Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Competitive public school
Cost Constraints / Budget
Full pay
Intended Major(s)
CS
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 97-98%
Class Rank: School doesn’t report
ACT/SAT Scores: 1510 but waiting on October results
AP Classes:
AP Seminar: 4
AP Calculus AB: 5
AP CSP: 5
AP Chemistry: 5
Grade 12 Coursework:
AP Physics 1 & 2
AP Calculus BC
AP CSA
AP Lit
AP Lang
Awards
2021: Gauss 8 Award of Distinction, School Honor Roll
2022: Girls Who Code Scholar Certificate, Kode With Klossy Scholar Certificate, USACO Silver, School Honor Roll
2023: Cayley Award of Distinction, Girls Who Code Scholar Certificate, Kode With Klossy Scholar Certificate, Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Training Program Certificate, Canadian Senior Maths Contest Award of Distinction, School Honor Roll
2024: Hypatia Award of Distinction, School Honor Roll, AP Scholar With Honours
Extracurriculars
Unpaid finance internship/shadowing at a top bank in Canada (12)
Creating reports on investment and estate planning
Researching stock market trends
Working with clients regarding their retirement goals.
Internship at one of the top 3 universities in Canada (11, 12)
I work as a full stack developer for one of their labs and write code for the research projects that they conduct.
Typically only 3rd year and above students are accepted into the lab, so I’m the only high school student working with them
Starting library programs for kids in my city (9, 10, 11, 12)
I founded a library program that works with multiple branches and provides free coding classes
We’ve reached over 400 kids in the span of 4 years and raised >1k in grants for purchasing equipment for our classes
The leading organization for free coding classes in my city
Robotics & Coding Instructor (9, 10, 11, 12)
I teach students aged 7-16 about Python, Java, and web development (HTML, CSS, and Javascript)
Just became the manager of my branch
Led every robotics team I’ve led to competing at provincials (so far )
Teaching Coding Online (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
Designed different curriculum plans for various learning needs
Taught Scratch and contest coding
Supported low-income students with free sessions.
Working With a Non-Profit to Write Articles (8, 9, 10, 11)
Collaborating with different people every week to finish our tasks
Managing the website for quality control
Meeting weekly to discuss improvements and changes
Volunteering At My Dance Studio (12)
Danced in K-pop covers gaining 3k+ Youtube views
Emceed for 700+ audience members
Organized Random Play Dances to promote student registration.
Dance, piano, small things
Summer Activities
Kode With Klossy
Girls Who Code
Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Training Program
Selected to volunteer with Health Canada
Invited along with around 10-20 other students around the country to fly to Ottawa and give feedback on a game being developed by Health Canada for high school students
Essays/LORs/Other Letters of Recommendation:
9/10 - My teachers like me and for some of the other ones I wrote the letters myself
Essays:
Common app: 9/10 - I talk about being a model and how it taught to me embrace failure. I think it’s pretty unique and I asked my teachers for feedback and they said they loved it so I hope it goes well.
Supplementals: 8/10 - Probably a bit weaker, but I haven’t worked too hard on them yet
Schools
Okay, so as an international student, I’m considering less about my “dream school” and more about which one has the highest admission rate/future career prospects.
Cornell has a higher admissions chance for women and ED, but CS is definitely competitive and they cut ED % last year. Also, if I decide I want to work in finance in the future I heard that Ithaca isn’t the best place for networking.
Upenn M&T is much harder to get into, but I’m not sure about the ED % since they don’t release that info either. Would I be able to work in finance or SWE if I applied to just the regular engineering school instead of M&T?
UPenn (ED?)
Cornell (ED?)
UMichigan (EA)
UWash (EA)
Cooper Union
Berkeley
UCLA
Princeton
CMU
Stanford
UofT
McGill
Waterloo
UBC
Thank you for reading all of that. Please suggest any other schools and which school I should ED to!
If you’re interested in majoring in CS, there shouldn’t be any question - Cornell. It’s CS program is far better than UPenn’s. In fact, UMIch, UWash, Berkeley, UCLA, Princeton, and Stanford all have better CS programs than UPenn.
In fact, honestly, I have no idea what UPenn is even doing on your list. Its CS program is not at the level of the CS programs of any of your USA universities. Maybe Cooper Union (though I don’t know why that colleges is on your list either.
Isn’t cooper union very strong for engineering? They’re starting a cs major this year and it’s predicted to be just as strong i heard.
I’m considering Penn because of the opportunity to do finance along with CS (kind of like a backup). I feel that my programming skills will be good enough for a job in cs no matter the uni, but penn is also really strong for finance which i’m interested in as well.
Cornell on the other hand, while it’s stronger for CS i heard that its location makes finding a job in finance really hard.
Cooper Union is very strong, but it’s very different than the rest of the schools on your list. They’re all large research universities while Cooper Union is a tiny undergraduate only school. If you’re interested in schools that small, Harvey Mudd colleges is a better choice.
As for location, in today’s world, it’s not an issue at all. My kid attended a small rural Liberal Arts College, in New England, did two summer internships at U Chicago, and interviewed, a and got a post-Bac (short term job between undergrad and grad school) at MIT. Students at UIUC have no problems getting internship across the country.
Moreover, Cornell has a very good finance program, as well.
If you’re looking for a reach which is strong in finance and CS, why not MIT?
I don’t think i can get into MIT my SAT is too low and i don’t compete in olympiads. Harvey mudd is a good suggestion though i’ll be adding that for sure!
Do you think my application is competitive enough for cornell or penn ED? If it’s a little too weak for Penn i think i’ll ED cornell
What will make finding a job hard for you is that you’re not a US citizen. Your school’s physical location doesn’t matter much, and of course, Cornell is a very well known school.
You have a strong academic profile and ECs. That means you’re a competitive candidate at all these schools.
But unfortunately, there are thousands of other applicants with similarly strong profiles, so chances are unpredictable (especially considering they’re lower than the average for international students). Give them your best shot but be mentally prepared that you may end up having to go elsewhere.
For a computer science major, I was surprised Carnegie Mellon wasn’t on your lengthy list of U.S. reach schools. CMU has arguably one of the strongest, if not the strongest CS programs in this country.
And I agree…for CS, I’m not sure why Penn would be a consideration at all.
My opinion, it’s not easier to get accepted at either Penn or Cornell.
And also, Cornell has excellent job placement in NYC (for example) in finance and banking.
But I think your citizenship could be a barrier in terms of getting jobs here at some finance and banking institutions.
I think some of these colleges will accept additional LOR in addition to the two teachers and the counselor recommendation. But there is no guarantee that these will be read and used in the admissions process.
Cornell is an IB feeder school and generally sends lots of kids into finance careers. In fact, it is third on this list after Penn and NYU (and for Penn that is heavily a Wharton thing):
That said, it would be perfectly reasonable to prefer neither Penn nor Cornell. Like, Michigan is fourth on that list, and I think some people would reasonably prefer it to Cornell. Michigan doesn’t have ED so that would mean not applying anywhere ED, and that is fine. Or I think some people would prefer Princeton, again no ED, but that is also fine. And so on.
But if you love Cornell, and you want to apply ED there, and your only concern is finance placement–I would not worry about that.
Two very different locations. Cornell is in a small town, mostly just Cornell and Ithaca college there and businesses that serve the colleges. Beautiful gorges, great swimming holes for September. But it is almost always overcast due to lake effect, often rainy. Can be very depressing in the winter. And it’s isolated.
Penn, on the other hand, is in West Philly. While it has a campus, it has a more urban feel. You can walk across a bridge into the central part of the city. Has a lot of big city amenities, like an art museum, a symphony, sports teams, etc. Plus it’s not that hard to get to NYC or DC. But the reality is, most people spend most of their time on campus during college, even at Penn.
Career-wise, you can get the training and the entry connections at either school.
I would probably prefer UPenn’s location since I’m from Vancouver and the weather would be a lot more suitable for me.
UPenn is for need-blind for Canadians, but I’m planning to pay in full. Is paying full at Cornell a large boost for an international whereas it’s not considered for Penn? I know some people say that need blind isn’t actually “need blind”.
my SAT is too low and i don’t compete in olympiads. Harvey mudd is a good suggestion though i’ll be adding that for sure!