Type of high school (current college for transfers):
Normal Public
Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional):
Straight Male, Indian
Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):
Sibling attends Rutgers
Intended Major(s)
Computer Science
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA:
92.4155 (Out of 100)
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):
97.4338
Normal class = 1.00
CP = 1.05
Honors = 1.10
AP = 1.15
College GPA (for transfers):
N/A
Class Rank:
Not posted
ACT/SAT Scores:
1300, took December SAT, predicting around 1450+
Coursework
Mostly took CP or regular classes but started taking all H/AP for junior year
APCSP: 4
AP pre-calc: taking
APUSH: taking
AP Physics 1: taking
Awards
Winner of 8+ hackathons
Finalist for Indian classical singing competition
Plan to take CS50 and other courses
SCIOLY top 11 for the event “data science” at MIT
Extracurriculars (Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
President / Founder of a non profit that organizes hackathon and tutors kids online with computer science
Computer Science Club President: Lead the AI / web development group
Robotics App development lead: Switched app to react native and lead team of 3 in coding app
Peer tutoring: Tutor kids in math every week for 30 mins
Science Olympiad: Went and placed top 11 at MIT for data science
Officer/ founder of engineering club
Played the Indian drums for 10 years, didn’t compete
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Don’t have any yet
Plan to ask:
Guitar Teacher (Known since elementary): 8/10
Retired Bio teacher?: 7/10
Old Math teacher: 7/10
Cost Constraints / Budget
Around 30K
Schools
Safety (certain admission and affordability)
Rutgers,
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
No idea
–Congrats on your accomplishments. Not sure in what world you have a low GPA.
–Seems to be the cost constraint is the first thing to consider.
–I’d look into some of the SUNY schools (Binghamton, Buffalo, for example) and see if they come in under budget and are more appealing to you than Rutgers (which is a great in-state option).
–I expect Purdue as an OOS applicant for CS will be a reach for most applicants. And check if it would be in budget.
–If you want more ideas let us know what attributes you want in a college.
Your GPA isn’t too bad, but your SAT score will be low at competitive CS schools like Purdue.
Don’t you have any current teachers who will write you an LOR? Many schools require one STEM and one humanities LOR. The guitar teacher’s rec will count as a supplemental recommendation, and not all schools accept those.
Neither parent went to college anywhere in the world?
Your sexuality has no bearing on college apps.
Have you checked if you qualify for need based aid? (By running NPC calculators).
If you don’t qualify for aid, your reaches will be unaffordable.
Purdue is about $42k/year, so will be above budget.
@Fit2, I think you’ll get into Rutgers if you raise your SAT to the 1400s. Also consider TCNJ.
Hey! Thanks for replying, I just talked to my parents and we have budget for more, in terms of colleges I was thinking somewhere with a good shot at CS internships and also a city school.
I do not know whether Rutgers is a safety for you. It is a great choice if you get accepted. I am not familiar with whether Rutgers admits by major and whether CS is difficult to get into at Rutgers.
I either know, have known, have worked with, or went to graduate school with multiple Rutgers graduates. They have ALL made Rutgers look very good. You can get a very good education there and do very well after graduating from there. Apparently it is also possible to get a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers and then get a master’s degree from a highly ranked school such as Stanford (which is where I met my first three Rutgers graduates). I have always assumed that these three did very well as students at Rutgers.
Stanford is a high reach. Whether it will fit your budget is something that you will not know unless you run the NPC. If your parents are divorced or own a small business or rental property then the NPC might not be accurate, but otherwise it should be accurate in most cases.
I am not sure that I see the reason to prefer USC to Rutgers, even not knowing which USC you mean (I am guessing Southern California). I agree with another answer that TCNJ is worth considering, and that your GPA is not what I would have called “low”. The various SUNY’s are also worth considering. U.Mass Amherst is good for CS but I would be surprised if they meet your budget (although they do have merit aid for out of state students and might not be wildly higher than you budget).
If a parent attended university outside of the US, or actually anywhere in the world, then you would not be “first-gen”. Also, never lie on a university application – this could come back to haunt you later.
To me it looks like you are doing very well. I think that you are likely to continue to do very well. It would not surprise me at all if you end up at either Rutgers or TCNJ, and either one would provide you with the opportunity to get a very good education in CS (or in math, or multiple other majors).
Have your parents run the NPC calculator at the private schools on your list to see if you’ll get any aid. They cost over $90k/year. If your budget is $30k you won’t be able to afford any of those schools even if you get in.
Then you’re not a first gen college applicant.
It’s not. Probably a target at best.
You can get a good CS internship from any school if you’re very good and strongly motivated.
Maybe add UDelaware to your list it’s a safer admit than many on your list and has potential to come in budget. Apply early action for ALL colleges that have it, majors like CS often fill up at a lot of schools.
NJIT would be an in-state city school that would be in budget and would likely offer merit aid. Co-ops are an option here as well as internships. We’ve had whole threads on CC about why NJIT doesn’t get more attention. Why doesn't NJIT get more love on CC? - #21 by BankofMOMandDAD
Pennsylvania-wise, Temple would be easier to bring into budget than Pitt. Great music opportunities, too.
Ah, okay, that makes sense. And it’s surprising pricey without merit - total COA is over 40K in-state! I wonder why the price tag is so high compared to other NJ public U’s…