US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities)
Type of high school (current college for transfers):
Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional):
Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):
Intended Major(s)
Computer Science
CyberSecurity
Human Computer Interaction
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.11
College GPA (for transfers):
Class Rank: 3/20
ACT/SAT Scores: N/A (Sophomore)
Coursework (AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
Arabic II
Spanish I
Ap Human Geography (4 on exam)
Ap world History
Awards
Extracurriculars
Volunteering at a senior center with NHS
General Tutoring with clubs and with the school.
Volunteering in religious activities with NHS
Game Jams and Youtube Channel
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Full Pay
Schools (List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)
Safety (certain admission and affordability) GGC
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
It’s a bit early - you have another 1.5 years of grades and a test score to come.
Take the most challenging courseload you can take - but one within reason - focusing on math and science in addition to English, social science and language (you only need one).
Focus on test prep.
And continue with your activities - you don’t want just a list - but accomplishment and tenure. And at the time, you’ll need to be more descriptive - above is sort of “general”.
Agree with the above. In addition, I see you are full pay but be sure to discuss any restrictions your parents may have before considering specific colleges.
I don’t think it is too early to start looking, especially for a student considering CS.
Computer science is extremely competitive at all schools. There are schools that you would easily get into if you are studying something like Philosophy, but won’t get into for CS.
Have you had the chance to visit any colleges? Are you looking for a big school? Small school? Urban vs rural? Any idea about social fit - Greek system, big sports culture, etc?
No, I haven’t visited any colleges. I’m looking for something in-state with a solid pathway into a FAANG company. Preferably something with a non-zero Muslim presence, but that’s not a dealbreaker. I’ve been looking into Georgia State and UGA, but I’m worried I might not get in. Same for GA Tech
Not too early to look - but it is too early to match IMHO.
If the student wants to stay at an instate public, there will be a list.
If the student wants to have a muslim presence, then it will require further research.
For example, you look at a school like Georgia Southern and it has a Muslim student association. I might reach out to a contact and ask them about the Muslim presence at the school to make sure that info is current.
But I don’t think we could “match” the student yet - if that makes sense. Many GA publics will have CS.
While the student mentioned GA only, if that’s because of cost, depending on stats, they might find similar costs out of state - unless of course they qualify for the Hope etc.
As for the pathway to FAANG - and there are many more organizations today than FAANG that are prominent - that may or may not be easier from certain schools.
But I still say today - there’s no way to match OP to a Tech, UGA, State, Valdosta, Kennesaw, N Georgia, State College and University - or what have you, etc.
I think OP should - sure go visit some schools and see what environment they like - but it’s way early and there’s not near enough info to really match the student to a school from a reach/target/safety POV.
@tsbna44 I could be wrong, but with only a couple of schools listed, I was under the impression that OP wanted help in finding schools to consider and what schools they might have a chance at getting admitted to (ie. Safety, Likely and Match).
I don’t believe CC has a “help me develop a list of schools” type of category. I’ve seen multiple students use chance/match for that purpose. @CC_Sorin maybe that is something that can be added - a category or tag, along with a format/template, for students who are just starting to look for colleges.
Since you mentioned DE at Ga Tech, you must be in the metro Atlanta area. The schools in the ARCHE consortium may provide a reference as you start your research and narrowing down the type of schools you like. The member schools are part of a cross-registration program.
For example, Agnes Scott is a women’s college in Decatur with a very diverse student population. Through the ARCHE membership, students can cross register at other member schools, like Ga Tech or Emory.
This is a general list as we don’t know what the OP’s stats will look like after junior year. These include public and private schools so at some point you’ll need to discuss budget with your parents as I don’t know if full pay includes private tuition. Hope/Zell only pays full tuition at publics, although it does give a small credit at privates.
Difficult admits for all - Georgia Tech, UGA, Emory
Less difficult - Agnes Scott, Kennesaw (absorbed Southern Polytechnic so especially strong in STEM), Georgia State, Oglethorpe, North Georgia, Georgia College, Georgia Southern, West Georgia
We actually have a List Builder tool that students can use to create their school lists. You can find it in the top nav menu under Tools. Here is the link: How To Make a College List | College Confidential
As mentioned in your other thread, for CS it will be important to take as rigorous math and science classes as possible. You don’t mention those in the coursework in your opening post of this thread so I am linking for others’ reference.
Are you planning on using Hope/Zell scholarships to fund your education? Or is there a different reason why you’re limiting your search to Georgia?
This is not my area of expertise, but one tool I use to guesstimate the strength of a department is by the number of individuals who graduate in any given year in a major. The larger the number of graduates the greater variety in electives is likely to be offered, so that students can truly specialize in their areas of interest. This site shows the number of students awarded a Bachelor’s in 2022 by various fields. Restricting the search to Georgia, these were the results.
Please note that schools may have a concentration within a major, so one of these schools may have a concentration in cybersecurity or human-centered design within a CS major, but it’s not listed separately. So doing a deeper dive in any of these schools would be recommended.
But based on this initial look, I’d be taking a good look at:
Georgia Tech
Georgia State
U. of Georgia
Kennesaw State
Another way to look for depth in a program is to see whether a school offers advanced degrees in the field. So looking at College Navigator (website organized by the federal government), these are the colleges in Georgia that offer a graduate degree in CS.
Based on this information, I would also take a closer look at these schools especially if you are interested in a smaller school. Emory offers through a PhD in CS and the other schools I didn’t call out above offer through a Master’s (Clark Atlanta, Georgia Southern, Georgia Southwestern State, and U. of West Georgia).
When it comes time (not now), yes more specificity - the name of the place, etc. and what you actually did.
You can start by making a resume - that way when it’s time to load into Common, you have it written out. You do have little space to write once it comes time.
And you don’t need 10 things - just two or three and you want to show tenure and impact.
You should list all the activities that were important to you and/or you spent time on. I would encourage you to get some CS and related activities in your app (seems like game jams and maybe YouTube channel fit in that group?)
When the time comes, college essay guy has good, free information on how to complete the common app activities section. Here’s one resource (there are many articles and videos on his site about activities): 80+ Extracurricular Activity Examples for the Common Application
