Chances for SCS, CIT?

Colleges & Universities Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>I am a white male from Billings, MT.
What are my chances for the School of Computer Science (or CIT)?</p>

<p>G.P.A.- 3.7 UW***(ouch!)
Class Rank- Top 20% or better (ouch!)</p>

<p>ACT
Composite: 34
Reading: 34
Math: 33
Language: 34
Science: 33
Writing Subscore: 09
Combined English/Writing: 32</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
Math I: 730
Math II:740
Physics: 650 (ouch!)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities
Freshman: School Musical, Youth Group
Sophomore: Academic Team, Youth Group
Junior: Academic Team, Debate, youth group
Senior: Academic Team, Debate, Intramural Tennis, Academic WorldQuest Team, national honors society, youth group</p>

<p>Community Service
100+ hours for National Honors Society/Youth Group
yardwork/caring for elderly
care packages for needy
clothing giveaway
food bank
family service center
community cleanup
etc.</p>

<p>Distinctions:
MCTM math contest regional and state superior award (4-time)
presidential award for academic excellence (4 time)
lettered in debate and academics
placed in top 8 of every debate tournament of entire career
one of the leaders of the best academic team in montana (multiple school, regional, state, and national competitions, successful in most of them)
best newcomer-debate 2007-08</p>

<p>5 years of work experience for Yellowstone Polaris & Recreation, Inc.</p>

<p>Hooks: Geographical Location, rigor?</p>

<p>***I started high school with a 2.7 due to an administrative confusion causing classes i took at the high school in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (math and science) to count on my high school transcript, and they are refusing to take it off
(i tried to explain this scenario in my app)
I finished all of high school math in my sophomore year, then earned a few credits in college</p>

<p>Essays: solid
Letters of Rec: Solid
Most rigorous courseload available for my school
school size:1550
puts very few into elite schools</p>

<p>i am hoping they will overlook my less than stellar gpa/ec’s!
what do you guys think?</p>

2

<p>Your extra math, your Montana location and the fact that you’ve gone beyond your high school’s curriculum are in your favor. Your ACT scores are stellar. I gather your GPA and rank would be higher if the earlier courses didn’t count. (By the way our school system does the same thing, it’s not that unusual, they warn kids ahead of time though.) I think you have a very good chance at CIT, decent chance at SCS. (You haven’t mentioned anything that leads to me to think you have a particular passion for computer science.)</p>

3

<p>i wrote one of my essays about my passion for computer science!
thanks for the chances</p>

<p>they told me that it would not count, and i never got any progress reports or anything since i wasn’t even technically enrolled. i had no idea how good or bad i was doing</p>

<p>when i visited cmu they said they only counted sophomore, junior, and senior years</p>

<p>if that is the case, i have a 3.93 gpa or so.</p>

4

<p>yeah, I’m pretty sure CMU recalculates your GPA anyway, disregarding freshman year and I’d assume, also anything before it. I’d say your chances look good for both SCS and CIT.</p>

5

<p>I’d forgotten about the reports that CMU won’t count freshman year. I assume they counted my son’s since that was the year he too AP Comp Sci! In any event he was accepted. I have to say if you didn’t even get progress reports that seems pretty strange that they counted the grades. When my son went up to the high school to take math - his high school grades appeared on the middle school report cards with the high school grading system (numbers instead of letter grades) And assuming you wrote a good essay, I’d say your chances are good. That’s the problem with chances posts - they often don’t include the real meat of the application - teacher recs, your essays.</p>

6

<p>that’s what i was under the impression would happen for me</p>