<p>What are some good schools for CS with my stats? Currently looking at Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan... Looking for a few more matches/reaches as well as schools where I would have a good chance at a lot of aid.. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!</p>
<p>3.67 unweight GPA (Had basically a 3.0 freshmen year, haven't gotten a B since)
4.26 weighted GPA
Class rank: 40/580 at a top public HS
ACT: 34 (36 superscored)
SAT: 2230
SAT II's:
Chem - 800
Math2 - 780
US His - 800
Math1 - 800
Physics - 740
AP Scores:</p>
<p>USAP - 5
Chem - 5
Eng Comp - 5
Euro - 5
World H - 4
Calc BC - 4</p>
<p>All honors/AP classes.. Taking 10 AP classes next year.</p>
<p>EC's:</p>
<p>Football( 2 years)
Basketball (1 year)
Science Olympiad (1 year)
Math team ( 1 year)
Scholastic Bowl (1 year)</p>
<p>Basically played sports frosh/soph year then went to more academic activities.</p>
<p>Community Service:</p>
<ul>
<li>Volunteered about 200 hours at the local food pantry over last 3 years
<ul>
<li>Tutored underprevileged children for the past 2 years</li>
<li>Did some volunteer programming for a local hospice (Helped them develop online medical records, track employee/volunteer hours and other information)... Probably my best EC, got exp programming in a corporate setting.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>Other:</p>
<p>Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Been programming for 2 years now, can handle basic Python, C++ and Java.</p>
<p>Most out of state public universities are not good with need-based financial aid (possible exceptions include Virginia and North Carolina - Chapel Hill). However, some like Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook, Cal Poly SLO, and North Carolina State have relatively low list prices.</p>
<p>Your safeties must be definitely affordable as well as schools you will definitely be admitted to. There are some super safeties with automatic merit scholarships like Alabama - Tuscaloosa (full tuition + $2,500 per year, leaving $11,500 per year residual cost of attendance) and Alabama - Huntsville (full ride) if you need very low cost safeties. If you are National Merit Finalist and designate Texas A&M as your first choice, it will give you a scholarship that leaves a residual cost of attendance of around $12,500 per year.</p>
<p>You can, of course, try for some reach schools with good need-based financial aid, like Stanford.</p>
<p>UIUC has a top-notch reputation in CS, and you can get it at in-state price, so it is definitely worth an application.</p>
<p>Of course, you can also apply to reachier schools like Stanford, MIT, and CMU. Berkeley should also be under consideration if you are willing to pay list price similar to the privates. The same goes for some of the other more expensive out of state public schools good in CS like Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, etc… On the other hand, if you get into UIUC CS at in-state price, that would be hard to pass up if you will be paying list price at the out-of-state publics and the privates.</p>
<p>The one thing in your application that may hurt you at some of the super-selective privates, Texas, and possibly other schools is your relatively low class rank (check the schools’ common data set, section C7, for admissions criteria).</p>
<p>Yeah the UW GPA and class rank concern me a bit. I would hope the fact that all my B’s occured freshmen year is looked upon favorable though? And would I be able to consider a school like Minnesota or Purdue a safety?</p>
<p>You probably need to look in the schools’ common data sets and see how your stats compare to those of the freshman class (section C). Also note whether GPA or rank is more important. Note that some schools give less or no emphasis to your freshman year grades (e.g. UCs, CSUs, and probably Stanford), so the lower freshman year grades hurt you less at those schools. Still, your stats do look very good and competitive at most schools.</p>
<p>But also remember that schools which admit by division (e.g. engineering versus arts and sciences) or major, which is very common among public universities, CS or engineering can be more difficult to get into than the school in general.</p>