Computer Science Major, Need Help for EA/ED

<p>Heyy, I was wondering if you guys could help me with some suggestions for safties, good matches, and reaches for me. I posted this earlier, but I got only 1 response(which i took into account when reposting this.) I hope its okay to repost it =] I'm planning to major in Computer Science and maybe Public Relations or Buisiness</p>

<p>I'm not too sure where i'd fit in but here are my guesses for a few so far, please correct me if I'm wrong. Could someone help me populate this list? what other colleges should I consider for Comp Sci major and Buisiness/Public Relations minor/double-major</p>

<h2>Reach</h2>

<p>Stanford
Cornell
Caltech</p>

<h2>Good Match</h2>

<p>Carnegie-Mellon
New York University</p>

<h2>Saftey</h2>

<p>Rutgers
Stevens Institute of Technology
NJIT</p>

<p>===Begin Stats=========================================
Gender: Male
School: Public Magnet
State: New Jersey
Freshman GPA: 3.492
Sophomore GPA: 3.793
Junior GPA: 3.761
Cumulative GPA: 3.669</p>

<p>Class Rank: The school says they don't rank.</p>

<p>Honors: All Non AP/IB courses are honors(for everyone.)
----APs-------------
I've taken no APs so far, and Will Probably not take one this year, because I do not qualify for the following AP classes available to juniors:
AP Chemistry(B+ in chem)
AP Calculus AB, BC(i'm in a lower level math class, will be taking it next year)
AP Microeconomics(need completion of the math class I am in now, to qualify)</p>

<p>However, I did do Independent Study...
AP Micro got a 5
AP Stats got a 4</p>

<p>I am currently taking IB English,
I did not try for IB Spanish(un-interested)
I did not try for IB History(would require an extra class next year for history, and I need that time to take AP classes)</p>

<p>My school only offers a few AP classes:
AP Chemistry
AP Physics [Senior only, I'm taking it this year]
AP Biology [Senior only]
AP Calculus AB, BC [I'm taking AB this year]
AP Computer Science [Senior only, I'm taking it this year]
AP Music Theory
AP Microeconomics[Self-Studied]
AP Statistics [Senior only,Self-Studied]</p>

<p>----SATs-------------
April 2006:
Critical Reading 680[Considerable lower than in October, I might get it hand-checked]
Math 740
Writing 670</p>

<p>October 2005:
Critical Reading 760
Math 710
Writing 610</p>

<p>June 2006:
Physics 660
Math IIc 710</p>

<p>----ECs-------------
1)200+ Community Service at Summer Recreation
2)Web Club: (Helped to redisign our school's website, and the county's special services district website <a href="http://www.bergen.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.bergen.org&lt;/a&gt;)
3)Model UN: member for 3 years, starting from Sophomore year, competing at 3 Conferences per year, we also hold our own school conference in which I delegated during my sophomore year, staffed during junior year and will be on the secretariat during Senior Year.
4)Choir for three years, I know its not much, but i'm unsure whether I should try for county/regional/allstate, for now lets say no.
5)Fresh Angles, a school-run magazine, where I worked as the technical staff in charge of their website <a href="http://www.freshangles.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.freshangles.com&lt;/a>
6)Manager of School Fundraising. Since there are countless organizations and clubs etc in our school who all want money from the students pockets and always want bakesales and whatnot, I am in charge of organizing the fundraisers and making sure only one organization has a sale at a time and that all of it runs smoothly.</p>

<p>----Other-------------
Several Online Courses that serve as preperation for A+/Network+/CCNA certification tests. Had a list but figured its just wasting space so i'm not including it here.
===End Stats=========================================</p>

<p>Also, I have a question about my SATs..</p>

<p>the second time I took SAT 1, my reading score fell 80 points, i think that was most likely because I skipped a question but messed up on the answersheet cuz I got 9 wrong in one section, which was highly unusual.</p>

<p>would it even matter if the second taking scored that much lower if the first one was that high? couldn't colleges realize there was some flaw in the taking?</p>

<p>I'm getting it hand-scored just incase... results should be mailed to me this week.</p>

<p>Now I'm in a dilemma.... its definately very late to have such a short college list like this no? I must already consider what I should apply early to... Of these colleges I'm currently considering applying early to:</p>

<p>1)ED: Carnegie Mellon
EA: Caltech</p>

<p>2)SCEA: Stanford</p>

<p>3)ED: Cornell
EA: Caltech</p>

<p>whatever I don't ED/EA in that list I would probably(maybe not my reaches) apply RD.</p>

<p>Which option should I take? If Carnegie Mellon is a match, could I wait to apply RD for Carnegie Mellon and skip option 2? allowing me to SCEA at stanford? or is stanford so far a reach that I'm better off trying to ED and EA at two other reaches, not that I'd have a significantly greater chance their, but at Cornell/Caltech there is a significant difference in % of acceptances for ED/EA whereas stanford there isnt</p>

<p>from a table in the New York Times</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon EA vs RD: 53%/41% [difference of 12%]
Cornell ED vs RD: 44%/27% [difference of 17%]
Caltech ED vs RD: 36%/17% [difference of 19%]
Stanford SCEA vs RD: 20%/11% [difference of 9%]</p>

<p>Wow, that was a lot to ask, sorry =[
.. but thanks to those who reply!!</p>

<p>CMU isn't match for you if you're applying for the school of computer science. Their average Math SAT has been in the upwards of 760.</p>

<p>University of Illinois
Their computer science major is one of the top and if you wanna do business as well, they are highly ranked as well in that. #1 in Accounting at least.</p>

<p>for cs:
cal, cmu, hmc, umichigan, illinois urbana-champawhatever, caltech, mit, stanford, pton</p>

<p>realistically: illinois, rit, rpi</p>

<p>your sat i and ii scores are too low. oh and give me a pm if hand scores make a diffrence. i doubt they will, especially after they started 2x checking them</p>

<p>whoamg: haha you're right, I just opened up my new scores now... still the same
so this makes my individual highest scores...</p>

<p>M: 740
CR: 760
W: 670</p>

<p>Ray192:
is CMU really a reach? I mean... 740 instead of 760? Maybe for SCS, maybe I shoulda specified... since I'll be doing Comp Sci + Buisiness, I'd probably be okay with IS instead... would I be reach there too?</p>

<p>If thats the case, I guess I should strongly consider going ED to CMU?</p>

<p>CMU's SCS is the most competitive school there. Here are the admissions stats for the different schools. </p>

<p><a href="http://my.cmu.edu/site/admission/menuitem.edce48707aab43c019300710d4a02008/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://my.cmu.edu/site/admission/menuitem.edce48707aab43c019300710d4a02008/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It seems to me that you are a good candidate but not a sure thing for SCS. Also...I can tell from your post what school you go to (too much info there!), and I would think that you will get credit from admissions for going to one of the most competitive schools in our area. Also they should like your ECs. Maybe you should post on the CMU board and see what they think.</p>

<p>O_o haha I just realized i put the website down in the original post... oh well</p>

<p>hmm, I'm still not quite sure if I should ED to CMU, or try something else because I've a decent shot RD there...</p>

<p>if I ED.. CMU tries to give need based aid, right? and thats not the case with RD?</p>

<p>Is CMU really really where you want to go? Then apply ED. If it's one of several where you would be happy going, apply RD, along with all the other schools. I think you have a reasonable shot at most of them. </p>

<p>My sense is that CMU is not particularly generous with aid.</p>