Chances at Good Computer Engineering/CS Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey, so as I am now officially a senior, I am even more concerned than before about getting into a good college. Unfortunately, I suffered from incredible laziness my Sophmore and Junior years. Here is my situation.</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Parental Income: Honestly, I don't know. Upper middle class I guess.</p>

<p>School-Wise:</p>

<p>GPA:
Freshman Year: 3.6 UW/4.2 W
Sophmore Year: 3.4 UW/4.1 W
Junior Year: 3.2 UW/ 4.0 W</p>

<p>Class Rank: 57 out of 306(This is my weakest portion I think)
I go to a private, Catholic school.</p>

<p>AP's Taken: AP US, got a 3</p>

<p>Senior Schedule:
Honors Creative Writing
Honors Spanish 4
Honors Physics
AP Chemistry
AP Psychology
AP Calculus</p>

<p>ACT:
Composite: 33
English: 31
Reading: 31
Math: 35
Science: 33</p>

<p>EC's:
-Math Team: 3 Time ICTM State Math Contest Competitor + Other random awards and stuff
-Scholastic Bowl
-Science Olympiad: 1st Place Regional Remote Sensing and 3rd Place Regional Ecology</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
-Volunteering at Habitat for Humanity at the local Re-Store.</p>

<p>Based on that information, can you please tell me what, if any, chances I have at getting into these colleges.(They are just the top 10 Computer Engineering colleges.)</p>

<p>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
2 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA
University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
5 University of California--Berkeley Berkeley, CA
6 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
7 University of Texas--Austin Austin, TX
8 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
9 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
10 Cornell University Ithaca, NY</p>

<p>Also, chance me for Marquette and the University of Iowa if you would. But if any, UIUC is my first choice, so opinions on that would be greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Your rank and ECs are a little low for the top schools. I’ll give it a go:</p>

<p>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA - mid/high reach
2 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA - reach (assuming your applying SCS)
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA - mid/high reach
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL - low match
5 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA - low reach
6 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA - match
7 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX - low match/safety
8 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI - high match
9 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA - reach
10 Cornell University Ithaca, NY - high match/low reach</p>

<p>I’m not familiar with Marquette and Iowa.</p>

3

<p>Sorry, I was inaccurate with Texas. That should still be a match though.</p>

4

<p>@Jogo84
Thanks for your input. I am rather new to this whole CC thing, so a low match = close to a safety school? So you’d say I have a fairly good chance of getting into UIUC?
And the scale would go something like this I assume:
High Reach - Not gonna happen
Mid Reach
Low Reach
High Match
Mid Match
Low Match
Safety - You’re in!</p>

<p>Or am I wrong?</p>

<p>Also, if anyone has any suggestions for other good Computer Engineering/Computer Science schools, especially that those have the most “bang for their buck,” any information would be appreciated.</p>

5

<p>Yeah. I’m pretty new at this too as you can see from my post count so take everything I say with a grain of salt ; )</p>

<p>I’m also looking at computer science. RPI, University of Rochester, Stony Brook, Rice all have strong programs. Probably others I’m forgetting.</p>

6

<p>MIT: Huge Reach (not worth application cost IMO)
CMU: Mid-Reach
Stanford: Huge Reach
University of Illinois: Not Sure I would guess high match though
Berkeley: Low Reach
GeorgiaTech: Match, Maybe High Match
UT: High Match
UM: High Match
Caltech: Huge Reach
Cornell: Mid Reach</p>

7

<p>Berkeley EECS (College of Engineering) – mid reach to high reach</p>

<p>Berkeley BS CS (College of Letters and Sciences) – low reach to mid reach</p>

<p>your low GPA is killing you at schools like Berkeley and LA. The UCs are GPA whores, and sadly, your GPA is very low relative to the ones admitted to Berkeley and LA. You still have a chance though especially if you’ll go to the BA CS route. Good luck!</p>