Do I actually have a chance at top schools?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Stats:

GPA: 3.7/8 UW, 4.2 W
SAT: Not that great currently (1200-1300), but I have done minimal practice. I think I can get this to 1450+.
SAT IIs: I will take Math 2 and Chemistry most likely.
APs: 8-9 APs after senior year.

Personal

Location: Northern Virginia
School: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income: High

Extracurriculars:

Inside of school:

  1. President of the AI club.
  2. President of Economics club/Stock club.
  3. VP of Computer Science club.
  4. With the Computer Science club, I am doing the CyberPatriot competition.

Outside of School:

  1. I stayed after school basically every day for two months teaching myself python.
  2. I also watched the first MIT computer science course on the MIT coursework.
  3. I am self-studying calculus because I want to use it for AI. I often stay up late watching videos on calculus (1-2am) because I sincerely enjoy it.
  4. With the python that I learned I make a stock market trading algorithm
  5. I manage my dads stock portfolio, and I really love it. It's super fun and interesting.
  6. I do a podcast about stocks, etc.

Intended Major: Computer Science

Other thoughts:

My Extracurriculars are more elaborate than I wrote, but I want to keep it somewhat private. The general theme of Computer Science/Stocks/AI is a huge part of me, and I hope to show that in my application.

I really am curious if I even have a chance at top 30 schools. Compared to others my stats and accomplishments might not be great, but college confidential is not a great representation of the average applicant. I want to know if I really have a chance at schools such as Carnegie Mellon/UVA/UMich/UPenn.

Thank you for reading, and thanks more if you respond!

2

You’re going to need an SAT in hand before You can accurately hone in on your school list. Does your school give out class ranks?

How’s your roi?

3

My school does not rank. My ROI is decent. With a SAT score of 1450+ what colleges would be in my range would you say?

4

I wouldn’t hope for a 1450+ if you only have around a 1250 right now. When I took the old SAT with minimal studying, it went up around ~200 points. It’s better to get chanced with the scores you have, instead of hoping for something else that may not happen.

5

I know I can’t really bank on anything, but I’m very confident in my work ethic. I truly believe with enough practice I could get 1450+.

6

What do you consider to be top schools and what are your scores on AP Exams?

7

Your ECs seem to reflect your interest in your future major, which is very good. As for top colleges… any Ivy league level school is a crapshoot, unless you’ve done something huge like win at ISEF or something. Computer science is an extremely competitive major at the moment which doesn’t help (heard some colleges have had to actually throttle admissions on that major specifically).

I believe you on the test scores; familiarity is everything so keep practicing! I raised my ACT 5 points from my first practice test to the actual thing, so it’s definitely possible. Speaking of which, have you considered trying the ACT? I don’t know if it’s popular in your region but most colleges take both SAT and ACT, and personally for me the latter was easier (took both).

I think (don’t quote me until I’ve gotten all my acceptance/rejection letters!) that if you can hit 1450+ UVA and UMichigan are very real chances as long as you can make the rest of your application compelling. For the Ivies etc. just about anyone has a <10% admittance rate so don’t be afraid to shoot for those, but also don’t hold any serious hopes for it unless you like cure cancer or create a complex AI algorithm between now and application time.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck! Believe in yourself and give it your all!

8

-bump