Hello, helpful people.
Could you help us evaluate this college list my S (rising senior) and I have constructed?
First, his stats:
GPA: 3.7 (UW)/ 4.0 (W)
SAT: 2090 (plans to try ACT this fall)
SAT II: Math2 800, plans to take physics in Oct.
APs: CS, Phys1, CalcBC, PhysC, USGov, French (last 3 for the fall)
Plans to take next couple of levels of Calc/LinAlgebra in CC next year
His school doesn’t rank, but our estimate is he is somewhere in the top 40% of his class (not impressive! 
)
ECs: Robotics club (USFIRST) 4yrs, Judo - 5yrs (till sofomore yr), rock climbing, various individual (just made them himself, some posted online) programming projects and self-studying in that area, 50-80 volunteering hrs
Enthusiasm is overflowing (too bad it doesn’t count for much )
We are instate for CA.
He wants to do CS and physics
So, definitely not the top and quite weak on the EC part, also essays are not his strongest area (to put it mildly, but he will try to get the best out of it), but still seems like a solid candidate to me. I am sure he is more than capable of getting through the college course load.
Ah, another drawback for him is that he is in a huge and extremely competitive high school which means that most likely in most of the colleges he will be competing against 30-50 other kids from his school with most likely better stats.
Anyway, here is the list - what do you think?
UCSC
UCSB
UCI
UCD
UCSD
SJSU
URochester
RIT
CaseWesternReserve
UWash(Seattle)
We also allow him to add a couple of “dream” places like MIT or CalTech - just for the sake of dreaming 
Thanks!!!
CSU/UC GPA: http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Based on list, in-state California?
Oops! Listed the wrong numbers - GPA 3.7 UW/3.95W/4.0UC
What about RPI? He may not get tons of aid but it’s a fabulous school for his subject area.
UCSC/SJSU: Solid match/low match.
UCSB/UCD/UCI: Match
UCSD: High Match
If a California resident, include Cal Poly SLO on the list. It probably is a High Match/Low Reach but very good for CS/Physics but can be difficult to double major.
Thanks!
Gumbymom, that’s why CalPoly SLO is not on our list. He wants to either double major or at least explore both majors before deciding on one of them and we heard that CalPoly SLO is not good for wandering between majors (still being excellent on a straight-forward path). As for UCs, my major concern is that CS is impacted in most colleges right now (from our friends this year’s experience) which makes it at least half-step harder to get into (such as making UCSD quite a reach for him, for example).
The experience was from a few of his friends (and their classmates) with GPAs of 3.95 UW, SATs above 2200, an armlong list of ECs with leadership and whatnot and only getting into UCI and being waitlisted or plain rejected from all the other higher-level places - this makes me a bit nervous.
biochemgirl67, we are interested in RPI! It just must have slipped from the list somehow - we will add it on, of course.
That list looks very good and match balanced. Your son has a good shot at all of those schools on the list, save MIT and Caltech of course. Cal Poly can be a reach too.
RPI, WPI, NJIT, and Stevens are good OOS schools to look into.
We have a similar situation – lots of enthusiasm … 
My kid doesn’t want to go quite that tech-focused – we’re thinking more LAC – but liked Case and will also look at Rochester (and can dream about MIT #whatever). I thought WPI looked interesting, but very limited options for a switch to humanities, should that happen. A lot of people have suggested RPI as well, but the gender imbalance was off-putting.
North Carolina State has a great CS program, ranked by some in the top 20. Applying before October 15 gives you a priority decision by December 15. Out of state cost is reasonable at about $32,000. Research Triangle location affords lots of internship opportunities (including an incubator on campus). We also liked Case Western and applying early should yield merit money. Case, WPI and RPI are in relatively economically depressed areas compared to NC and California. University of Washington is extremely competitive for direct admission to CS. Your in state choices are great.