Agreed. An ORM getting into the most competitive major in some of the highly rejective top schools, with a sub 3.7 GPA, will be down to amazing essays + luck, neither of which we can see in a chance me profile (or) predict in the future.
Purdue, UIUC are definite reaches. And GT, Stanford, Cal, CMU etc. are all long shots.
They could all be good âfitâ for the OP if the OP defines âfitâ as college name prestige. (But if that were the case, it is unlikely that any actual safety would âfitâ the OP.)
If your research and projects are sufficiently advanced, they may give you the largest bump at schools/programs where your application is reviewed by CS professors. The Turing application at UT and CCS application at UCSB are the two that come to mind.
IMHO, applying to UCâs is a terrible use of your energy. Even if you did get in, the OOS cost is exorbitant. And if someone tried to engineer the worst possible admissions algorithm for you, it would look an awful lot like the UCâs: test-blind, freshman grades donât count, and the AP âbumpâ is capped at 8 semesters. Plus, the application is so different from the common app that it will take a lot of your time to rework your essays for the UC format. Itâs truly not worth it.
Have you looked at the Raikes School at UNL? https://raikes.unl.edu/ Itâs a highly competitive honors cohort program - pretty sure your GPA is below their average, but they consider test scores and rigor so youâd have a chance at it. The core curriculum combines CS and business, and then students can choose any related major, including CS. Youâd be in a high-performing cohort that gets terrific opportunities and a unique blend of CS, business, and design that could be really appealing⊠plus it would be extremely affordable (affordable âsticker price,â MSEP discount for IL residents, merit, etc.)
FWIW, CMU is another that disregards freshman grades⊠and the CS school is so competitive that I doubt it would be a realistic reach even with your 4-year GPA. At any rate, even schools that consider freshman grades are not huge fans of a downward grade trend. There are plenty of excellent schools that would love to have you, but working entirely from ranking lists is going to make for a tough admissions season. Although, if you could be happy with ASU, you can certainly give the âHail Maryâ schools a try.
I agree that the NEU combined CS/business major could be great for you (and very flexible in terms of moving between straight CS and combined majors, in either direction), and saying yes to the alternate-entry options would improve your chances, as would an ED application. I would seriously consider that over [searches brain for a word somewhere between âusingâ and âwastingâ] your early-cycle shot on an Ivy, Stanford, or CMU.
California-wise, USC would at least consider test scores and your fully-weighted four-year GPA, and theyâre especially good for a CS-business combo. Theyâd love your entrepreneurship, too.
I second all of this, especially the NEU stuff. But Iâm biased, so Go Huskies! 
/chuckling
This is actually not true when it comes to CS at UCLA and UCB. They both will look at fully weighted GPA #s and the cap would be irrelevant. At many of the UCs, you need to look beyond the generic factors mentioned on the admissions site, and consider what the actual admitting department specifices as important.
I agree that the UC system is not optimal for this applicant. However, just for others who may be reading this, UC does consider all three UC GPAs: unweighted, weighted capped, and weighted uncapped. For the more selective UCs, the weighted uncapped GPA is probably a lot more important than capped, because they also want to see applicants take a lot of A-G classes.
Fair enough. Do you think an OOS CS applicant with a downward grade trend and a 3.68/4.4 has a meaningful chance of acceptance into CS at UCB/UCLA?
Probably not. Mainly because the generic OOS admit rate is around 5%, and for CS it will be much lower. More than the admit rate, the admit pool will be far tougher and the OOS applicants tend to be very very high stats and tend to take very rigorous courseload.
ASU Safety
Purdue - high match, low reach.
Your matches are likely reaches as are your reaches.
You need an Indiana (safety), UMN (likely), Pitt (likely) or Ohio State (match) type. as a likely, likely and match.
Any large state school will be solid in CS and Business - so you have ASU - if youâre good with that, youâre good to go. But your list is very heavy.
Not all the Ivies are CS strong nor have b schools, etc.
Good luck.
No, since GPA is below typical and has a downward trend, and CS is one of the most selective majors at these campuses.
Based on your PSAT score, are you likely to be a NMSF?
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