Chance for me EECS at Berkeley, CS at Caltech, and CS Turing Scholar at UT Austin

“UW is in the Top 20 for Computer Science.”

I have worked with people who graduated from U.Wisconsin, and at one point worked on a project with a team from U.Wisconsin and therefore visited a few times. I have been very impressed by the high quality of the professors and students at U.Wisconsin. I was amused that they had their soft drink machine on the network long before this was common (and I am still not sure why you would want your soft drink machine to be networked – other than just because you can).

I don’t think that anything in the top 10 for CS will be a safety for any out of state student. Having the opportunity to have a top 20 school as a safety is a lucky fluke for OP since he is in-state. It would also allow you to save a ton of money which might for example be useful if you end up wanting to get a master’s degree at some point, or if you have some other use for money in the future.

LORs from family friends, even famous/infamous ones, is not appropriate.

Seems like a bad idea to get a recommendation from someone who is probably best known in higher education circles for aggressively cutting the University of Wisconsin’s budget and other proposals widely opposed within the state universities.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Scott-Walker-Is-Out-Can-a-New/245024

^Especially since Scott Walker didn’t even graduate from Marquette.

Your essay should be about you. It’s an opportunity to show admissions a positive quality or trait that illustrates how you might contribute and add to campus life and academics.

Caltech requires two letters of evaluation from teachers:

  • 1 math or science teacher evaluation
  • 1 humanities or social sciences teacher evaluation (a teacher who has evaluated your writing)
  • In addition, applicants can submit up to two additional evaluations from a mentor or supervisor.

UCB EECS

  • LORs are by invitation only. After applications are submitted, some students receive an invite to upload a LOR.

Middle school grades are not included in GPA calculations. Only grades from 10-11th.