergraduate at MIT, but my family members found equally good opportunities at universities that were ranked lower than UT Austin. Perhaps one issue was that they were able to stand out as strong students in their classes (which is tough to do at MIT). It is not obvious to me which way the opportunities are easier to find, but I think that there are lots of opportunities at lots of universities.

One issue is that when employers are looking for interns, they will often recruit at the very good local university, whatever that is. Internships are definitely valuable.

I do know someone who got into CU Boulder out of state with some merit aid, with a GPA very close to yours but a significantly lower SAT score and a lower class rank (coming from a competitive suburban high school). They however had a different major and you are applying for majors that tend to be competitive (for those schools that consider major for admissions).

Best wishes. It looks to me like you are likely to do very well wherever you end up.

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Programmer here…loans means budget is a factor. It’s good that you have UT on the list, but getting into UT and getting into their computer science major are two vastly different things. They routinely turn down top students for CS. It’s never a safety school. The rest are either out of state or private schools. Costs for that are going to be anywhere between 60k to 100k a year. Being a parent myself, that’s going to be a massive strain on any budget.

I would add Texas A&M on the list and name a few safety schools like Texas Tech or University of Houston. All are well recruited schools for CS.

Here’s the great part of going into computer science. Prestige is completely meaningless. In fact, after about 3 years work experience, employers don’t even ask where you went to school, because it’s not relevant. Virtually all of your credentials will be built on the job over time.

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You’ll have plenty of opportunities to expand your horizons after you graduate. Being a programmer, I can tell you these schools won’t advance your career. Your career is going to be built on the job.

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Did you already submit your UT application? Decisions are rolling.

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Secondary admission to CS at Texas A&M is not easy, since very few who do not make the 3.75 college GPA are admitted to CS.

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Is this new? Usually, UT releases in batches, starting in January.

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My bad. Looking at their website, looks like they have EA and RD with decision dates 1/15 and 2/15.

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You may have to readjust your thoughts about some of your schools. Consider the issues that affect nonresident students at the UC schools. Go in somewhat knowledgeable about what to expect.

The UC’s are extremely LARGE, public universities funded by limited taxpayer dollars from the State of California. You may be in courses for freshman and sophomores that are 500 to 1000 students. It’s crowded; they are LARGE.
We residents don’t have an issue taking your $75,000-80k per year.

The UCs have some of the strongest and best students from the state, and the schools that you have selected, are extremely competitive for everything that you’ve listed: programs, internships, and work opportunities.

Additionally, because the cost of housing, throughout the state, is ridiculously expensive, schools like UC Santa Cruz are known for really bad housing situations because the local residents don’t allow student housing to be built in their areas. A number of students have to transfer out because they can’t find housing.
These issues may affect you. I’m glad you want to explore areas outside of your state but please realize each state has its own issues.

If you’d like to apply to the UCs, the application closes at the end of November. The system almost always crashes at the end of November because there are hundreds of thousands of applications being submitted.

We recommend that you get your application in by the 15th of November.

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