Race: Indian
Gender: Male
Intended Major: CS
Graduation Year: 2021
GPA (W): 4.06 (going up after this year)
SAT: 1540 (800 Math, 740 Reading)
SAT II: 770 Math (retake?) Physics Not Taken Yet
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank
I go to an IB School, I take all honors at minimum and 4 HL Courses (that is the most they offer): HL Math, HL Physics, HL Design Technology, HL History
ECs:
- Currently working on 2 apps, one which is an online tutoring service for my district and another that allows for the easy submission of time sheets at my work place. Both are to be launched this year
- DECA States Qualifier (3rd at regionals)
- FBLA States Qualifier (placed at states as well)
- WHYY Young Journalist Video Winner for Philly Area (2nd Place)
- Varsity Debate Team
- Key Club Executive
- Science Olympiad (goal is to medal this year)
- TSA Member (goal is to place at nationals this year)
- Piano 5X National Winner (played for 10 years total)
- Volunteering Hours (100+) at local senior center and local library
- Volunteering Hours and Research done for Innovative 3D printing Company working on a large scale
- PA Computer Fair (1st regionals, qualified for states)
- NHS Member
- Work as a swim instructor (have worked sophomore and junior year)
Realistically, what are my chances? Is there anything I can do to improve my chances?
Thanks a lot 
Can I ask why you’re not applying to UPenn if you’re instate? I know it doesn’t give you an advantage since it’s private, but it seems liked you’d know about it more.
CMU is a high reach, the others are attainable but still hard. Focus on essays.
VTech and GTech would be safties, you’ll probably get good merit aid. Or they could assume you’re using them as safeties and reject you for that. Show LOTS of demonstrated interest.
GT is NOT a safety for an OOS applicant.
VTech, yes.
^^^didn’t see that you are OOS, sorry. GTech is a match, would be a safety if you were in state.
And even if OP was in-state for Georgia Tech, it’s still not a match/safety.
VTech is an easy safety. GTech is a reach but fairly attainable. Cornell is an ivy so reach by default. CMU will always be a high high reach for CS no matter how qualified or high your stats are. For CMU it would be worth to retake the math 2, they are extremely cutthroat when it comes to math. Since you are willing to go out of state, consider UIUC and UT Austin, they are extremely good for CS but will be reaches for OOS CS.
Realistically, Georgia Tech, Cornell and CMU are all reaches and likely crapshoots. Virginia Tech is likely a match but not an “easy safety.” Have you looked at the many posters with stats that exceed these, who have been rejected at Georgia Tech? I have no familiarity with CMU but I do with the others. And no, there will be no merit aid at GT or VT.
Hard to comment without an unweighted GPA, the most important part of an application. 4.06 weighted could be anything from a 3.1 to a 4.0 unweighted.
All honors and HL courses would usually mean a 4.3-4.6 ceiling, meaning a 3.4-3.7 unweighted. If accurate, some of the above may be overly optimistic.
Why not Penn State?
VaTech and Penn State are essentially the same kind of school.
Thank you, I know it is there, I just wanted to know about the others.
Thank you for all the responses, if anyone knows the difference between the majors of CS and Computer Engineering?
CMU CS is a super high reach for anyone. Best CS program in the country, if not in the world. Scores are really important there. I believe the ACT (50% range) for CS was 35. I would definitely retake the math one and shoot for 800.
Although there is overlap between the courses you take, they are extremely different. CS is software and math focused and is the most competitive/desired major rn. CompEng is, well, building computers. Both have software elements to them but a CS degree is more likely to lead to software developer. While CS has an architecture component, it is typically only one course whereas CompEng focuses a lot more on physical hardware. Both are competitive majors and lead to high salary. You should look into the required courses to graduate to get the best idea of the differences between the two. You might be surprised at the small amount of coding courses because CS focuses a lot more on math and algorithms. For CompEng, you will have to go through multivar and maybe diff eq or stats. CS requires all those and linear algebra, discrete math, various courses on proofs and algorithms, half of your “CS” courses are math courses in disguise. When I was touring CMU SCS, they said about 30% of freshman had never coded in their life but were strong in math. One more key difference is that CompEng students are all extremely STEM focused and basically have their 4-year plan already laid out by the college because there are so many STEM reqs to complete. While this is also true for most BS CS programs in engineering schools, a lot of universities will offer a BA CS in their arts college which has much looser requirements (though some people might be turned off by the increased humanities reqs) and allows you to take courses you actually want to, you can also take those engineering reqs if you want but you get to choose.
PS: I am biased because I am applying to BA CS so I know much more about that than CompEng or BS CS.
Also, like others say, UW GPA?