DS has a 35C (33E, 36M, 34R, 35S), 12 APs (including this year), several summer CS programs (including college credit) but only a 3.6UW, 4.02W (lots of Bs while playing football fresh/soph years–but 4.8 GPA junior year). Class rank is very low as a result–like 37%. Will a good ACT overcome that? We are OOS (in the South). I know most of the top CS programs are getting increasingly more competitive every year so he is applying to about 10, but unless colleges really mean “holistic review” I am concerned!
To the best of my knowledge, OSU does not have a higher bar for computer science majors (over those for other engineering majors).
35 ACT is very high for OSU. Fall 2015 average for entire university was 28.9, Fall 2014 average for engineering was 30.2. It is also true that OSU likes to improve the fraction of their class that was in top 10% and 25% of their high school - I believe the latest numbers are 62% and 95%, respectively. Balancing the two, I do not see them rejecting someone with a 35 ACT.