Chance Me: Do I have a better shot at UT CS or engineering ECE? (Top 5%, 1470, CS Non-profit founder)

Applying to College
1

I’m currently a senior and working on my college applications. My concern is that most of my extracurriculars are more aligned with CS and business than electrical/computer engineering because I only realized I wanted to also go into computer engineering senior year. So, is it better for me to just apply as a CS major?

Academics:

  • SAT: 1470 (750 M, 720 Eng)
  • Top 4.5% of my class
  • GPA: 3.96
  • 4s and mostly 5s on AP exams (Notable: Physics 1 &2, CSA, Bio, Stats, Calc BC)
  • Demographics: Asian female in-state

Extracurriculars:

  1. Founder of a Coding Non-Profit Event: Managed communications, secured partnerships and sponsorships, marketed events, and hosted coding & tech workshops.
  2. President of Girls Who Code: Led initiatives and organized events.
  3. UT Summer Program for CS: Selected through a competitive application process.
  4. Internship at a Tech Startup: Worked on the business side, including competitor analysis. Also, help engineer AI models.
  5. Creating AI Models for Disease Diagnosis: Developed AI models & Data analysis with a focus on healthcare.
  6. DECA State Qualifier: Competed and qualified at the state level.
  7. President of the Coding Tutoring Club: Led the club and provided coding tutoring for students.
  8. Member of Business Club: Volunteered to teach young students business concepts and pitched at events.
  9. District Youth Leader: Created a program to assist students academically.
  10. Developed Apps/Websites for Social Causes: Built tech solutions addressing various social issues.
  11. Build plant watering system (hardware project) and app
  12. Volunteer at Food Bank

Awards: Presidental Volunteer Gold, National Women in CS award, DECA State, and AP Scholar

2

Your ECs do not need to be closely related to your intended major. If your ECs are related to computer science, and if your intended major is electrical or computer engineering, then your ECs are significantly more closely related to your intended major that my ECs were, or at least one daughter’s ECs were. We still did fine in terms of admissions to universities.

Also, for those schools that consider your major for admissions (which I think does include the best public universities in Texas – which are very good), Computer Science is typically a very difficult major from an admissions point of view.

I think that you should apply for whatever major you think is the most interesting to you.

And to me it looks like you are doing very well.

3

It’s really based on interest. I believe you get the option of choosing a 1st and 2nd choice major at UT-Austin. Just put them both down, and hopefully you’ll get into one of them. It’s extremely competitive, so make sure you apply to other schools as well. Texas A&M has a top ranked CS and engineering program as well.

4

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