Chance me and list out a few colleges based on my stats

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>New here! So bear with me please. I'll be applying this year to US universities.
Intended major- computer engg. (Where CE isn't available, CS or EE with many CS and graphics classes)
<strong><em>no aid required</em></strong></p>

<p>The thing that is worrying me are my grades. (icse and isc)
9th finals - 68% (top 50%)
10th preboard - 75% (top 30% :p)
10th boards - 85%
11th finals - 70% (no ranking, but surely in top 25%)
12th 2nd term - results will be out in a few days, but 75-80% (no ranking, but assume top 25%) probably.
SAT 1- 2100
EC:-</p>

<h1>astro club vice president (mainly organise intraschool contests and events)</h1>

<h1>entrepreneurship club's "core member" (no distinction happens for this club, except being labelled as a core memer if you're one of the main people in the club)</h1>

<h1>Award in IGNITE '11 for my innovation idea.</h1>

<h1>top award in a low profile internationl innovation contest.</h1>

<h1>selected for IRIS nationals for my computer engg. related project.</h1>

<h1>3rd NASA humans in space youth art contest 2010 (don't know if it matters much)</h1>

<h1>honorable mentions in NASA Space settlement contest.</h1>

<h1>i invested much my time in making scientific computer games (2 worthwhile projects).. i'm mentioning this.</h1>

<h1>top award in an international game making contest for under 18 people.</h1>

<h1>bird, time lapse, aerial and astro photography (just a few significant awards here though, but can submit a portfolio.. photos are good, at least this is what a few professionals i met over 500px and flickr say)</h1>

<h1>a few applications for pc and androids, mostly for automating stuff. And a few physical things made like quadcopter (for aerial photpgraphy) and big wrist strap with embedded electronics (trying to imitate what i saw in spy kids movies :p).</h1>

<p>Essays: very personal.. very good overall.
Recs: don't know, but expecting to be just "good" (though a few colleges i'm applying won't need this).</p>

<p>Now! As you can see, I have mediocre grades with a little upward trend. I'm having difficulty choosing colleges as many ones i love (public) are more academically oriented.
Till now, I've made up my mind to apply to these colleges:-
MIT
UCberkeley
USC
UWashington- seattle
UMich -ann abhor
CMU (though i've heard it's very academics oriented).</p>

<p>What do you think are my chances are for these colleges.
Also, PLEASE list out a few colleges which are likely to take a person like me (with not so great academics). If possible, list out a few good LACs for me.
I'll probably start a company after masters, so I don't need universities with extremely high research activity or prestige.
I don't want to apply to colleges with a rural setting. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance
Sumit</p>

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<p>I’m going to be extremely candid here.</p>

<p>MIT- High Reach
UC Berkeley- Reach
USC- High Match
UWashington- seattle- Match
UMich -ann abhor- High Match
CMU - Reach</p>

<p>I would consider applying to schools like UT austin, UIUC and Georgia Tech all of which have great comp. sci programs. You could also apply to other top notch private schools like Northwestern, WashU(St. Louis), Tufts and Vanderbilt, but these will all be Low/ Mid reaches. PM me if you’ve got any questions.</p>

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<p>I’ll be done compiling my list of colleges after a week. So I want to know why you said USC and UMich as high match and USC as match? Just want to know, so that I can learn about the view points of others on this. I’m actually freaked out. I can’t PM you (less than 15 posts).</p>

<p>I’ll apply to 2 safeties (1 complete safety and 1 another safety with chances of geeting in). Can universities ranked around Virginia Tech be considered as an upper safety?</p>

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<p>are you codeguy?</p>

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<p>No! I’m not codeguy. I saw this chance me thread. Maybe his marks and a bit of technical projects made you think that I’m codeguy. </p>

<h1>1- For people already in colleges (like quiverfox): I study in a medium size school with like 50 students in each section. In the engineering colleges I’ve mentioned, the class sizes reach very high (I’ve heard around 600 for introductory courses and normally stays around 50 for most of the classes). What considerable difference does the class size make in college? (except that it’s easier to discuss in small class size environment).</h1>

<h1>2- I read answers here- [Higher</a> Education in America: What is it like for an Indian student to pursue MS/PhD from a US/European University? - Quora](<a href=“http://www.quora.com/Higher-Education-in-America/What-is-it-like-for-an-Indian-student-to-pursue-MS-PhD-from-a-US-European-University]Higher”>http://www.quora.com/Higher-Education-in-America/What-is-it-like-for-an-Indian-student-to-pursue-MS-PhD-from-a-US-European-University) , and asked a few students and they said yes it problem mentioned here occurs (culture shock from indian community part) but nothing beside it. Does it also happen in undergraduation? Because however independent you try to be, you will have to take help from Indian mates there occasionally. And if this is also true for undergraduation, then I’ll have a big problem with Indian students there.</h1>

<h1>3- How’s UIUC (heard a lot about it), Penn State, University Of wisconsin/minnesota (as a potential match) and purdue (though it’s in a rural setting, but for safety if applicable)?</h1>

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<p>My D went to UIUC. It is a very highly regarded school especially for engineering. Wisconsin/Minn - i only know about their grad programs - but generally considered good public schools. If you are looking at Engineering, you should consider Purdue (UIUC is also a fairly rural blue collar town), Harvey Mudd, Cal Poly SLO, UCLA</p>

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<p>I think you should mention your SAT II and/or AP scores as well since you are applying for engineering. I’ll be really honest:

  1. MIT- Impossible - By your name, I assume you are Indian. And they take only (well, almost) International Olympiad medallists from India. So, it’s quite bleak.
    UCB and CMU - I don’t know much about these places.
    2 UMich and University of Washington - Decent shot. If you could provide more details, perhaps I could give a more detailed answer.
  2. USC - Pretty good chance.
    I’d suggest you apply to these colleges as well:
  3. Georgia Institute of Technology
  4. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
  5. University of Texas at Austin
  6. Purdue University
    You’ll most likely get into these colleges.</p>