Are my Fit Schools a Fit, and are my Safeties safe?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello Everybody!

I am a rising Junior (male) from New Jersey. I am Caucasian (Russian) and Middle Class.

Here are the Fit and Safety schools I have thought of so far:

Fit: Georgia Tech, U of Maryland, Penn State

Safety: Rutgers, Stevens

My primary interest is Computer Science, so I am applying to each of these schools for Comp Sci.

Here are my stats:

SAT I: 2270 (720 CR, 760 M, 790 WR)
ACT: Not taken yet
SAT II: 750 Bio, 800 Math I, 800 Math II
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Rank: None (school don’t do it)
AP: 5 in Calc AB
Major Awards: None (yet)

Extracurriculars: (Boy Scouts), (Math League), Varsity Track, Science Olympiad, FBLA, Robotics, (Student Council)
Work: Boy Scout Camp and Intern at Software Company
Volunteering: Boy Scouts primarily
Summer Activities: Work + Boy Scout Trips

Most of these activities are sparse, mostly because I still have a year of high school to go. Three questions:

  1. What are my chances with my listed schools?
  2. Can you provide suggestions of other fit/safety schools?
  3. What are the best ways of improving my application during Junior year?

Thanks everybody!

I’ve looked into financial aid already, and I don’t need help with that.

2

@sumptuous Try throwing in some reach schools? Maybe consider going OOS for things like UCB, UCLA, or if you want to go really big: MIT. It’s good to have some reach schools on your list, because you never know what will happen.

3

@michelle426
Sorry I didn’t include my reach schools on my list. Here’s the list.
Reach: Stanford, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, MIT, Urbana-Champaign, UC Berkeley, UPenn, Columbia
I plan to apply to a bunch of reach schools to maximize my chances.
I kind of understand my chances with reach schools already so I didn’t throw them in.
Sorry about that!

4

@sumptuous Those are acceptable reaches. However, your reaches outnumber your matches by a lot. I would suggest getting 2 or more match schools (I don’t know any off the top of my head, sorry!) by the end of your junior year. I suggest you focus on getting a nice award or two this year. Do something meaningful in Boy Scouts, and form meaningful connections with your teachers so you can always talk to them about things (esp. when rec times come around).

5

Bump, I’d like to be chanced