Chance Me: Indian Muslim Girl NJ better EC than Academic

Not sure why so many NJ parents look down upon Rutgers. Its a great in-state option with national recognition. Almost every employer will have heard of Rutgers.

A rank in the 10-15th percentile along with your grades, ORM status, being from an over-represented state, and applying to an over-represented major is going to make it very difficult for you. Your chances at Penn ED are very low, probably so low that I wouldn’t bother with the application. Princeton RD is near certainty rejection. Applying ED will sometimes push you over the edge if you have some other institutional priority (minority status, development, legacy, etc). But you already have 3 strikes against you.

Your ECs are solid, but I don’t see anything that would make an admissions officer jump up and advocate for you. Examples of students with stellar ECs: David Hogg, Malala Yousefzai, Greta Thunberg, etc.

If you really are shooting for a top ranked school, then sometimes you can squeak by having full pay status. Are your parents willing to shell out $300K+ for a degree? Thats an awful lot of money.

CS degree will make it easy for you to get a job. The employers in CS don’t really care where you graduate from. You’ll need to pass the coding tests to get hired anyway. Some high paid devs don’t even have a college degree. So chasing prestige is somewhat meaningless.

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