My academics are kind of uneven. I had around an 85 average through most of high school and currently have a 1400 SAT. A big factor was struggling with neurodivergence-related issues during earlier years of high school, but things improved a lot later on.
For senior year I switched to homeschool/flexible study and my performance jumped significantly (around a 93 average so far), although I know colleges only see part of senior year during applications.
Outside academics, I’ve been heavily involved in VEX Robotics (programming leadership role), music/audio programming projects, and other technical extracurriculars. My essay is centered around the learning curve I went through in robotics and how it shaped the way I approach programming and creative technical work now.
I’m mostly trying to understand:
- what tier of schools makes sense for my profile,
- whether the upward trend meaningfully helps,
- and how much strong ECs/essays can offset inconsistent earlier grades for CS admissions.
Would appreciate honest input from people familiar with CS admissions.