Computer Scinece ACSL
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Anonymous
| My DD is interested in computer science and is a rising sophomore. Her team won 2nd place in the ACSL (American Computer Science league) competition this year. How important are these competitions in college apps? Are they considered the same level as AIME, USAMO for math? What else should my DD be doing if she is interested in computer science? |
Anonymous
| Developing apps or other programs independently. |
Anonymous
She should also take lots of math classes. Being a girl in tech will help, as there are fewer female applicants, and colleges are looking for them. See if there are any “girls in tech” programs she can attend or tutor at. Encourage her to participate at hackathons. |
Anonymous
NP here with a question. My rising HS sophomore spends a lot of time coding. He developed a discord bot, is trying to make us a weather station, and he has done a myriad of other things I don't understand. I get that this time spent gets him more experience and more knowledgeable, but my question is, how does this translate to college applications and get him into a comp sci program? is this the sort of stuff you write about in your essays? I haven't looked at college apps yet (obviously) to know what is involved. thanks. |
Anonymous
Thank you for the response. Does winning in ACSL competitions help in getting into college, assuming she has good GPA's, test scores etc.? I am trying to encourage her as I know it will be easy for her to get into CS being a girl. She wants to go to Carnegie Mellon. Any DD's who are in Carnegie Mellon who are willing to share their journey? |
Anonymous
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Your DD should enroll in higher math and a CS class in high school, if it's offered. She needs to understand what it takes to actually make it through a CS degree program - it's not just about coding, more about data structures, logic, thinking like a mathematician, etc.
I think knowing programming will come in handy for essays for how kid became interested in CS major or as an extra curricular that a lot of time was spent on (what elese did you in your spare time if you were not on the band, playing a sport, working, etc.). Most schools won't use the fact that a kid started programming on their own as a criteria for acceptance. A college isn't expecting students to come in knowing CS (or any other major). Schools have intro CS classes for novices and those with some prior experience/exposure. (They don't want anyone to be intimidated by others with more experience.) Also if in Engineering, students would be admitted to general engineering and choose major after considering all of them. If not in School of Engineering, student would be accepted in General College program and would declare major in 2nd year. CMU is one of the few schools that have their own CS school. If intereted in Carnegie Mellon, they have a summer CS program for rising Junior "minorities" (which being a women is considered). Look into these. I know the CMU one is pretty competitive, and would give your DD an idea of what CS is like at a technically focused school. I do think interest in CS would help her get into these programs and getting into this selective program would be impressive to some colleges (especially CMU). You would need to keep an eye out and apply to this program in December. |
Anonymous
Which program in CMU is this? I am looking at their website now. Is it the AP/EA precollege program that is competitive? There are so mnay summer precollege programs, which one would show real interest? Thanks |
Anonymous
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CMU has the AI4ALl program - https://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/access-artificial-intelligence
I thought is was geared toward women. I know these other 2 are: https://ai4all.princeton.edu/ - specifically mentions women https://ai4all.princeton.edu/ - I think this one is only women |
Anonymous
ha... first link is Princeton's. Second link should be Stanford http://ai4all.stanford.edu/ |
Anonymous
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"I know it will be easy for her to get into CS being a girl."
No, it will not, especially at the CMU School of Computer Science level. It will be slightly easier. "Her team won 2nd place in the ACSL (American Computer Science league) competition this year. How important are these competitions in college apps? Are they considered the same level as AIME, USAMO for math?" Nothing team based is considered at the same level as individual achievements. That doesn't mean they don't help. Team based achievements also provide a platform to talk about how a student works well with others which is a plus in CS. Again, a plus not a hook. My guess is that your DD understands the difference between an interest/ability in coding and a true interest in computer Science. Coding is a wonderful skill but the creating new science for computers is more like math. But don't be too worried about being perfect in HS math because creating new math/CS methods is it's own world. |
Anonymous
Some of the places we visited wanted the best grades in the hard math courses, even if they did teach math differently once a student got there. |
Anonymous
The equivalent to USAMO is (unsurprisingly) called USACO: http://usaco.org/ Every year, they nominate 25 finalists (here is the 2019 list which doesn't contain any DMV student - there are no good programs here). These students are invited to a training camp where the top 4 are chosen to present USA at IMO. Yes, I'd mention on my college application if I were a USACO finalist... ACSL, on the other hand, seems more of an EC. (BTW, 2nd place at her school or 2nd place at the All-Stars?) I note that students from TJHSST were at this year's All-Stars competition but it's not something any USACO-level students would find it worth their time. USACO's website is open to anyone so anyone can register and get a taste of the level of competition. |
Anonymous
There are only 25 USACO finalists vs thousands of spots to study CS around the country? I'd put down any CS extra curricular I'd done and any prize I'd won. |
Anonymous
Her team won third place in All stars ACSL. Would you suggest thats he starts looking into USACO instead? |
Anonymous
Congrats. Not instead, perhaps in addition to get a feeling for programming competitions (if she's interested in those). At the HS level, check out particularly the "Other Contests" section of USACO Resources page. That said, outside the relatively small community that partakes in those, don't expect recognition from an outside person such as an admissions officer. I'd think you'd need someone - perhaps a teacher writing a LoR who could put this in the proper context, highlighting the really small number of HS students nationwide that engage in that (compared to the 60,000+ CS majors nationwide as another poster pointed out.) |