The Most Competitive Applicants in the Country

If you're applying to Computer Science or Engineering, you are entering the most competitive admissions category in the country.

Not “competitive.” The most competitive.

MIT. CMU. Stanford. Caltech. Berkeley.

These schools reject valedictorians with perfect SATs every year.

Why? Because they are not short on students who “learned Python.” They are short on students who think like engineers. At Top Dog, we specialize in designing those students. Not coders. Builders.

With acceptance rates for CS at schools like CMU, Berkeley, and Stanford often dipping into the low single digits, the strategy must begin long before senior year. We provide the roadmap to ensure every summer and elective counts.

How We Help CS & Engineering Majors Get In

Most students do things that make them look busy, not competitive.

They take AP CS A. They go to a summer coding camp. They follow a YouTube tutorial and build a computer. They join robotics.

None of that is bad. But in this applicant pool, it’s predictable.

And predictable does not win.

Top CS programs are not impressed that your child can follow instructions. They’re looking for students who can create something original.

So instead of answering, “What class should I take next?” We ask, “What real problem can you solve?”

We push students to identify friction in the real world that they truly feel a connection to. Then we help them architect a solution that showcases their skills. 

Here’s our anti-BS metric: If no one uses your project, it’s not competitive.

It might be educational. It might be a great learning experience. But it’s not what separates you at CMU or Berkeley. Top applicants build systems that function in the real world. That’s what admissions officers notice.

Math That Signals Readiness

Engineering is applied math. If your transcript stops at Pre-Calc or even AP Calc AB, you are already behind in this pool. The expectation for most engineering and CS programs, not even the most prestigious is that Calculus BC is the floor.

Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra before graduation signal serious preparation.

Physics C, both Mechanics and E&M, is the co-requisite for competitive engineering applicants.

Your high school might not offer the classes that actually make your child competitive.

Many "strong :public and private schools cap students at Calculus BC. Some don’t offer Physics C. Some actively discourage acceleration because it “disrupts the sequence.”

MIT does not care about your school’s sequence.

If your student is capable of Multivariable Calculus or Linear Algebra and their school won’t offer it, we build the plan anyway.

That might mean:

Dual enrollment at a local college.
Community college coursework.
An accredited online math class.

We coordinate it. We vet it. We make sure it counts.

If the goal is a top engineering program, the coursework has to reflect that level. If the school can’t provide it, we help families build it.

That’s the difference between hoping you’re competitive and actually being competitive.

Essays Are Your Secret Weapon

Most engineering applicants would rather take another math class than write about themselves. And that’s exactly why this becomes the leverage point. 

In hyper-competitive STEM pools, everyone has the rigor. Everyone has the projects. Everyone has the scores.

But the essays are not extra. Colleges value them just as much as your transcript. 

Many technically strong applicants delay this process. Eventually, they write essays that are dry, overly literal, or emotionally flat. They explain what they did. They don’t reveal how they think.

But admissions officers are not assembling a motherboard. They are building a class.

They are asking:

Can this student reflect? Do they have perspective? Do they understand people, not just systems? Will they contribute beyond code?

If your child can write with self-awareness, clarity, and emotional intelligence, they can punch above their weight. We have seen students outperform applicants with stronger stats because their essays were sharper, more human, more memorable.

Our students get into the top engineering and computer science programs because they can articulate: why they build, how they think, what they’ve learned from failure, and how they see the world as an individual.

When a future engineer can communicate like that, they become rare. And rare gets admitted. 

If you wants to compete at the highest level, we make sure you don’t just enter the pool. You rise above it.