Chance Me for Top Schools :)

US citizen
Small Town in California
Public High School
White Male

Major: Computer Science

1460 Sat
4’s on 4 AP Tests
UW GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.6 (5.0 for Honors/AP classes)
Class Rank: 2/375

10 AP Classes
Currently in AP Calc AB (School doesn’t offer higher level)
Finished AP Spanish Lang (Fully Fluent)

Volunteered for a non-profit doing tech work for 9 months
Traveled to Greece doing human rights research and organizing and writing up an memorandum
Traveled to Tijuana doing presentations on Title-42 it’s constraints and the feasibility of enter the U.S. in refugee camps
V.P. and used to be Senator in a club
Senator in another club
Did Trumpet since elementary school and made a couple honor bands
Seal of Biliteracy
Varsity Volleyball player
Did track for 2 years
Played AAU basketball and HS basketball until a surgery prohibited me from continuing
Volunteered at a nature conservancy over the summer
Tutored 2 kids for around a year

Essays I would give around an 8.5-9/10 (no real scale for me to go off of)
LOR: Counselor:8
Teacher 1: 9
Teacher 2: 8.5

No real cost constraints
Parents make around 190k a year combined

Reach: Brown, Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UMich, Washu, NYU

Target: Cal Poly, UCSD, UC Davis, UCSB, UCI

Safety: SDSU, UCSC

Are you sure about your budget? The schools on your list are $80k/year. Your parents are good with $300k over the next four years?

Some of the schools on your list aren’t well known for CS.

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I know you are well intentioned but it is the day before applications deadline, it’s a chance me (not affordability) thread, and finance question was answered.

Your class rank makes you competitive in a very competitive field. I assume you are going TO at your reaches?

Given your balanced approach across levels of exclusivity I would be confident of landing well. Just don’t be disillusioned at the low single digit schools. Your hard credentials will likely get your application reviewed but it becomes far to subjective to predict outcomes.

Nice job and good luck.

Tests won’t matter at the CA schools which are test blind. And the cost for an instate student at a CA public won’t even come close to $80,000 a year.

Good luck. Let us know where you land.

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Yeah. I’ve seen this many times on CC. Doesn’t mean it’s true. Lots of misinformed kids and parents. $190k/year is nice but if parents haven’t saved and they live in a HCOL area it would take some sacrifices. I’ll continue to ask the question.

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Ok. Some of the schools on his list.

Did you get into SDSU with an early admission decision and Honors college invite?

UCSC is a likely for CS, not a safety. Cal Poly (assuming SLO) is a Reach school for CS. UCSD is going to be a High Match/Low Reach school.

You are a competitive applicant but realize CS is highly competitive and impacted at so many schools.

Best of luck.

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I despise the tendency of CC users to bring finances into any conversation even when an OP makes it abundantly clear that they don’t want or need to discuss it.

In this case, however, I’ll make an exception—if the OP’s household income is $190K, they should absolutely be applying for aid and could very well receive a meaningful grant from the need-based schools.

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Understood but the night before application deadline not sure that much can be changed beyond upping the anxiety level.

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Or OP could remove a school if it’s unaffordable and look for another.

Anyway, lots of reaches but you have nice safeties.

Isn’t Cali part of WUE? Utah for CS might be a nice last minute app.

Good luck.

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While not a perfect analogy, after 30 years of marriage if my wife asks how her shoes look, I don’t respond that her dress isn’t flattering, particularly if we are already on our way.

Point being I try and answer questions asked of me, avoid touchy subjects and temper responses to the circumstances and timing.

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I am sort of torn between keeping my mouth shut versus commenting on the cost issue that has already been mentioned in this thread.

Generally, the UCs are very good for computer science as is Cal Poly, and there are lots of jobs for a CS graduate. Two years after you graduate and start a job no one will care where you got your degree and few will remember.

I think that your list contains a very good subset, and you should do well. If you get into your safeties (whether they are really quite safeties or not for CS), one or two of your targets, and Harvard and Yale, then you should at that point very seriously consider sticking with one of the UCs or Cal Poly. I particularly think that your list of target schools is a list that is very good for CS, and UC Berkeley is of course one of the very top universities in the world for CS (which does make it very competitive for admissions).

However, this is not an issue until you see where you get accepted. I think that you will do well and that for now you should relax and try not to worry about it.

Congratulations on your achievements to this point. It looks to me that you are well prepared to do well once you get to university.

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Earlier this year you posted:

But here you write that your SAT score is 1460? Which is it?

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I did get into SDSU

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I wrote this guessing my SAT score… eq’s sadly wrong

Sorry it was not clarified, but my grandparents can’t significantly help with costs.

Sorry for not clarifying … my grandparents can REALLY help out with costs

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To clarify, I am applying for aid and my grandparents are going to significantly help with costs.

Congratulations on SDSU and make sure you apply to the Honors college since they do offer $10K/year scholarships.

My younger son graduated from SDSU as a CS major and working at his dream job (high profile Cybersecurity firm) so any other acceptances are just icing on the cake.

Best of luck with the rest of your decisions.

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