I want to major in computer science (first choice) or engineering and I live in Connecticut (most schools are OOS obviously)
Reaches: Rice, UT Austin
High/Mid Matches: Purdue, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Low/Mid Match: UMass Amherst (the state school, not private)
Safety: University of Connecticut-Storrs (UConn)
If these are placed wrong, place it in the comments
My numbers and stats:
Nothing spectacular
White (European heritage), Male.
SAT I: 1460 (760 Math. 700 RW)
SAT II: Chemistry: 800
9 AP’s: AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus A, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP US History, AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics 2
(My school does not offer any other higher level AP’s like Physics C or Calc BC)
UW GPA: 3.92
My state flagship (UConn) offers their courses through our public school so I have ~35 credits when I combine my Chemistry, Physics, Literature, US History, and Western Traditions classes. I did fairly well (A’s in everything, except A- in both History classes) so I might submit that transcript.
Financial Aid status:
I am going to need it so that will probably make my life more difficult. I am applying to as many scholarships as possible so hopefully combined with federal loans and my parents it can happen 
Plus scholarships tend to support first generation college students so I qualify for even more lol. My parents never graduated from high school either so there is that.
Major Extras:
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5 years experience in Karate and Judo (black belt in Karate and unranked in Judo; I do Judo with my school’s police officer in the morning). I also had to travel across the country to test for my karate black belt; the test was very arduous. I also studied Japanese sword and have trained multiple time with Shihan (<- like master) Dana Abbott. This has been a very formative experience in my life so my essay is based on meeting a man named Maung Gyi. It is really personal and we met while I was at a hotel in Houston Texas attending a martial arts competition. I was training in the gym before bed and I saw two of my sensei’s outside with an older man. I ended up walking out and realized it was Grandmaster Maung Gyi an internationally known martial artist, child soldier, the teacher of my Grandmaster Zulfi Ahmed. I was blown away and he invited to sit and listen which I eagerly did. We talked from about 8 PM to about 2:30 AM and did so for the rest of my stay (4 days). The story’s he told were amazing and my essay is very personal; those conversations changed a lot of aspects of my life.
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Part time job since sophomore year (I had to pay for my AP tests and college classes because I didn’t want to burden my family with all the expenses)
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Tutor for my National Honor Society branch here. I stay after twice a week and aid anyone who comes with their school work. I know National Honor Society isn’t anything special but I do it for them,
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This summer I attended like a week long camp at a local university about cyber security. We did everything from learning python to learning how to properly secure basic networks and also how to attack them. The teaching wasn’t extremely expansive but we spent about ~10 hours a day for 5 days so we did learn quite a bit. The Steganography was by far my favorite lesson and they showed us various ways of doing it. Pretty cool stuff and I made a program to indentify people via facial recognition in my spare time that I later annoyed the head of the camp with lol (I set a bell to go off when he passed a webcam).
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While learning and practicing Karate I also taught 3 days a week for about 3 hours a day (some days more and some less, depended on the week and who was missing). Whether it was adult bare knuckle fighting, teen kata practice, or a stretching seminar I was usually involved or full fledged teaching.
Note: I am talking about my karate experience in the past tense because I was severely hurt in a Ju Jitsu studio where I was on the bad end of arm bar and I had some ligaments partially torn. I am nearing a full recovery and I have returned to Judo and plan on returning to karate
I do have some other clubs and accomplishments but nothing like an international Olympiad medal. I am just wondering if, with a great essay and letters of rec I stand a chance applying regular decision the colleges listed since I need financial aid and am OOS for all except UConn. I am also fairly certain I can get into at least one of them so I don’t think I need another safety since UConn isn’t really known for CS; it should be easy for me to get in.
Post your thoughts and tear my life to shreds :’(