Chance Me for CS at Rice, UC Berkeley, CMU, UT Austin?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey! I’m applying to Rice, UC Berkeley, CMU, and UT Austin for CS. Any suggestions on my chances or any different colleges I should apply to would be appreciated!

General Info: White male in Texas
Major: CS

GPA: 4.0 UW / 4.833 W
Rank: 1/793
ACT: 35 (34 E, 36 M, 34 R, 35 S, 9 W)
SAT: 1540 (740 R/W, 800 M, 18 Essay)
Subject Test: 800 Math II, 790 Chem
APs: 6 5s, 3 4s, taking 10 senior year.

  • Taken pretty much the most rigorous course load at my school possible, 19 APs by the end of senior year.

ECs (somewhat weak tbh):

  • FRC Team: Vice President and Head Programmer, on team all 4 years.
  • UIL Computer Science, starting Sophomore year.
  • Mu Alpha Theta member all 4 years.
  • NHS member Junior and Senior year.
  • Science National Honor Society member Junior and Senior year.
  • Bowling Club Treasurer - started Sophomore year.

Work Experience (also weak):

  • Tutor for kids in Math and CompSci, started beginning of Sophomore year, 6-8 hours a week.

Volunteering:

  • General Volunteering Club at school: 120 hours.
  • NHS: 50 hours.
  • 60 hours at Houston Food Bank.

Awards (also weak):

  • UIL Robotics State Champions - 2018
  • Robotics “Most Valuable Programmer” Award - 2018
  • National AP Scholar - 2018

Essays: 8/10 roughly

Recommendations:

  • CompSci teacher of 2 years: 7.5/10
  • Physics teacher and Robotics mentor of 4 years: 9/10
  • Other main Robotics mentor of 4 years;: 8/10
2

You are a competitive applicant but realize UCB is a Reach school. If UCB is affordable at $65K/year with little to no financial aid since you are OOS, then definitely apply.

Best of luck.

3

Apply to GT and MIT as well. Their CS programs speak for themselves. MIT in particular likes lots of 5 on lots of APs. Maybe your college counselor can advise how to leverage the ten this year before the scores are available.

4

Solid chance