<p>SAT Subject Tests:
(Retaking Math 2, Lit, and Chem)</p>
<p>Chem - 760
Math 1 - 750
Math 2 - 740
Lit - 650 </p>
<p>Courseload: Toughest possible.</p>
<p>AP Exam grades: </p>
<p>AP Calculus AB - 5
AP Chemistry - 5
AP English Language - 5 (self-study)
AP Statistics - 5<br>
AP Literature - 4 (self study)
AP Computer Science A - 3 (self-study) </p>
<p>GPA: 3.44UW/3.73W</p>
<p>Rank: 72/592</p>
<p>ECs: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>I taught myself guitar and music theory to the point where I’ve played professionally. I have also composed hundreds of works. </p></li>
<li><p>I taught myself several programming languages (C, C++, Java) and have written hundreds of programs – ranging from simple utilities to full-blown 2D and 3D video games. </p></li>
<li><p>I have also taught myself many aspects of game design; I’ve made dozens of levels for popular video games such as Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, DOOM 3, etc. </p></li>
<li><p>I’ve been assembling computers since I was 6 and am the “go to” guy for anybody’s computer problems; I’m essentially a half-decent self-taught computer fixer </p></li>
<li><p>I write poetry and short stories for fun. Nothing published, but I do use it as a medium by which to express my non-technical side. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Chance me, please, for: </p>
<p>Boston College
Boston University
Rice University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stanford University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvard University
Cornell Univeristy
Dartmouth College
UCLA</p>
<p>Your stats look really good, especially your SAT (I’m jealous). I doubt they will look too much at your GPA because everything else makes up for it! MIT and Harvard might be a bit of a reach (well for everyone), but mainly because they are probably stuck up and won’t accept anything below a 3.99999999. I think if you have really good essays and recommendations, you can get into most of those universities! With your knowledge in programming and computer science, I would recommend that you look into the University of Washington Honors because UW also has a really good computer science program (aside from its really good medical program).</p>
<p>Just being honest, I think you have too many reaches. I would focus more on places like WashU as a reach Emory, Vanderbilt, etc as slight reaches. You need more matches as well.</p>
<p>Forget my last post. You remind me of some of my ridiculously successful friends and some of the best programmers I know. Amazing SAT, not so amazing GPA, loves computers, music, and literature and is self-taught in many ways. Only really applies self to things they like (hence the not so great GPA), but the good news is that its totally okay, and maybe to your advantage, to be like this in the real world.</p>
<p>My advice is to forget the Ivy prestige game and go to places that will make you the best programmer/ computer guy possible. It doesn’t sound like you want to be a banker or consultant (which is what you’ll be if you go Ivy), but rather a programmer working for Take-Two Interactive or facebook. I’d personally rather be Mark Zuckerberg than some NYC finance guy any day.</p>
<p>In light of this would add schools like these:</p>
<p>Stanford (prob not getting in because of the GPA)
MIT (ditto but hey why not)
Princeton (ditto also but best Ivy for CS)
UC-Berkeley
Cornell (You best Ivy shot and good CS)
Carnegie Mellon (arguably the best for game development and creative CS)
University of Michigan
University of Illinois (YouTube founder Steve Chen is an alum)
UT-Austin (awesome school with tons of nearby tech and game development)
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rens. Polytech</p>
<p>I don’t know you and I might be wrong. But based on what you’ve given us this is my advice.</p>
</p></li>