Chance a Nervous CS Major [NJ resident, 3.96 GPA, top 9% rank, 1550 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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While the UC’s have one shared application, so “shotgunning” UC campuses is no more work than applying to just one, paying upwards of 70K/year to attend Merced OOS in search of the “California Lifestyle” would be a mistake IMHO. It’s solid academically, but the location is not near the beach, nor near any of the major cities. You might as well go to UNR for less than half the cost. Riverside is also questionable as a bastion of the “California lifestyle.” Both are good schools that many CA students have to be convinced to take seriously, and I think they should, but they’re not paying 80K/year to go there.

For an OOS student, I’d consider CSU’s like Cal Poly, SDSU, and maybe SJSU, as parentkeith said… and also private schools like Santa Clara and LMU. Your strong SAT will help you with both admission and merit at the privates, whereas the CA publics are test blind. You might have a look at Harvey Mudd - it’s a reach, and you would have to like the broad/deep STEM core that’s required, but it’s a top CS school, and your stats are above their median, and the Claremont Consortium is definitely a California experience.

You mentioned liking the Southwest - schools like U of Arizona, ASU (Barrett Honors), and U of Utah (Honors College) are all strong in CS and likely a great value with the merit you’d receive (and Utah’s option to convert to in-state after the first year).

If you’re considering enduring the upper midwest cold to be close to family there, consider the Minnesota schools as well. U of Minnesota Morris is a well-regarded public LAC with strong CS (and the option of internal transfer to the Twin Cities flagship campus if you want the large-school experience as well), and a huge bargain (OOS sticker price <25K/year)… and Morris is less than a two hour drive from ND State. UMinn Twin Cities itself is a very strong school for CS, and within an hour’s radius from there, there’s Macalester, St. Olaf, and Carleton.

You didn’t mention National Merit - how did the PSAT go for you? There are some great warm-weather CS schools that would give you a full ride if you’re NMF - UT Dallas and UCF, for example.

You like Purdue enough to apply ED? Consider Virginia Tech also. And GT.
You like CWRU? Many students who like Case also like Pitt, which has rolling admissions - apply in August and you could have a very early acceptance in your pocket, which would spare you wasting time on anyplace you like less than Pitt.

I think you need a “divergent” phase of exploring a lot more options before you narrow down your list. Luckily you still have time for this! You have a strong record and could get into many great schools.

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I rarely say this on CC but I would add a couple of high reaches to your list. Why not give it a shot – just understand that its fine if those high reaches don’t pan out.

Since you are at a private competitive HS I’d work with your guidance counselors to develop your application list.

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You are very cautious, which is good, but do not be self-restricting either. Apply to more inland good engineering schools.
Among Ivies: apply to Dartmouth (they receive less engineering applications since their eng. diploma requires 5 years, even if it can be done in 4 while sacrificing a summer)
Apply to U Illinois at Urbana-Champaign : top school a bit out of the common path location like Purdue.
Another good engineering school in the middle of nowhere is Texas A&M. Don’t think of U Texas at Austin as an out of state.

Also, a general advice. Most engineering kids apply to CS, while most engineering schools look for more interdisciplinary candidates with good CS skills, but able to handle Math, Chemistry and Physics. After you enter they will test what you are really good at anyway. So, my advice would be to expand your field in your application. If you have good grades in math and chem, apply to Materials Engineering. This is an emerging field, where your background in math allows you to look for chemical patterns, and CS can help you implement it. GeorgiaTech is building their name is Materials Engineering and if you sign up for an open house you will be blown away by the amount of CS modeling used. For something else than CS you can apply to GeorgiaTech too.

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Merced most likely isn’t the CA lifestyle you find attractive. Riverside might also not be what you are looking for. If you are looking at CA colleges, I agree that you should look at SLO, SDSU, Santa Clara and USC.

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Note that UCD, UCR, and UCM are relatively inland.

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If you’re gonna apply to the UC schools you listed, might as well throw in an app to all of them… (like UCLA :DDD). If finances are not a concern, and extra $350 in application fees won’t be the biggest deal.

And who knows, anything could happen. UCLA is a whole lot closer to the beach than UCR!

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Texas A&M admits to first year general engineering. Students then have to apply to specific majors. 3.75 college GPA automatically admits, but CS is unlikely to admit in the competitive round below that GPA.

UT Austin is a reach for CS direct admit.

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I agree with others here that you can afford to add a few high reaches in here. No guarantee you’ll get in, but you have the stats and ECs to be a competitive applicant, so if you are interested in them, I would try without getting too attached. I am biased, but I think you should definitely apply to USC based on your interests.

However, I wouldn’t recommend Cal Poly SLO or SJSU. SJSU has exact calculations that you can run to see if you would be accepted into CS.

From the number of APs you have taken, I think you will have a diluted GPA since you can only weight 8 semesters. Taking more classes actually hurts your chances at SJSU. My daughter took 3 extra math classes (that she got As in) and those classes lowered her weighted GPA with SJSU that she was below their threshold for CS. Cal Poly SLO won’t look at your ECs or test scores and since you don’t have a 4.0, I don’t think you’ll make their cut (I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s good to know it ahead of time). My daughter had about the same GPA both weighted and unweighted and she was waitlisted for SLO CS.

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OP is interested in CS, not engineering.

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You are that rare unicorn poster who seems to aiming well below your profile. For CS, I would pick 1-2 likelies, may be 1-2 matches, and just go aggressive with the reaches (assuming they are affordable).

I think you have a very competitive profile and will do very well. Of course CS is hard at any of the top schools but at this point you seem to have done everything possible in crafting a competitive profile.

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OP, I suggest you redo your list based on the feedback here. Spend a few minutes reviewing UCM and UCR and make sure you actually prefer them to your safeties and Likelies. Pick a few true reach programs assuming your budget isn’t an issue. An ivy like some have proposed, the CA privates like Santa Clara and USC.
If you are truly set on a CS path, consider the unique programs like CCS at UCSB and Turing at UT Austin. In both of those cases CS professors review applications, allowing your passion and drive for CS to be better received.

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Thank you so much to everyone for your help! I really appreciate all your advice and will discuss with my parents. Best of luck to everyone else on here and have a great week!

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You have a great profile! I agree with many others: add reaches. You are well within range to have good consideration at Top15: look into Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, UPenn, columbia, UChicago. If you love one of them, ED there. Apply to all the others you would attend in RD.

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I would urge OP to look at top 20 CS schools instead of top 20 national universities. Duke, NU and UChicago for example, don’t have particularly strong CS programs.

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I agree with a lot of other responses above. Definitely apply to Rutgers. I would be tempted to apply to both Princeton and MIT (as reaches). One additional school that you might want to consider is U.Mass Amherst.

I am not convinced that UC Merced or UC Riverside are worth both the out of state tuition and the many flights across country. I would be tempted to either apply to UC Berkeley and/or UCLA, or just stay east for your bachelor’s. Stanford might be worth an application. With regard to Stanford the quality of the university to me would justify the flights and the cost and the location is very attractive. Stanford for a master’s after getting your bachelor’s elsewhere is also a possibility (assuming that your excellent grades continue through your bachelor’s degree and that you get good internship and/or work experience).

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Computer Science major is offered in both the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering. He seems more STEM oriented, while lacking the breadth of humanities extra curricular which are the mark of a liberal education.

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Demonstrated interest:

some universities track link clicking, visits, others don’t. You can find lists on the internet, but also look on the page of the college.

All track a meaningful “interest” such as a request to interview, how early you added their school on Common App, how informed you are about their academic courses, campus organizations, and activities in your “Why type of essay”. Those why essays tell how much you time you spent researching on their webpage, how much attention you paid when you listened to their presentations, which all tell how interested you actually are.

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At a few schools, yes. Not true in general.

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