<p>My college counselor and parents have not been able to help me, in regards to selecting a "match" school. I'm currently a junior and my intended major is Computer Science.</p>
<p>My GPA is: 3.85 (UW), 4.25 (W)
My SAT is: 1520
My SAT IIs are: 770, 800, 800 (History, Physics, Math IIC)
My extra-curriculars are diverse and include 2 leadership positions: Speech and Debate (4 years), Cycling Team (4 years; Founder and President of School Team), Percussion (4 years), Newspaper (2 years; Editor); Community Service (4 years); <strong>Knowledgable in over a dozen computer science languages</strong></p>
<p>I'm looking for schools in East Coast (no LACs). Cost isn't an issue. Comments and input are greatly appreciated. Thank you.</p>
<p>Rochester, Rennselaer, Penn State (These would probably be more like safety/matches for you). Most "matches" for students with your credentials are not sure bets for anyone, so would better be called match/reaches.</p>
<p>Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Bucknell, Case Western Reserve, U of Maryland, U of Pittsburgh, RPI, U of Rochester. Probable safeties: SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Stony Brook, Rutgers, Rochester Institute of Technology,</p>
<p>carolyn: Thank you for your opinion. I know from talking with other CC users that you're one of the most (if not the most) helpful and truthful parent users on CC - and this appears to be very true! :)</p>
<p>Marbles to elaborate on what Mother of Two said. With your criteria, it is a reasonable plan to follow a "safety/reach" strategy. With your statistics, as she said, statistic "matches" may really be reaches. DEPENDING ON YOUR FAMILY FINANCES, you can apply to one or two safeties (UMich or UIUC, perhaps), and the rest reaches. If your family finances are such that you need merit money rather than will get need money, then you may need to do about half and half "safeties and "reaches", in order to give yourself some financial choices.
With your stats, unless you have an interest in a specific program that is offered at only one or two schools - the match/safety reach is as much about finances as it is about selectivity of the school.</p>
<p>Vaib, you're probably right but we've seen enough kids here on CC go through the process that many of us hesitate to call any school with an acceptance rate of below 40% or so a match for anyone. We've seen too many kids who seemed to have perfect stats for these schools end up rejected. So, many of us would term schools like Tufts, Chicago, Cornell as realistic reaches instead of matches for just about every candidate. It's a subtle difference perhaps but one that is important to make so that kids don't ignore solid matches and safeties in the process.</p>
<p>I think Carolyn's point ( your statistical matches are too selective to be considered a match school) are why you're having a hard time coming up with school that you like in this catagory. I think if you apply to several ( 6 or 7) of these "reach/match" schools, like Tufts, Cornel, JHU, your chances of getting in to one are good. As long as you also apply to a couple of true safeties that you will be happy attending if you aren't accepted to any of them, you should be fine.</p>
<p>carolyn - wouldn't you consider Case a safety for him/her, with it's 60+ acceptance rate?</p>
<p>ASAP - Case could be a safety and he (or she) would probably qualify for some merit money there. But, that 3.85 unweighted GPA and the fact that he's applying for computer science worries me. I'd need to take a close look at his grades and curriculum to really call Case a safety. But then I tend to be overly cautious. :)</p>
<p>I do agree with you, however, that if he applies broadly to schools that I would probably term realistic reaches, he'd have a very good chance.</p>
<p>He said he was interested in "East Coast" schools and I don't know if he would consider Case and some others mentioned here (Michigan, Illinois) to be "East Coast"</p>
<p>Marbles,
assuming that you are in the top 10% of you class, you would be a very strong candidate for merit at Case, URochester and Brandeis. RIT is a good school, but is not generous with merit aid. The CS school at CMU is very competitive - you have a good shot but I wouldn't want to predict merit aid.</p>
<p>If you are interested in RPI, see if your school offers the Rennsealer Medal - it comes with a large scholarship.</p>
<p>Well, I'm originally from NY so I know many people don't consider Ohio "the east coast" but Case isn't all that farther east than Carnegie Mellon or Rochester.</p>
<p>Defining a match as you, yourself, have about a 50/50 chance of getting in... that's just hard. I would say that BU and BC are matches/safeties, but would also say that Tufts, JHU, Georgetown, and the like, are match/reaches - only because they are so unpredictable, with regular decision acceptance rates hovering around 20%. It's often just "punching a hole," in that if they need more comp sci/engineering types and cyclists, you're in. Comp sci oboeists, and someone else gets in.</p>
<p>Would you prefer a city environment or a suburban/rural? </p>
<p>I'll throw out some schools - no rhyme or reason - here goes:
Fordham
Connecticut College
Dartmouth
Tufts
Johns Hopkins
Brandeis
Boston College
Boston University
NYU
UVA
Wake Forest
Duke - more reach than match
Emory
UNC Chapel Hill</p>
<p>MIT as a reach for anyone
Columbia - reach school, but not unrealistic
Brown - ditto</p>
<p>Thanks for all the helpful comments! I was somewhat overwhelmed by the response I received so quickly on this board.</p>
<p>I'm a male from California (so I'm not sure if that helps my chances or not). I would consider Case Western University; I'm pretty much open to either a rural/suburban or an urban environment. I agree with the many posters who have said that CMU's CS program is very competitive, but just to give a heads-up: my school has a 70% acceptance rate to CMU's CS department as well as CMU's engineering department combined (The average GPA of those accepted was a 3.6, with a 1450 SAT). In that regard, I suppose I could say that my high school is highly regarded by CMU.</p>
<p>Second MIT/Cornell as Reaches-- but possibles with those ECs. (I've got an image of you in a drum major costume pedalling a racing bike in the velodrome. Not your standard computer geek image :)). California base should help with a Cornell ED.</p>
<p>CMU as a Match--given what you've said about your school's acceptance rate. </p>
<p>U Mich as a Match/Safety. They have rolling admissions--starting in September or so.</p>