<p>My dream school is MIT. I also find CMU pretty cool and will definitely apply, but I'd say that's more of a match school for me (maybe a low-match). I want to mix computer science and business (or maybe engineering and business), and so it would be really cool to have a school with decent programs in those areas. Also, I just generally like the environment at MIT: nerdy and with a good sense of humor.</p>
<p>So any safety suggestions?</p>
<p>(If it helps get a very basic sense of where I'm at, I go to a top public school, have a GPA somewhere around 3.9 unweighted, and will have taken 6 or 7 APs by the end of school. I also have a good amount of extracurriculars and leadership roles in clubs, but I don't really have any amazing achievements).</p>
<p>Not really any cost restraints, but my I’d rather not pay too much if I only get into a safety. So it’s more about if it’s really worth paying that much for the level of education. So I don’t know… maybe in the $40ks once you take it all into account?
I live in CA. I’m already going to apply to a bunch of lower UCs… do you guys think thats enough for backups?</p>
<p>Agree with post#2. Go to CMU’s website and search admission statistics 2012 for an eye-opener about the stats and acceptance rates at CMU’s School of Computer Science and Tepper School of Business. (info for 2013 applicants is supposed to be posted later this summer.) I wouldn’t call it a match for anyone. Maybe Georgia Tech or U Maryland-College Park?</p>
<p>Oh I guess I was misinformed about CMU.
And my SAT score is 2210 superscore 2180 without superscore, but I plan on taking the ACT (it was the reading that killed my score, and I hope that I’ll do better on the ACT because it’s separated into more sections)</p>
<p>Note that Berkeley is more difficult to get into for EECS (in the College of Engineering) than the College of Letters and Science (in which you can declare the CS major later after completing the prerequisites with a high enough GPA). The L&S CS major is probably easier to do a double major in if your other major is another L&S major (e.g. economics, which also has a GPA requirement to declare) or business (competitive admission that you would apply to in your second year).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call Berkeley a safety school. Probably lowish match for L&S, high match for EECS. If you are applying to every other UC with a decent CS major, it is hard to imagine getting shut out (though if you are really paranoid, you can throw in SJSU and other CSUs).</p>
<p>Out of state public schools in your $40,000 per year limit and probably not that difficult to get into with your stats include Minnesota, Stony Brook, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina State.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech might be a good safety for an MIT level applicant. One of my friends whose father owns a very large technology focused company urged her to apply because of the quality of the GT engineers he’s hired or worked with in the past. I believe the computer science program is also excellent.</p>
<p>Purdue would be a safety. It was one of my favorite safety, I have higher SAT and GPA then you and about 10 APs, average ECs. Purdue gave me $10K/year.</p>
<p>Ref Post #4: I’d agree that with your stats UC Irvine is probably a safety, but I don’t consider it low tier. I think of it as a mid-tier school. Irvine is a good school, especially for CS and Business. They even have a program that combines the two.</p>