She should be taking calculus and any other advanced math course provided by her high school. She should know how to code. |
That's the best way for your child to spend his time, if he wants to code--he's teaching himself ... coding and math are very creative...don't worry about essays, etc...just make sure he's involved in a CS club and class at school, and he interacts with his instructors...I thought my son was just goofing off, and he's an incredibly talented coder and math student due to being self taught. And his portfolio that I never would've seen if I hadn't asked is exquisite...projects galore...so let your son have at it and please don't worry about essays and applications ... to many 'manufactured' applicants out there who college advisors and parents are creating. God knows how some of these kids will make it in college, once mommy and daddy and $$$$$ advisor gets them in |
CMU takes a far more mathematical and theoretical approach to CS (like Waterloo in Canada). I would think this would benefit your daughter, although she needs to have strong scores and grades in Math as well.
While it is true you don’t need to know programming…the kids that have already spent years doing it definitely have a leg up in college classes that use it. CMU is not generally a happy place. Make sure your daughter talks to actual upper class students. Kids that really like Math seem to enjoy it better than the programmer types. |
Ignorant. Change the number in the URL to see other years. MD has has an average of more than 1 per year in that top 25, which is incredible performance for a state with only 1/50th the US population. USACO is generally considered the least important Olympiad, because computing is the subject where it's easiest and cheapest to do a real, unique project instead of artificial cookie clutter contest. ACSL is not important at all as a competitive differentiator. |
USACO finals aren't very important. But USACO is the most open/accessible non-competitive of these competitions. Anyone can participate, at home, many options throughout the year. It's more of a skill certificate than a contest. You progress from Bronze to Silver to Gold to Platinum as your skill progresses. |