What are our chances of getting in to our school of choice?

What are the keys to getting into first tier colleges for adults returning to school later in life?

• I'm 27-years-old, and after having dropped out of college my first time around about 10 years ago, I'm now trying to go back to get my degree in computer science and perhaps do research in that field. Unfortunately, it's clear that I'm in far worse shape for getting into a good school than I was straight out of high school. My GPA at the time wasn't high (3.6 weighted, 3.0 unweighted), but I had a fairly high SAT score that was well within the median range for top tier schools like Berkeley and UCLA, and I had also cleared most of my general education requirements through AP tests, which I scored favorably on as well. On top of that, I was involved in many after-school clubs, like JSA, Key Club, AcaDec, etc. I also participated and placed in the National History Day competition (reaching state one year), was involved with Tech Corps. of South California (a service organization for IT professionals), in addition to having letters of recommendations from my honors/AP teachers and other favorable factors when it comes to college admissions. At the time I was actually disappointed that I didn't get into Berkley or CMU, my schools of choice, and so I "settled" for UIUC, which also has a top ranking CS program right behind those schools. But now all the advantages I enjoyed back then are pretty much moot, and I'm sort of at a loss to how I can possibly compete with the thousands of other applicants who are vying for the limited openings in these top colleges. So aside from taking classes at a community college and getting straight A's, what else can I do to improve my chances? Is it worth it to re-take the SATs? Does anyone have experience applying and being accepted into a top tier school long after high school that  they can share?

• Answer:

  I have worked with graduate students who returned to school after industry jobs. Their motivation and commitment were obviously a strong point. They also happened to be articulate, which is better than a lot of graduate students these days. To demonstrate these qualities, it suffices to complete a decent research project and present its results to a professor at a desired university. On the negative side, being out of school for a few years can dumb down one's technical background, in a broad sense. To work on this, first identify relevant areas. This is not difficult, but it's better to cover too many areas than too few, and external help in identifying key areas can be very valuable. Then get good textbooks and sufficiently deep assignments. In sciences and engineering, you can find on Amazon many books with exercises solved. If programming is relevant, there are several good online problem-solving aids. To repeat, it's not just the knowledge that you need, but also basic skills and hand-eye coordination. This requires quite a bit of memorization (not of the rote variety) as well as repetition. Hope this helps.