Chance Me/Match Me: Looking for targets/safeties for CS (TX resident, 4.0/ 35, top 5.5% rank)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Looking for some more targets really because I have none, and also chances on the rest of the list/general feedback

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: TX
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Large Public
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Indian Male
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): n/a

Intended Major(s)
Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 5.6583 (100 in all advanced/ap is a 6.0)
  • College GPA (for transfers): n/a
  • Class Rank: 50/914
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT (35 Math, 33 Sci, 34 Engl, 36 Reading)

Coursework

5’s: Phys 1, Calc AB, Chem, Lang, CSA, World Hist, Human Geo
4: Bio
DE (through CC): US Hist (B), Spanish 1 (B), Macroecon (A), US Gov (A)
DE (through UT): OnRamps Earth Wind and Fire (Geosciences basically) (In progress)
AP courses in progress: Lit, Stats, Calc BC (might self study Phys C mech but not likely)
Languages: 3 yrs of Spanish, and a credit from 4th year of Telugu
Electives: Computer Science (4/4 years taken), Orchestra (4/4 years), Drone Aviation (2/3 years)

Awards

  • AP scholar w/ distinction
  • Academic award for high gpa
  • Top 25% of submissions for a math modelling challenge
  • TX DECA State qualifier
  • Highest rating at my school district’s solo evaluation
  • PVSA Bronze

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

  • VP of Curriculum (12th) and Teacher (11th/12th) at a nonprofit that teaches kids coding
  • Chief Information Officer at a nonprofit for Cerebral Palsy awareness (11th/12th)
  • Organized the 1st high school hackathon in my area (11th, maybe 12th?)
  • Orchestra all 4 years of HS
  • Orchestra council officer (11th/12th)
  • Participated in Chem Olympiad (didnt do well though) (11th, maybe 12th??)
  • Tri-M (music honor society) member (10th/11th) and treasurer (12th)
  • DECA (10th: didn’t do anything, 11th: went to state, 12th: unknown)
  • Science National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta (math honor society) member
  • Hack Club founder
  • Internship at a tech company
  • Worked at an early stage startup
  • Quiz Bowl Member (11th), and President (12th), went to 2 tournaments, 2nd place as a school in one, basically last in the other
  • Made some tech projects
  • Volunteered at serving center and temple occasionally
  • Did a geoscience program at a&m in the summer (summer before 9th, usually a senior thing but open to everyone during covid)

Essays/LORs/Other

Essays: Haven’t started writing any essays yet, main topic might be about repairing tech and problem solving and other stuff but I’m not a great personal essay writer

LORs: Most likely getting one from my AP Lang and AP Chem teacher, i think they both liked me

Cost Constraints / Budget
Not horribly expensive, no set budget, i dont think my family qualifies for need-based aid?? (family income is 200k+)

Schools

  • Safety: ASU, A&M, UT Dallas (all earliest deadline)
  • Match: University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Reach:
    – EA: NEU, Purdue, UT Austin, MIT
    – RD: Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Rice, UMich, UIUC (CS+X, most likely chem), University of Washington
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If ASU is Arizona State University, it has assured admission (including to the CS major) at 3.0 GPA or top 25% rank or 24 ACT if you meet the course requirements. However, check with your parents if its net price after scholarships is affordable before designating it as a safety.

All Texas public universities are assured admission to the campus if you have top 6% rank as a Texas resident, but admission to the CS major (particularly at UT Austin) may require competitive admission. In addition, Texas A&M College Station admits to the engineering division, from which you later have to apply for the desired major (effectively needing a 3.75 college GPA for CS).

You should check with your parents whether the out of state prices at Purdue, Wisconsin, UCB, GT, Michigan, UIUC, and Washington are within budget. Also, check the net price calculators for the private schools.

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With a 4.0, Arizona will be less than ASU with $32k off. Alabama will also be inexpensive.

Your list is solid.

Best of luck.

Edit - as others noted, UMICH is $72k+, UCB is over $70k, Wisconsin near $60k.

If you can go to an ASU (looks like you’d get $15k off) or I threw out Arizona which will be even less or an in-state school - for half Wisconsin and less than half of UCB, Michigan - is it even worth applying ? That’s the question to ask - especially for the UCs which have 4 essays to write.

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I think you have a pretty solid list. May be consider UMD-CP and perhaps Rose Hulman since they should give you pretty good merit aid. Good luck!

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Yes, UMD would be a very good addition but they don’t give a lot of merit aid. As an OOS student he may get at most $12k, making the COA $48k. Does that work for OP? He needs to give us a budget.

@sauceone, please speak with your parents and let us know how much they are willing and able to pay. Then we can give you more appropriate suggestions.

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I think with your stats, Purdue will be a high target. But you should apply EA to all these public schools.

NEU will likely defer you in EA and want you to apply ED2. Tbh, surprised to see NEU on your list. They don’t have as strong a CS program as the other schools on your list, so it appears to be an outlier.

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Yes a budget would help but Rose Hulman should give significant merit for the OPs stats even without the Noblitt scholarship.

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re: budget, I’ve asked my parents about what their budget is like, and they’ve consistently told me that they don’t really have a budget as long as the university is worth it, my parents have also prepaid for 2 semesters of in-state tuition through michigan’s college plan

re: NEU, I’m really only applying because they don’t have supplementals and it’s a pretty decent school from what I’ve heard

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Will they tell you how much they are willing to pay for each college on your list, so that can avoid applying to those that will be more expensive than what they are willing to pay?

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What does this mean ?

That you heard NEU is good isn’t a valid reason to apply. Learn about it. It’s over $80k. It’s a co op school.

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Ah, yes! That’s how they get tens of thousands of students like you to apply so they can show a 7% acceptance rate.

Yes it’s a “pretty decent school” (with an amazing marketing department), but the real question is - do you want to go there over all the other schools on your list? Because as an unhooked applicant if you apply EA you’re very likely to get deferred. They really want high stats kids like you to apply ED1/2. There’s also a high chance of being admitted to start at an alternate campus - like Oakland, CA or a European campus. And last year, kids were admitted to Oakland for all 4 years.

And as a co-op focused school that encourages you to do two co-ops, you’ll either take 5 years to complete, or will need to take summer classes (and/or overload some semesters) to complete in 4.

You need to make an informed decision taking all this into account vs the benefit of not writing a supplemental essay.

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