Nigerian CS applicant needing a full ride help me gauge my chances and if there are things to improve 5.0/5.0 UW, 1530, <1000$

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

international student
Type of high school : Private School, got a full scholarship to attend( transfered from a public school for the gifted due to insecurity)
Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Male, African, Black

Intended Major(s)
Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 5.0/5.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: n/a
  • Class Rank: 1/26
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1530 (750ERW, 780 Math)
  • 6As 2Bs and 1C in my West African exams(I’m finished😭)
  • 5A*s and 3As IGCSE

Coursework

  • N/A

Awards
Aduvie Regional Maths Gold Medal

Bronze Honors in the 2023 International Youth Math Challenge(IYMC)

Honor Society Member

Best JAMB, IGCSE, and SAT results in the History of the School

Valedictorian(Highest Overall Cumulative score in my school’s History with a score of 97.3/100)

Student of the month 10 times

Star reader 13 times

Honor roll every single time

Extracurriculars
*organized bake sales and charity balls, raising over 1 million naira to fund 20 students’ education and support local orphanages.

Interned at T-Greater Computer Services where I mastered deadlines, client relations, and computer firm operation services while boosting research and tech expertise. 3-time Employee of the Month!

Assistant Head of Student Council, managed a cabinet of 20, events and meetings. Was in charge of stopping students from bringing contraband

Securing a full scholarship to Qubit by Qubit’s Introduction to Quantum Computing Course by researchers at MIT and Stanford where we learned about quantum computing and simulating qubits, circuits, and superpositions using Python and Cirq. then acing the course’s practical applications with a current 100% grade demonstrated my potential to excel in this field

The Captain and Winger of my school’s team, I assisted our coach in training over 60 students. We played inter-house and school competitions where we won Gold and Silver medals.

President of Coding Club

Head Delegate of Ukraine/Ass. Head of Protocol at School MUN

Developed a blog about emerging technology, aiming to demystify complex concepts like AI and inspire people to shape our technologically driven world.

President of STEM/JETS club

I won various dance competitions and helped teach people how to dance, was a source of entertainment to my classmates.*

Essays/LORs/Other
Average essay. ( Wrote how my love for computer science started and how it affects my life. (linked it to how I was trying to save the Krabby Patty formula while watching TV by trying to open the TV and enter SpongeBob’s world but instead finding a world of motherboards and wires ) had some average and above-average supplementals though
I’m not sure how i’d grade my recs

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • I’ll need a full ride, maybe highest EFC of 1000$*

Schools
I had to apply to top schools as they are more likely to meet my full-needs. ( I ended up applying to 38 schools)

I applied to 6 ivys (Brown, UPenn, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton), Stanford, MIT, Minerva, Tufts, Rochester, Amherst, Colby, Richmond, Kenyon, Bowdoin, Bates, Umiami, Williams, Wesleyan, F&M, Carleton, Trinity University, Swarthmore, Hamilton, Skidmore, Northwestern, Denison, W&L, Vassar, Vanderbilt, Pomona, Duke, Fisk (Got accepted with presidential scholarship), Jackson state, University of southern mississippi, Oberlin,

Where do I think I have a good chance at?

Plus UMiami EA probably will come out next week and I’m panicking because I feel I’ll get rejected cause of my financial need.

Note: Background made it difficult to have access to a lot of competitions and extracurriculars

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You’re an absolutely stellar applicant and any college will be lucky to have you. Amherst and Bowdoin arr supposedly need blind, in addition to HYPM, and you stand as good a chance there as anyone else. Unfortunately, it could just as well mean you get in everywhere or you don’t get ibln anywhere :sleepy:.
UMiami may well reject you due to your financial need so don’t take it as an indication about fiture results. Stay strong. :crossed_fingers: You only need one acceptance and I am moderately hopeful you will get at least 1 affordable offer. :crossed_fingers:

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Thanks so much :pray:
I just look at some others applying to these top schools and feel really out of my league :sob: :sob: :sob:
Well umiami feels like a waste now tbf :smiling_face_with_tear:

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If this is a full ride, then that would make the school a safety.

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Do schools such as Bates and Kenyon offer a major in computer science?

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No they dont. But depends on what happens you never know if you might end up changing your major

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Yh it is

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Pls what would you say is the weakest and strongest part of my application

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Weakest is definitely that you need a full ride. But nothing is within your power to change. You did everything that is possible and your application is very compelling. But many colleges may not have the funds to give you a full ride.

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Although if they admit you with a full ride and you choose one of them, that means that (a) you have already decided that you will not major in CS (or any other major they do not offer), or (b) you will be forced to change your major to something else before you even start college.

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OP has already gotten into Fisk with a full ride scholarship, so not getting in anywhere is not something that will happen.

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^I’m assuming OP is not asking about Fisk/Presidential since they already know, and provided this information as a reference point for us.

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Yh that’s the hardest part to swallow. but when i get there i’ll cross it cause if kenyon and bates are the only ones i get acceptances to. I’d have to consider between the change of major in moderately- highly rated LAC’s like bates and kenyon which can give an easier pathway into ivies or other top schools for postgraduates or CS in a low rated school.
Hopefully i wont have to make the choice :pray: :pray: :sob:

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thanks so much for the feedback

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If you want to study CS as a PhD major, doing so from an undergraduate CS major would generally be the preferable choice for undergraduate, although some specialty areas of CS (e.g. theory, cryptography) blend into math and may be doable from an undergraduate math major at a school with the relevant upper level math electives.

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Thanks so much for this point. I’ll start researching into this

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I just got a CSS waiver from Minerva and I was told that getting a CSS waiver for minerva means you are one of the top contenders for acceptance. I wanted to know if you could verify that. Thanks!!!

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No, not quite “top contender” that I’ve heard of, but others may contradict - I thought it meant you’re low income but they’re considering you (not surprising: you’re academically qualified but your problem is financial. So they may have decided they want to admit you in terms of academics but may still reject you due to financials…)

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Ok thanks so much :pray:

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I got deffered from umiami :slightly_smiling_face: