Computer Science + Mathematics ChanceMe Applying to Ivies and UCs [MO resident, 3.93 GPA, 34 ACT]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

US citizen, residing in Missouri. Currently going to public high school.
No real budget or cost constraints.
Intend to major in Computer Science + Mathematics.

GPA - 3.93 UW, 4.42 W
ACT - 34 Composite. Scores: 36 Math, 35 English, 33 Reading, 33 Science (Took the ACT 3 times)

English: Advanced LA 9+10Grade, AP Lit, AP Lang
Math: Honors Alg 2, Trig, Precalc, AP Stat, AP Calc AB, Calc 2/3 at Community College
Science: Honors Bio, Honors Chem, AP Physics 1, AP Physics C (Both Tests)
Social Studies: US & World History Regular, AP Comp & US Gov, AP Micro & Macro Econ
Languages: 4 Years of Spanish 1-4, speak a language at home
Other: AP Computer Science A (CSA)

AP Test Scores:
5 - Stat, Calc AB, Comp/US Gov, CSA, Lit
4 - Physics 1

Awards:
1st Place Missouri State FBLA Coding & Programming Award; created a full-stack website for CTE teams
FIRST Tech Challenge: Won Judge’s Choice Award, 1st Place Connect Award & 2nd Place Control Award.
Board of Education Outstanding Achievement Award 2023: For FBLA performance at Nationals.
FIRST Tech Challenge: Dean’s Semifinalist Award 2022, for leadership roles within a robotics team.
Commended 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program

Extracurriculars/Activities:
Team Captain and Programming Lead for FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Team, all 4 years, qualifying several times and leading a team, as well as managing recruiting and many other aspects of team management
Website Dev for an Internship for a local startup company over the summer, working under the guidance of a Developer for Southwest, worked on analytics and unit testing
Worked as a Game Developer for a friend’s personal brand, working with a team of several people and designing a game to be published on IOs and Android, mobile game dev
JV Tennis 9-10, V Tennis 11-12 Grade
Vice President of school’s Computer Science Club, organized an inter-school hackathon within the club with other schools in the district
Founder of a non-profit organization and created a website, as part of providing STEM opportunities to underprivileged children through my robotics team
Content Creator and Video Editor for several personal YouTube channels I run, sparking my interest in game design and video games, running marketing on several channels
Worked as a Tennis Coach for a majority of sophomore and junior year (paid)
Wrote for my Religious Temple, several articles published in papers for the temple, educating people on holidays and religious activities
Member of my school’s National Honors Society, contributing to a tutoring program and tutoring kids in mathematics in high school, through NHS
Created a fully functioning website for FBLA Coding & Programming, making a site for school’s CTE teams to use to explore different sponsors and integrated a RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) System inside of the application
Proficient in Java, C++, C#, Python, React, Javascript, Typescript
Mainly worked on several websites, and video games

Essay and LORs are generally strong

Colleges Applying To:
Brown, Caltech, CMU, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford (RD)
UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCSB, MIT (EA)
UIUC, UW-Madison, Georgia Tech, Purdue, UTA, UChicago, UMich, USC (EA)
UWashington (RD)
Virginia Tech, IUB TMU, OSU (EA)

2

What schools do you consider safeties? Is UTA University of Texas Arlington, and is OSU Oregon State University or Oklahoma State University?

3

Welcome to College Confidential.

Can you calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

The UC’s are test blind so your ACT score will not be used for admissions or scholarship purposes.

Below are the CS admit rates and admitted GPA ranges for each UC campus.

UC Berkeley: 1.9%and EECS 7.6%.
UW UC GPA: 3.89-4.00. Weighted uncapped: 4.31-4.62.

UCLA: 3.1% UW UC GPA: 3.90-4.00. Weighted uncapped: 4.62-4.87

UCSD: Estimated 5%. Capped weighted UC GPA: 4.10-4.28.

UCSB: Estimated 5–7%. Capped weighted UC GPA: 4.13-4.29.

UCI:17.8%. Capped weighted UC GPA: 4.04-4.27

You are a competitive and qualified applicant but CS is a tough admit for the UC’s.

Best of luck.

4

You have a strong HS record but your list is almost all reaches - doubly so because you are thinking of CS. You need to add more targets and safeties (I don’t see one) especially as an unhooked student. Unfortunately, most of the schools on your list have minuscule admit rates and an overabundance of highly qualified applicants. I would cut down on the number of reaches you are applying to - there are a lot of essays and it will take a long time to be thoughtful about each one. Simply applying to more T20s isn’t going to increase your chances of getting in.

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Your coursework does not list a visual and performing arts class. Have you taken one? They are required for admission to the UC schools.

You also should apply EA to all the public schools that allow it(UIUC, Wisconsin, Washington, Purdue, MIchigan, etc.)

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You’re in at Virginia Tech, which is 70% admit rate for OOS students. I can’t predict whether or not you’ll be allowed into Computer Science, however.

I would focus more on creating a narrative for your application. You have a great list of accomplishments and awards. But what is it telling me about you? What do you bring to campus?

Good luck with everything this fall application season. I think you’ll have some nice surprises but it’s hard to tell beforehand.

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That’s a lot of schools and essays. Different environments. You should cull the list. That’s too many essays. And a school like UW with a 2% OOS in CS is highly unlikely as are so many.

IU will happen as will Ohio State. You might add Maryland as a soft reach, very strong in both majors, and cull many.

What’s your top 8 or so from the list. These are just names. Different environments. Sizes. You will be somewhere four years - pick the reaches you truly want to be.

You have a chance but shotgunning isn’t necessary and given the major, there are so many top schools. Why not Missouri Science & Tech as a safety.

Good luck.

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For VT, students wanting CS typically apply for admission to the engineering division, and then (if admitted and enrolled) need to go through secondary admission to CS after completing first year college courses. The minimum college GPA to guarantee admission to the choice of major is 3.0. For students who enter VT but not in the engineering division, the minimum college GPA is 3.5 to choose an engineering major. Lower GPA students can still get into majors through competitive admission, although CS typically has no space for lower GPA students.

https://eng.vt.edu/academics/undergraduate-students/resources-support/change-of-major/restricted.html

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Impressive HS record. But I agree with the other responses. Please include at least one or 2 safeties.
Our S25 is in a similar boat as well. Good luck to you.

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UTA is University of Texas Austin, and OSU is Ohio State University. My safeties are probably Virginia Tech, OSU, TAMU (Texas A&M), and IUB (Indiana University Bloomington)

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Yeah, most of my safeties are VT, TAMU, OSU, and IUB.

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Edit: sorry, need to redo this because I had state residence wrong.

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Yeah I took Concert Band in freshman year. I also am EAing to all the schools possible that are nonrestrictive and nonbinding

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The student stated that he’s from Missouri. I think he needs safeties in state.

Unless you have property in Texas, I wouldn’t count any Texas public school as a safety.

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How would you suggest I do this in my application? I think the most commonality between all my activities are my leadership role I try to presume in all of them, with my robotics team captain, vice president of comp sci club, coaching and guiding younger kids in tennis, leading stretches for V Tennis, and also integrating myself in many business environments and working with a variety of people.

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I think the schools I’m most interested in are: UCB, UIUC, UCSD, GTech, UTA, Purdue, Stanford and MIT.

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OK, so new thoughts:

I would tend to agree it would make sense to have one or two in-state Likelies, just in case.

I would also tend to agree you seem to be applying to a LOT of Reaches. I would try to think carefully about what you really want in a four-year college experience. Big public? Medium private? Smaller private? Tech-focused college? General interest college with good tech too? Region? Setting (like urban, suburban, college town)? Vibe? Even if cost is not a deal-breaker, any interest in merit awards? Honors Colleges? And so on.

I think if you really focus on what you really want in a four-year experience, you can likely cut that list way down, without a serious risk of really losing any options that you would actually want to pick in the end. And conversely, maybe some really good Target options will emerge.

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The essay is where the admissions reader is trying to get to know you as a person. What drives you as a person? How can you make yourself stand out to the college? Cultural background, something else? Essay cannot be race alone but if race/ethnicity has a big impact on your life to date it can be discussed.

The key is to show, not tell. And the easiest way is from a first-person perspective of a key part of your personality. Check out some webinars or videos of college essays. Or other successful essays.

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So do those first and see if you have the ‘energy’ or desire to do more.

But make no mistake. You must have two safeties and get them done early.

And I would look at Missouri Science and Tech too. It outperforms outcome wise.

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TAMU has secondary admission to CS after entering in the engineering division. A 3.75 college GPA is needed to be able to choose your major; otherwise it is competitive admission for remaining space (of which CS typically has little or none).

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