I haven’t gotten any of the responses yet. I think GT OOS EA is coming out in Jan.
I’m very much aware of the fact that GT is a far reach for me. Please also keep in mind what I said about my GPA, I have almost all As in language, APs, and I took all important classes as honors and APs. I just had C in gym and some B- in health, pottery classes. I really hope schools can see past that.
I’ve had my seniors with similar to my profile get admitted to UMD though. I was hoping to have better chance there.
It was hard to keep up with gym after 2 years sitting home due to Covid, that’s what got me C. The other classes were run over summer and I couldn’t understand what teachers wanted because all I’d see is a bad grade month later
Grades in your elective classes pull down your GPA to 3.4? Are you sure? Many schools will only look at your core course grades, even if they don’t recalculate GPA, so it’s important to know your unweighted core GPA to properly categorize schools (or for posters to suggest highly likely schools…but I concur with UDelaware, Stevens, RPI. Get your apps in to those schools ASAP. UDel will offer a more traditional college experience than either Stevens or RPI, if that’s of interest to you)
I don’t think GT will work out if you have more than a couple of core B’s, your class rank will also hurt you there…and both those things will be true at other highly rejective schools.
My child’s 3.8UW/ 4.5W/ 1540 SAT did not get into UMD for CS, in state. It is a very tough admit for CS. It’s certainly possible, but I’d consider it a reach for the major
I think you have a better chance of getting into URI than UMass. I know instate kids with high 1500’s/ high grades/ poor ECs that didn’t get into UMAss for CS. I think it’s the toughest admit at UMass.
I don’t really know the answer to that. You have to look at acceptance rate and average GPA/SAT at each school and then the selectivity for the major. My kid got into UMD but not the major. Unfortunately CS is competitive everywhere so an otherwise safety or target school becomes more difficult to guess chances.
Thank you! I may be ok with not major admit in a good school. Both of my parents are software engineers one in Google one in Apple and they can help, they also keep stressing that school doesn’t matter, but what do they know? Haha
Your RVs are fine. If you want to be a software engineer, short of a few schools the where doesn’t matter. I know a UTK at Microsoft. A bunch of Alabama kids with my son’s year are in Silicon Valley at major companies.
So choose major over school.
Some layoffs now so you want to pick a certain discipline maybe.
tsbna44, thank you for advice and a tag. I want to eventually go into quantitative computing, I love finance and I’m very good with math, but I have to go through CS.
I pretty much agree with your parents (my husband and I are also in this field and have worked for those companies)
I will also say that it’s a lot harder to get internships and jobs in this industry than it was a few years ago… even assuming your parents may be thinking of reaching out to personal contacts. So I would look closely at anything a school offers to help you out, such as a co-op or internship program.
My son is at UC Berkeley, and the school doesn’t have any type of structured co-op or internship program. I mention this because, even though it is a “top” school that many students want to attend… it’s also more of a sink or swim place where kids are on their own to find placements. And it’s packed with other talented students so it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. My kid isn’t a CS major, but he has some very accomplished friends who are CS majors and are struggling to find internships right now.
On the other hand some schools may be more likely admits for you than the schools you may consider “top” schools, AND may have a better track record of helping to place their students into co-ops, internships and jobs. Some may have a more structured co-op or internship program, or ties to companies in their local area… I would look into things like this. And being a relatively bigger fish in a smaller pond could turn out to be a win-win for you.
Thank you! That’s a great advice and yes, my mom is trying to help so many of my friends in college with being prepared for job market, I know it’s coming for me. I just have other worries for now like getting into college haha
Truthfully getting an internship comes down to the kid. Both mine have - for lack of a better word - shotgunned. Others I know on here have used that guidance successfully because they DM me to thank me. My kid’s friends shot gun - one was at Garmin and now going to Microsoft - mid level SEC school.
With companies making you post through websites and issues with nepotism, in many cases, it’s no longer who you know.
It’s highly inefficient but these kids who apply to two to three interships a day, get to 100 quickly and hopefully will get interviews. In most cases, the school is not doing the heavy lifting for students.
Once you get that first experience, regardless of school, that job search becomes easier.