<p>@ucbalumnus Yeah, I’m trying to narrow down the two as well so I don’t waste application money + time on the one I would pick the other over. I think Texas A&M won’t make the final list since I’m not a big fan of conservative environments (at least not over Austin) and since they’re not as good for my major. Plus my impression of the student body at UT is much better, but I’ve visited UT a few times (due to ECs) but never visited College Station. I think an additional problem will be my lack of college visit time/money but I’ll be able to explore Columbia and a few other Northeastern schools since I’ll be in the area anyway.</p>
<p>Berkeley’s NPC says $55k but I think I’ll still apply and see if I get anything. Silicon Valley seems like the place to be for someone going into tech with my interests, and I know there tend to be disparities between NPC calculations and actual aid. Our FAFSA EFC is at $40k and I ran through the NPC and it looks like no other school will go seriously over it- maybe I miscalculated Berkeley if they’re that high? I know OOS students are a source of income but that’s still high.</p>
<p>I’ve been told by a friend that Rice sends waivers (around late September) for people with good SAT II scores and that I’ll probably qualify. I’m not sure if I’ll apply there either, since they’re not as good for EECS as UT-Austin, but they’re known for being undergrad-friendly and research-heavy. I’m not sure if I want to go all-research though. So my list looks like this at the moment:</p>
<p>Safety: UT-Austin Cockrell, possibly A&M</p>
<p>Match: possibly Rice, Carnegie Mellon ECE, possibly UCLA, possibly UIUC, possibly Georgia Tech</p>
<p>Reach: Berkeley EECS, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Caltech, possibly Columbia, possibly Brown</p>
<p>So 8 schools (6 reaches- yikes!) and 7 possibly’s</p>