07/04/2026
Most Computer Science applicants today are competing with AI and losing.
For years, CS was the ultimate safety net for international students. The formula was simple: get the grades, master the syntax, and you were guaranteed a seat at the table.
That seat isn’t reserved anymore.
The shift isn’t just that AI writes code faster.
It’s that AI has made being average obsolete. Tools like Cursor can spin up a functional backend in seconds. Knowing how to code is no longer a personality trait; it’s a utility, like knowing how to type.
We’ve seen this play out in real time at Leap2us. This cycle was a wake-up call.
🔹 One student had near-perfect grades and a portfolio full of “clean” projects: weather apps, clones, the usual. Waitlists.
🔹 Another student had lower grades but built a scrappy AI tool to solve a messy scheduling problem for their local community. Admits. Scholarships.
The difference? The second student didn’t just build. They noticed.
They didn’t have the best code but they had the best judgment. They used AI as leverage to solve something real, while the first student was still trying to prove they could do what a machine now does for free.
If you’re still thinking of CS as a “safe bet,” you’re playing a game that no longer exists.
The question isn’t:
“Can you build it?”
The question is:
“If AI does the heavy lifting, what exactly is your brain adding to the room?”
Because right now, thinking is the only thing the tools can’t replace.