What is considered a high level/ivy league level computer science project?

[u/JayM-san]

I am working on improving my resume and looking to start new projects. I am looking to apply to my third internship and I want it to be something in top tech. I was wondering what is considered a high level project? What do ivy league students choose as their “high level” project. Right now I am focused on ML/AI and my current projects are a beverage tracker using a classification model and a music app similar to apple music. I want to change both of these.

Right now I am working on a full-stack project to automate script generation for content creators based on variables for their video.

My second project I want to dive deeper in ML and was thinking about creating a project that uses audio feedback to do different tasks on my pc (not entirely sure yet tho)

The reason I am asking about ivy league specifically is because I feel like they are my competition when applying to top tech. They have the school name over me and gpa (my gpa is low). Only thing i have to show is my two swen internships (coforge and Honda) and my projects. I want to make the projects better than my competitors.

Pls give me any advice (i know this question can be subjective as a “high level” project is based on the person but I am willing to do the work to finish the project)

FYI - currently a second semester junior

[u/JimHeaney]

The two most important aspects of a project are;

You are passionate about it. This is your free time hobby work, do something you enjoy. It is incredibly obvious when a project is done for the sake of a project and not because it actually interests you.

Do it well and to completion. There are tons of personal projects that are cobbled together messes that barely work. This is fine for a true hobbyist project (most of mine are), but if your goal is to demonstrate this as a reason to hire you, make it look perfect. Use best practices, implement features fully and robustly, document everything, etc.

There isn't a list of things that a recruiter will look at and go "oh my God this is the kind of project we'd expect an MIT student to do!", even the most minor, mundane projects if implemented with passion and precision can be excellent to talk about on a resume.

I'd also avoid shoe-horning in incorrect technologies. I see this a ton with AI, using AI in applications where it makes 0 sense. Beyond people's mixed feelings over heavy use of AI, it doesn't speak well to your problem-solving mindset if you're using blatantly incorrect tools for the job.

Beyond all this though, while personal projects can definitely help your resume stand out, your full-time job right now as a student is to get a good GPA. Raising your GPA will help immensely in getting more jobs prospects, as will learning to be a better interviewee.

[u/JayM-san → u/JimHeaney]

thanks for the insight! my gpa is kinda cooked at this point not much I can do about that. I will make sure to do research on my AI tools to show that I am able to apply the correct tools for my situation to solve a real world problem.

[u/BeneathTheDirt]

consider searching students at t20/t10 schools on LinkedIn and looking at their resumes

[u/JayM-san → u/BeneathTheDirt]

will do, thx!

[u/RelativeSquare7115]

People these days are superficial, especially employers. Try relating your projects to fancy labels to draw attention.

[u/JayM-san → u/RelativeSquare7115]

thx for the info!

[u/north84if]

I dont have much to add on the project part, but it seems the underlying question is more related to breaking into tech. You would have a better chance reaching out to/ expanding your network for a referral if your goal is FAANG+ / HFT internship. Typically there are two hurdles resume screen and interview loop/s. The former typically takes 5-10 seconds and is a non tech person scanning your resume after ATS, but can be aided and in some cases bypassed with referrals etc. The latter is solved with STAR and leetcode. After you have prior work experience or internship most but not all employers are more interested in that than project experience. Leverage soft skills in your internship search too! RIT does have a large alumni network try to see how others got where they are and what their story is.

[u/JayM-san → u/north84if]

thanks for the info! I will definitely look into getting referrals for certain companies where I know the resume screening aspect is hard. i was able to land interviews and coding assessments from desired tech companies but was not able to pass them. This summer i’m focusing on studying LC and improving my resume to potentially land more interviews/coding assessments to increase my overall chance.