@androidtexan
ds= dear son
dd= dear daughter
dh= dear husband
ds18= dear son high school class of 2018
@androidtexan, you are an OOS applicant to GTech. Avg GPA of 4.03 includes in-state applicants. Your GPA has to be much higher, especially UW.
@androidtexan You mention not Ivy’s as though they are the best and hardest to get into for CS but they are not. GTech is a Tier 1 school for CS. Your peers who were accepted to GTech with lower stats, were they CS majors? Were they hooked? How many Bs did you receive? Any Cs?
Based on another thread I found out the way my school calculates GPA is a bit odd. I used this link https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ to figure out what it would look like to outsiders.
I recalculated my GPA for the UC system-
Unweighted GPA: 3.80
Weighted GPA: 4.80
Weighted and Capped GPA: 3.98
CA schools are odd in that they don’t count 9th grade grades as most colleges do. I wouldn’t worry about how your school calculates GPA, all colleges will recalculate your GPA based on their own formulas. CA schools are nice in the fact that they actually disclose their formula.
@androidtexan
In another thread, you say you don’t think you are in your high school’s top quarter.
Have a look at the CDS class rank distributions for MIT, Stanford, CMU, Colorado Mines, and Wisconsin.
At all of them, the majority of entering students were in their HS top 10%. The CDS shows overall averages, so for OOS students at public schools, for CS majors, or for the RD round, the percentages may be even higher.
Unless you attend one of the top high schools in the country, or you’re accepted to one of your top choices in an early round, you might want to focus on less selective schools.
This might be a few years out of date, but it has been USNews best public school in the state for a while
“I am sort of looking for schools more competitive than random state schools, but below HYPMS. To sort of give an idea, things kinda near the Rice/GA tech/Berkeley.”
None of those three schools are below the ivies for computer science. The top 5 comp sci programs are Stanford, MIT, CMU, Berkeley, Michigan. You also need to decide whether you want to do EECS in the engineering school or just CS in the school of arts and sciences.
To step you down a level in competition, look at schools like Purdue, Rutgers and UMass Amherst. You’re targeting to many Tier 1 CS schools (which doesn’t mean Ivies). Also Arizona State and the University of Arizona.
New Mexico Tech has relatively low costs for OOS students. Average 2016-17 entering GPA was 3.68; ~1/3 of entering students did not rank in their HS top quarter. One NSF study ranked it 14th for per capita STEM PhD production (table 4 in https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/). CS course offerings appear to be fairly broad
(https://www.cs.nmt.edu/academics/course-catalog/cse/). FWIW, it gets a pretty good Payscale review for salary outcomes (https://www.cs.nmt.edu/news/payscale-com-ranks-nmt-56th-in-college-salary-report/).
“The top 5 comp sci programs are Stanford, MIT, CMU, Berkeley, Michigan.”
Well, the Top 4 that pretty everyone agrees with: Stanford, MIT, CMU, and Berkeley. After that, it doesn’t make much difference if the program is #5 or #15. UMich is probably Top 10 and definitely Top 15. The Top 4 are in a tier clearly above the others. You have great programs at the next tier: UIUC, UWash, UCLA, UMich, UT, USC, Harvey Mudd, UWisc and others. As far as Ivies, Cornell is in that same tier. But there are many other strong programs outside of that group. The big names (and perceived ranks) probably make getting a good first job a little easier but the skill set can be learned at many other schools (especially big publics). After first job, it’s accomplishments that matter the most. The OP has a great shot at many good programs and should focus more on fit and less on name or subjective rankings.
Of course some might think their school is the best, and that is a good attitude to have. 
@scigrl202 well said! at some point your really need to consider how much of an edge at a good first job is worth vs. the amount you are paying for your degree, especially if loans are involved. Big tech companies do not base starting pay on where you went to school, it just doesn’t work that way.