Reflection #4: Being Asian male applying to Computer Science is the trifecta of sins for college application. Actually, not only in college applications, but also in internship applications and even job applications down the road. Enough discussion on this, so I won’t talk about it anymore.
Reflection #5: Really bad trend (or maybe it’s always like this) – many schools use Merit scholarship for diversity recruiting, rather than rewarding merit. For example, we learned that Georgia Tech’s OOS scholarship is only given to URMs; USC, some people reporting that most Engineering school merit scholarships are given to “women in engineering”.
Reflection #6: State flagship is the best place for middle class students. Really poor students get free ride in private schools; really rich students don’t sweat paying full fare of $70+K per year to attend private schools. For the upper middle class students without financial need, State Flagship presents the best compromise of quality and price.