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Computer ScientistClass of 20213.8+1500+/34+stem

Computer Science Applicant

Male · Asian (South-Asian) · Pennsylvania · Public, suburban high school (1 Ivy league admit per year-ish)

Income: ~$200k

Academic Profile
GPA (UW/W)
4.12 (UW)
SAT
1510
AP Courses
12
Honors
8

AP Exams Taken

AP Bio (4)AP Calc AB (5)AP Comp Sci A (5)AP Human Geography (4)AP Calc BC (5)AP Chem (4)AP Lang and Comp (5)AP Microecon (5)AP Macroecon (5)
Extracurricular Activities
  • Research at Local UniversityConducted robotics research at a local university where I worked on computer vision
  • Youth GroupPresident and responsible for organizing fundraisers and volunteering events, culturally related
  • Mock TrialPresident and organized case materials and theory for the school team as well as competing
  • Coding ClubFounded school's coding club and worked with Hack Club to organize events and tutorials with students
  • National Honors SocietyPresident and led volunteering and fundraising opportunities with NHS club
  • Webmaster for School NewspaperWorked with my school's journalism club to create a website for their newspaper
  • Science FairConducted research in the computer science field on my own
  • Medically Related ClubPresident and founder, organized field trips and talks with career professionals
  • Freshman AdvisoryWas in a club that encouraged school spirit and helped freshman get accommodated to high school
  • Principle AdvisoryOrganization I worked with where we would talk with our school principal about advising and high school lab and recommendations. Created AP review book library through the program
Awards & Honors
  • 2nd Place In Category Event for T5 University's Hackathon
  • National Merit Commended Scholar
  • Congressional App Challenge winner for my district
  • Won Local District Speech Contest
  • Won First Place in Regional Science Fair in the Computer Science Category

Essay Topics

Common App Essay

For my personal statement, I wrote about my time volunteering with a nonprofit that teaches girls computer programming. I talked about how it allowed me to understand what it means to be underrepresented and motivated me to help those underrepresented in my field. I went through about 6 complete re-writes and like 5 other topic ideas before I happened upon this one. I also got it checked by my teachers and other people around me who said they really liked it.

Interview Experiences
  • No interviews were really memorable except for Schreyers because we both did Mock Trial. The only "bad" interviews I had were because I really didn't come prepared with enough questions (like my Cornell and Michigan interview just asked me, "What do you wanna know about the college").
  • My best advice for interviews though is to have a master document with all the common questions and to honestly just memorize your responses to them. You're not going to remember 100% of your written out answer but getting 90% of it out is usually good enough.
Letters of Recommendation
  • AP Chemistry Teacher

    I worked hard in the class and we had a pretty good connection so I think he would have talked highly of me and my capabilities. I worked a lot with him during COVID to get a good score on the AP test so I was hoping he would appreciate that. I think it would be pretty average so - 7/10

  • AP Lang and Comp

    My class with her was cut short because of COVID but I was effectively able to do well in the class and have a pretty good connection with her. She liked one of the speeches I wrote for the class and I would work with her a lot in preparation for the AP exam so I think she appreciated my work ethic. Still, being a humanities class and a STEM major it would still be a - 7/10

  • Principal

    I had a really good relationship with my principal and knew that he would write recommendation letters based on hearing it from students in previous years. Overall, I think he knew me really well and I think getting a LOR from someone like a principal is pretty impressive especially given my class size so I think it would be an - 8/10

College Decisions

Accepted (7)

Drexel UniversityGeorgia Institute of TechnologyPennsylvania State University, University ParkTemple UniversityUniversity of Maryland, College ParkUniversity of PittsburghRochester Institute of Technology

Waitlisted (6)

Carnegie Mellon UniversityUniversity of Michigan, Ann ArborRice UniversityHarvard UniversityCornell UniversityUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Rejected (8)

California Institute of TechnologyColumbia UniversityPrinceton UniversityStanford UniversityUniversity of Illinois, Urbana ChampaignUniversity of California, BerkeleyMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyUniversity of Pennsylvania

Profile Tags

ResearchLeadershipPresidentClubCodingRoboticsVolunteeringCommunity ServiceAcademic CompetitionScience FairNational Merit
Profile Ratings
73
Overall Score
Academic8.5
Extracurricular7.2
Awards6.5
Quick Stats
CategoryComputer Scientist
Year2021
MajorComputer Science
GPA4.12 (UW)
SAT1510
Acceptances7
Rejections8