Chance Me - CS at Berkeley (EECS), CMU, MIT, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA

Hi, first time poster here! Entering senior year in two weeks, and have started my application process. I want to see if my goals are realistic. Thank you!

About:
Eth/Gender: Asian Male
State: PA
Income: $300,000+
UW GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.54
UC GPA: 4.43 weighted, 4.35 capped
Top 5% of class (school doesn’t rank)
SAT (took it once, single session): 1530 (M: 790, R/W: 740), 22/24 essay
SAT II: 800 Math II, 770 Chemistry

Extracurriculars/activites:
-Research/science fairs (9-12): Have participated in science fairs and conducted research projects since 6th grade. Have won awards in regional state and national awards. I was invited to the White House Science Fair, where I presented computer science research to President Obama. Won 2nd place in Broadcom MASTERS. Have won 1st place in state science fair 3 years. Also have received a provisional patent for one of my research inventions.

  • Internship (10-11): Internship with a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, conducted research project. Credited under two conference proceedings
  • Personal Company (10-12): Created my own technology education company through which I create web and mobile apps. One of my apps that teaches programming has 45,000+ downloads across 50 countries.
  • Computer Club (9-12, president 11-12): President of computer club, competed and won 1st place in programming competitions, hosted programming sessions at local middle schools
    - Director, School Fundraiser (10-12), 300+ hours: Director of school fundraiser, have raised $40,000+ over my years as director
    - Creator, Library Coding Sessions (11-12), 40+ hours: Created programming event at my local library to teach students how to code.

Selected Awards (since you can only list 5 on applications):
Invitee, White House Science Fair
2nd, Broadcom MASTERS National Science Fair
1st Place, State Science Fair
1st, Programming Competitions
Top 10 Finalist, State Essay Writing Competition

APs:
Calculus AB: 5
Calculus BC: 5
Chemistry: 5
Comp. Sci: 5
Physics 1: 5
Physics 2: 4
Next year APs: Spanish, Psych, Econ, Physics C, Stats

Schools I’m Interested In:
Stanford
Berkeley
CMU
MIT
UCLA
Michigan
Illinois Urbana Champaign
Washington
UT Austin

I am really interested in research as well as technology education, I will highlight those in my essay. I am getting a letter of rec from my research mentor and talking about my research experiences (meeting president, getting patent, etc) and passions in my essays. Please let me know what you think!!

Great stat. UIUC CS is supercompetitive. It and UMich are both low reach for you. Most of the other schools on your list are reaches. Are any of those public schools in-state for you?

Which Washington?

Do you also have safeties?

Given your family income it looks like financial aid is unlikely. Can you afford to be full pay (~70,000/year) without taking on debt? For many high-income family, having a total family income of $300,000 before taxes does not necessary mean that the parents would be comfortable paying $70,000 per year per student for university.