Freshman at the University of Rochester, and I applied to HYP, CMU SCS, and Cornell/Penn Engineering for transfer as a computer science major. Unsuccessful the first time around in high school, was only wait listed at Cornell.
Wrote my transfer essays about the lack of CS research opportunities at my current school, due to space, faculty, and funding. I particularly want to do research regarding human-computer interaction, and technology that will directly benefit people, and I feel that I will be able to achieve that goal somewhere else. When I inquired about research, I was told that positions are generally taken by more ready students, seniors working on their senior projects and graduate students.
Letters of rec are from my math and writing professors. I talked to my math professor a lot initially as I was interested in math research and math competitions, so we got to know each other really well. Spent hours going over essays with my writing professor and talking about myself, so she knows me quite well and my activities. Told both of them why I wanted to transfer regarding the CS opportunities.
High School Stats:
- [] SAT I: 1570/1600 (800 Math, 770 CR + Writing, 24/24 on essay)
[] ACT: 36 (35 E, 36 M, 35 R, 36 S)
[] SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 Chemistry, 800 World History, 780 Biology M
[] Unweighted GPA: 3.84/4.0 (Had a 3.95 going into senior year, 3.5 senior year)
[] APs: Computer Science A (5), Calculus BC (5), Physics C (Mechanics) (5), Physics C (E&M) (5), Physics 1 (5), Chemistry (5), Biology (4), Environmental Science (5), Statistics (4), Macroeconomics (5), Microeconomics (5), US History (3), World History (5), Government and Politics (5), English Language (4), English Literature (5)
[] Awards: Xerox Innovation, AIME, USNCO Semi-finalist, NYS Science Olympiad Gold
[] Extracurriculars: Math League (Captain), Science Olympiad (Vice President), Christian Student Union (President), Physics Club (Officer), Varsity Outdoor and Indoor Track (Went to State Qs), Varsity Basketball, Varsity Football, AAU Basketball
[] Job/Work Experience: Part of the high school internship program at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (I’m a Rochester native), and I currently work there as a full stack developer intern for 10-15 hours weekly.
[] Volunteer/Community service: Hundreds of volunteer hours at my local church through various events such as summer camps
[] State: NY
[] Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
[] Gender: Male
[] Income Bracket: $0-60,000
[] Hooks: None, unless you count receiving Pell Grant (I received a CA fee waiver for all my schools)
College Stuff:
- []First Semester: Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra w/ Differential Eqs, Data Structures & Algorithms, Freshman Writing (2 A’s and 2 A-'s)
[]Second semester: Computation & Formal Systems (CS), Computer Organization (CS), Artificial Intelligence (CS), Multi-variable Calculus, Introduction to Linguistics (I am the only freshman in those three CS classes, which are the hardest possible courses). Had 4 A’s and 1 A- for my mid-term report that I submitted already.
[]I am a member of the Hackathon club, Men’s Club Rugby team, Men’s Club Basketball team, STEM-Initiative (inner city mentoring club), CS UG Council, and the ACM ICPC team (leadership roles in multiple).
[]Scored higher than a 0 on the Putnam
[]Will be working for an aerospace company this summer as a software engineering intern (only freshman interning there)
[]Additional letter of recommendation from my supervisor at the LLE