Chance a nervous junior for CS

All good advice. The only thing I would change is: I believe Georgia Tech will be a reach for CS, OOS.

Cal Poly listed COA is higher. $47631. . They now have an OOS surcharge on top of OOS tuition. I believe it’s 5-7% acceptance for CS. So a reach. @eyemgh ? Great school though. And fine list provided.

I ran UIUC. It’s COA per semester seemed low so double checked. It’s 27,972. X2. + inflation for future years for all these schools.

https://cost.illinois.edu/Home/Cost/N/U/10KP0112BS/15/120221/120218

I pulled the financial numbers from U.S. News and World Report using just tuition, fees, and room & board. Obviously, the college’s page would be the final word on the subject. I usually just use the above fees rather than COA since not all colleges use the same amount for books, transportation, miscellaneous fees, etc. So I’d call Cal State SLO $44k, looking at its page, though certainly the extra $3k in costs are likely to be incurred. But they’d be incurred anywhere.

Based on the comments above from you and @DadOfJerseyGirl I’ll move SLO and Ga Tech up to Reaches.

As pointed in another thread, getting in UW for CS as OOS is ridiculously difficult. Last year’s acceptance rate for in-state students was 27%, OOS 3%, so a dramatic difference. Freshmen by the numbers | Office of Admissions

Looking at the UT Austin results, this also applies to them and possibly to UIUC which, IIRC, is ranked 5th for CS. In the world of CS, these colleges are tippy-top so super reaches for anybody OOS.

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All fair

I agree, those are the tippy-top schools and will be reaches for OOS students. But OP has a 1550 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA, all 5s on APs, and has developed numerous apps that have been recognized by the U.S. House of Reps and IBM, is an Eagle Scout, and has other very good ECs. I’m not saying those schools are a shoo-in, but this kid definitely has a shot, and their cost is significantly lower than some the original schools under consideration. I stand by my recommendation to the OP of these schools as reaches to shoot for.

I agree but someone the other day had a 1500+ and other crazy stuff and was rejected at UMASS CS.

Not sure why and maybe it’s limited to CC but seems like 80% of kids want CS.

I’d fail out after the first test :). Not for me !!

Half these kids already code. Crazy to me.

Reading current UT Austin results - kids accepted to CS/Engineering only if they are in to 1-2% of their class, in-state and auto-admits.

" Son didn’t get into EE (1st) or Mechanical (2nd), put into Liberal Arts. Auto Admit, NMSF, 11th out of 819 (top 2%), 5.37 (W)/3.97 (UW) GPA, 35 ACT & 1560 SAT. Heavy involvement in ECs and has a job. We are stunned."

To put things in perspective, I know somebody who got accepted to Stanford last year but rejected at UW Seattle and UT Austin. I would not count on merit aid either.

Of course, you never know 100% what they are looking for. The stars may align for the OP

Cal Poly has very strong CS and SE programs. They are competitive, but the admissions algorithm is objective. If the school speaks to you it’s worth a shot.

As for costs, I think $47K is accurate, and it will be $2k more next year as the opportunity grant contribution peaks at $8K. It’s not the deal my son got OOS, all in at about $140, but it’s a great deal compared to the UCs at nearly $70K/year.

I’d fail, too! My dreams of a perfect college GPA were shattered after my first semester. I was in the honors CS intro class for majors. Half the class dropped. I was in office hours twice a week. If the teacher was cancelling their office hours, they would send me an individual email to let me know. I’ve never worked so hard for a class in my life. Earned a “C” but got a “B” since I’m pretty sure they knew I was never going to take another CS class! And I was never so happy to get such a grade!

And yes, lots of kids code. But how many of them have their coding highlighted by such major orgs? And the kid is a software developer for some company that got redacted out that he felt was more impressive than being recognized by IBM. The reaches are long shots, but someone has to be let in.

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