Unhooked Asian Male Applicant from Mountain West --Ivy and other acceptances

Applying to College
1

Not sure how many are interested to know this

But here are his stats

ACT 34C
SAT II Math 800
SAT Physics 800
Ranked 6th out of 432
GPA 3.98
Wt GPA 4.35
12 APs mostly 5s Comp Sc 4!!!

Not an NMF
Not a Coke Scholar
Not a Questbridge Scholar

National Science Bowl: Ranked in top 5 once
Ranked 8th in Junior year

Acceptances:

Penn CAS
CMU SCS (thanks to @mathmom for her valuable advice and help )
Georgia Tech
Colorado School of Mines
State university
USC 25% Scholarship

Waitlisted
WUSTL
Case Western
Cornell

Rejected:
Princeton

Recommendation from Math (she said DC was easily the smartest kid she ever taught Math to), Humanities and Science teachers and GC: 8? 9? 10?/10 (Math teacher shared her opinion verbally at an award event)

STRONG essays on his ONE favorite thing to do outside of school.

We visited CMU and spent a day there, interviewed with an Admissions Director.
Did NOT go to Penn
Did not express interest in anyway

He wrote a simple factual Admissions Interview essay about what all we did that day, what we ate, how he juggled tours and visits.

He spent 100s of hours researching colleges he applied to, collected data points and information.

His Why CMU and Penn essay was about what he wanted to study there

NO poetry, NO humor NO deep philosophical soul searching commentary, nothing about visits to Costco or eradicating poverty or hunger. He listed classes and groups he wanted to be involved in. Named Professors, named subjects and courses. Began and ended Common App essay and college essays very simply.

Nothing about the city or buildings or parking lots.

Nothing about “I wanted to code from the womb” essay
No “I knew I loved Math when I realized I had fingers”

ZERO robotics, ZERO coding
ZERO community college computer science classes
DID NOT code from 4th grade
ZERO Intel Siemens AIME UAMO type awards

Its possible!!!

2

Congrats! So, have you decided on which college to commit?

3

Congrats! Yep,very glad to know this…mom of Asian male(Junior) with very good stats…but no real hooks (no research,internships) Interested in SCS too…can you please share the advice given by mathmom??Thanks

4

Hi! Tigger Dad and Priya
He is leaning towards CMU. He is not a social animal.

He attends a Science magnet and a regular high school. CMU experience will be like his Science magnet. His regular high school is filled with jocks, he doesnt care for them.

The whole party vibe and crime rate at Philly is very off putting for an academically oriented flyover state kid like him.
Plus CMU is not BIGG like UCLA or Berkeley.
Its like a full fledged top notch Research University wrapped in a LAC bow.
Freshman SCS class size will be around 160? How can it be terrible.

My son does not care for 80,000 spectator tail gatin football game watchin “rah rah” school spirit.

He feels he will be OK with studying while in college :))

he doesn’t care for weekend parties or lazy rivers or world class gyms or manicured lawns.
No other University has so many dedicated Research facilities and institutes for the things he cares about.

Priya: No particular advice of “Do this but not that”
I carefully read every posting she had made, by searching on her name once I discovered her son goes to CMU SCS.
It was very insightful to me.

Just ask your kid to be HONEST and straightforward and speak his mind.

PLEASE VISIT CMU and do the tour interview thing
That is of supreme importance

I think CMU cares about two things

  1. Grades, GPA, Scores, SAT/ACT, SAT II
  2. Visiting

He is in the top of his graduating class.

Hope that helps

Please feel free to ask more questions.

5

Thank you BoiDel. My son also does not care for all those things and yes he is also not a big social animal. Thank you for the reply.Keep us posted if your son makes the decision to go to CMU. All the very best to him!

6

@BoiDei congrats on all the acceptances! Just an fyi, while Penn is a much more social school than CMU, you do not need to be super social to fit in. There are many many kids who do not party or go downtown and just like to study and chill with a very small group of friends. Penn students of course are very academically oriented, even those who party.
Also the campus is very nice and safe. West Philly is not the safest place to be but on campus and close all around campus the area is very safe and increasingly gentrified. If you way far west into the ghetto it won’t be safe but no one does that.

If you need any info about Penn let me know.

7

That is so awesome @Penn95 I totally appreciate your kindness.
In fact I looked at one of your really “old” threads where you had posted post matriculation outcome from payscale.com?, pay etc for CAS, SEAS and Wharton (I may be wrong it might have been @Much2learn )
I noticed Penn CAS was at $66k
SEAS was $88.5K p.a.

Ultimately, salary and pay scale matters, for some more than the others.
CMU SCS is $100k according to a website I looked at yesterday MIT ECE? ECS? is $99.5k

He has been accepted to Penn CAS

He absolutely loved the idea of studying in a college 260 years? old etc
He has been accepted to Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program

He was told he will be living in Reipe College dorm in the “Quad”. Very thrilling for a Mountain West kid.

I do realize there must be 100s of kids that are “non partiers” and such, but I am not so sure about a SEAS transfer in Sophomore year and if he can do that. :frowning:

Otherwise he will have to pursue Math or Economics at CAS

He wanted a “vocational” education more than a well rounded Liberal Artsy one I guess
We still have 10 days to decide :slight_smile:

(I know I will get slammed for saying “we”) But since I will be paying the $70k a year bills I am entitled to say it

:smiley:

8

@Boidel

Transferring between CAS and SEAS is easy
It is not difficult to move from CAS to SEAS for the right type of student. It sounds to me like your son that type. It is common for math and science students to move to from CAS to SEAS or vice versa.

The key is to be aware of the credits and requirements from the beginning. For example, SEAS students usually take 5 courses per semester and have higher graduation requirements than is typical in CAS. You want to be on pace for a SEAS student. SEAS takes about 40 credits to graduate on average, and CAS is lower on average.

Vocational education
D was determined that she wanted to be able to take a break and work after 4 years. She did not want any major that would not allow her to take a break and work for a few years. I think she will go back to school, but with CS she has options and can plan to go back when she feels ready.

Salaries
In terms of median CS salaries, Carnegie reports $105,000, compared to Penn SEAS $104,846. lol http://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/Stats_2016_updates/One%20Pager%202016-BS%20SCS%206-Month%20Update.pdf
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/2016_Senior_Survey.pdf

Interests and career choices
I suspect that the Carnegie students are more likely to be more focused on CS, while Penn students are more likely to also have broader interests beyond CS and taking advantage of the One Penn policy and flexible curriculum to take classes in CAS and Wharton. Penn students are also more likely to take jobs outside of tech. They may not be planning to switch to a consulting or investment job, but they often get those interviews, and a certain percentage of the class will take them if they are appealing enough.

Parties and workload
I can tell you that CS students at Penn are serious students. Penn chooses standout students, and then they are tough on them. CS is not a major where you can go out to parties 5 days a week. Any student that does that will not be in the program very long. I have not heard a single CS student say they think that SEAS should make the program more challenging.

He has two amazing options, and he is likely to be a big success at either one.

Best of luck!

9

@BoiDel As @Much2learn mentioned, it is rather easy to pick up a second major in SEAS as a CAS student or transfer into SEAS from CAS. CAS and SEAS have made their programs very open to each other. You just need to have a 3.0 or above which is not that hard especially for studious and motivated students. I have even heard of cases where the 3.0 cut off was not strictly enforced.

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/undergraduate/handbook/policy/transfer-in.php