Chance Me for Duke, Georgia Tech, UMich, UVA, Purdue. [TN resident, 3.98UW, 34ACT, <$15k from parents, computer science/engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

I live in Tennessee,
White/male
Attend a dual enrollment collegiate-high in partnership with local Community college.

Intended Major(s)
I will major in CompE or CompSci depending on school.
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
School doesn’t do rank, 34 ACT superscore, hoping for 35 on next test.
3.98 UW, 4.73W

  • I will recieve my ascosiates degree from the community college upon graduation, don’t know if that will help me or not.

over 30 dual enrollment courses, + honors high school math and english.
A’s in everything besides one college history over covid.
reached college-calculus and linear algebra.

  • have taken 4 dual-enrollment computer science courses as electives.

Awards
National Merit commended student
2nd place USTA Tennis Division 6 tournament
2nd place in Ultimaker Cura CAD design and 3D printing competition.
Received Associate degree before graduating high school.
Graduated with college-level honors.

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  • started a 3d printing business that has expanded to 7 printers running non-stop in my house.
  • 2x Tennis team captain, played for 4 years, 1st seed 3 years
  • Manufactured product in china for kickstarter campaign.
  • Tennis mentor for younger players
  • Tropical fruit tree 3d printer tool business
  • Stock investing throughout high school
  • Spent hundreds of hours learning CAD design and modeling.

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Above average essays highlighting an international Lego robotics 1st place award I won in middle school. (not perfect essays though) - above average/average

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

  • will be able to recieve financial aid from top instituations, but parents can cover around 15k a year. - not too worried about budget as I will be in compSci and expect to make a good amount exiting college+internships.

Schools
ED Duke

Safties: U of TN, U of Wash, Rochester Institute of Tech
Target: UIUC (illinois), Purdue, U of Miami, UVA, UF + please let me know of more
Reach: Umish, Duke, Georgia Tech, UT Austin, UNC Chapel, Vanderbilt, Northeastern

Please let me know if you think Duke is possible, and let me know the probability of my other schools listed as well as other CompE CompSci schools I might apply to as more of a target/safty.
I will probably recieve full tuition to U of TN, but heard they aren’t the best for CompSci, so I would like other options.
Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to hearing responses!

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Have you used the net price calculator on each college’s web site?

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Washington, UIUC, and Purdue are highly competitive to get into the CS major. They should be moved to the reach category for the CS major. They are also unlikely to be under $15k for out-of-state students, which makes them even more of a reach.

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UVA is a reach , regardless of major. Illinois, Washington , Purdue, too, especially for CS.

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You should check how much credit you will receive for these courses at the various colleges you are considering and how much does that reduce your graduation time.

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Yeah, I was planning on applying to the engineering schools under CompE for those to increase chances. i am still probably overestimating my chances at them though

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Ok, yeah I’m willing to pay up to 40k, depending on the school, but I understand what you are saying for CS at those schools. I was planning on applying CompE to most to increase acceptance as well

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does anyone have any other options for compE compSci target/safety schools? as it looks like I overestimated UIUC, purdue, and U of wash

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If your parents can only pay $15k, you can stretch the budget with a $5.5k direct loan and perhaps around $4.5k of work earnings part time during the school year and during the summer, so a stretch budget could be up to $25k.

A CS major may be able to get significantly better paying summer jobs in later summers, but it is not a good idea to assume the best case for financial planning purposes.

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What does the Net Price Calculator show as your family contribution for Duke?

Seconding SouthYankie’s point about transfer credit. Some schools - particularly “elite” ones, will make you retake a lot of the coursework you already did. For someone on a tight budget, this really may not be a good use of your time, when you could pound out an undergrad CS degree in 3 years or less at UTK. Knock it out of the park there, at an affordable cost, and use the money you saved to get a masters from an “elite” school, if you want to.

The OOS publics (possibly excepting Chapel Hill which meets need) are not going to be affordable. The privates - run the NPC’s and see. Don’t bother applying to schools that aren’t affordable. I know you’re “not too worried” about the financial aspect, but I know very capable CS kids who just graduated and aren’t finding entry-level jobs right away. Lots of layoffs and hiring freezes lately. Yes, it’s a great field in the long run, but you don’t need the pressure of big loans hanging over your head as you’re starting out. (And your parents will need to cosign anything over the guaranteed loan limits - 27K over 4 years - and that could impact their financial situation as well. You could even run into difficulty qualifying for additional loans after the first year or two, given their financial limitations.)

You have a number of co-op schools on your list. U of Cincinnati is the original co-op school, and they have an excellent co-op based CS program. (Also a top-notch Industrial Design program; given your CAD design/modeling experience, have you considered this? UTK has an Industrial Design minor, which could pair really well with a CS major.) Cincinnati gives some big merit scholarships - deadline for these is 12/1.

Congrats on your accomplishments so far. You have a great record. You just need to get a lot clearer on the financial and transfer-credit projections for the schools you’re considering, in order to apply wisely.

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Yep, as other mentioned unless you will win very limited top scholarships,OOS public will not be affordable. Only in-state students get FA… That is the case for GaTech too.

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I would move U Wash to target and UVA up to reach. I would also move Austin and NU down to target.

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UVA is a reach but is one of the few publics that meets need for OOS students.

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The OOS acceptance rate at UWash for CS direct about is about 2%. It’s a super reach.

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You are in the very top of students coming out of Tennessee. Looking at this:

Your SAT score is in the top 5% meaning only 160 students in the entire state of TN have a higher score. Plus, it looks like only students with college ambitions are even taking the SAT. I think you’ll get in all your safeties and matches. I think you’ll get in at least half of your reaches. You’ve made a great list!

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UT Austin should be considered a reach for CS and for any who are not Texas residents with top 6% rank.

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I know you’re a long time contributor on CC and may work in college counseling so I ask this question sincerely and would appreciate your thoughts.

CS is an impacted major at many schools. With that in mind I would consider UWash, UIUC, Purdue, UT-Austin OOS, Northeastern (overall low acceptance) all reaches or high reaches. Also UVA due to OOS status. (edit: I’m only addressing acceptance in this post. Affordability is another consideration, of course.) Why do you consider some of these targets/matches?

I hope you’ll share your reasoning. TIA. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Huh? OP didn’t list a SAT score. Plus the math is way off. If there are only 160 students in the top 5%, only 3200 students took the test in the whole state of Tennessee? Doubtful. And the college list is very reachy.

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Yeah, I did overestimate my chances lol. I’ve done some research and I think I’m going to add U pitt and Penn state as either target/safty, and them move most everything else up to reach. I was planning on applying Computer Engineering to most, that’s why I thought my chances wouldn’t be as bad.

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I do not know what a 6% rank means, but data shows similar CS out of state kids go 3/3 last year with 1 getting in to a 2nd choice major.

I am confident in my lists. Note that “target” means that some kids get in and some kids do not.