what extra curriculars should I do for a intended CS degree? What would be some wow factors for CS competitive colleges?Answered
I have a 3.9 GPA and have taken some College level classes along with some AP classes but I'm not sure what extracurriculars I should do to get into The University of Washington Computer Science program since it is pretty competitive.
I'm thinking about making a community website for my city but it seems to big of a project and complicated to do so if any of you guys have any ideas please send them my way, Thanks
Apart from that, you can try out competitive programming, olympiads like IOI. If you excel in competitive programming you may even get a job offer from big tech companies
thanks for introducing me to these options, but I have a clarification question about the research paper... I'm not really sure what that is and what I can research that is computer science based? can you please help me with this also, Thanks :)
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Hey @SageFuture87991! First off, your idea to make a community website for your city sounds great! Since this seems like a big undertaking on your own, I would recommend you form a team of students who you can do this with. I also suggest you look into partnering with your city council to help support this project and implement it when you are finished.
@Hungry_procrastinator mentioned research, which is a great idea! Since you are particularly interested in UW, I would look at what type of research faculty members are doing in the CS department. Take a look at this website for more info: https://www.cs.washington.edu/research . For example, if you are interested in machine learning and possibly also have an interest in biology, you could reach out to Dr. William Noble whose research focuses on development of machine learning techniques for molecular biology. Just do some searching on their website to see what interests you. Afterwards, cold email professors and ask for the opportunity to be an unpaid research assistant. Research will help your application because you’ll be building skills necessary to succeed in your CS classes. Additionally, your connection to UW may help your application if the professor you are doing research with can write you a letter of recommendation.
Other than that, taking part in Olympiads and competitive programming will also help your application. Any CS/math/critical thinking clubs offered at your school will also look great!
I hope that helps, and let me know if you have any other questions! Good luck!
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Hello, you can build up a portfolio where you can showcase the projects you did. You can try making a Github page where you can showcase your projects. Also, you can teach others coding. You can look for an internship. If you are interested in research email professors or try out an independent project( would take 1-2 years also posibility of not getting the research published ).