<p>I guess you could call me a slightly above-average student. With all A's this semester, I'm looking at a 3.6-3.65 UW GPA with 9 AP classes, and ~5 honors classes. I scored 1450/2210 on the SAT I, 800 on Math IIC and 760 on Chemistry. I have a few strong ECs that I can point to that I am passionate about (and dedicated to), relatively "strong" writing skills, and very good letters of recommendation. My prospective major is Computer Science (I'm looking at schools with relatively strong computer science programs). I've applied to a couple schools, of which I am confident at least a few will accept me (from most confident to least confident):
University of Washington -- Seattle (in-state)
UC San Diego
University of Texas
University of Michigan
Rice University
UC Berkeley
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.</p>
<p>My parents don't think I am "safe" enough with getting into a few of these schools. My question is: should I consider applying to more safety schools? If so, are there any in particular that you would recommend? I was looking a bit at schools like Western Washington University, but it just depresses me to think about going to a place where I don't think I'll truly be happy.</p>
<p>Thanks so much,
A slightly concerned student</p>
<p>One issue with Washington is that there is a distinction between getting admitted to the university, versus being direct-admitted to the CS major. If you are admitted to the university but not the CS major, you will need to apply again to the CS major after taking the prerequisites. Getting into the CS major at Washington is extremely competitive; ask on the Washington forum.</p>
<p>For the others, are cost and financial aid a concern? If so, have you run the net price calculators on their web sites? The UCs’ financial aid estimates will be $22,000 short of meeting need (that is the amount of the non-resident additional tuition).</p>
<p>It does not look like you have any true safeties, given the CS situation at Washington. There are some other schools with good CS reputations that are not super selective or super expensive, like Minnesota, Stony Brook, Virginia Tech, and NCSU. (And Cal Poly SLO, but the deadline has passed.)</p>
<p>Thanks a ton ucb! I was also thinking about the direct-admit to CS – my computer Science teacher said he was willing to recommend me for the CS direct-admit. He said that the UW asks him to scout out students who would be highly successful for CS direct-admit and he recommends a few every year. Also, the only school that could be a financial concern is Carnegie Mellon; the other schools should be fine.</p>
<p>Every student should do their level best to identify at least one dead-on rock-bottom safety. That school (or those schools) meet these four criteria:</p>
<p>1) You are absolutely guaranteed admission based on your GPA and exam scores. You know that for a fact, because the institution publishes the GPA and exam scores that guarantee admission right on its website. </p>
<p>2) Your family can afford it with no aid other than federal aid (as determined by the FAFSA) and/or guaranteed state aid and/or guaranteed merit-based aid offered by the college/university itself.</p>
<p>3) Your major is offered (or the first two years of your major if your only safety is a community college).</p>
<p>4) You will be happy to attend if you aren’t accepted anywhere else that you can afford.</p>
<p>If none of the places on your list so far are dead-on safeties, you need to keep looking. If you can’t find one, then see what you can come up with that is very, very, very, very safe. If you can’t even manage that, then spend a bit of time outlining your Plan B in case you are out of luck this year and end up taking a Gap Year or two before finally starting college.</p>
<p>Thanks for putting things in perspective, happymom. I’ll add Central Washington and Western Washington to my list (first is guaranteed, second is very safe). I was just seeing if it was worth spending the extra 100 or so dollars to apply to schools which I might not need to.</p>
<p>UT’s OOS total estimated COA is over $50K these days. </p>
<p>None of the schools are safeties IMO unless UW has some auto accept for instate. at certain thresholds, and, yes, your selected course of study can greatly impact your chances. The way some schools work, and I think most of the ones you havehttp://mail.********/37267-111/aol-6/en-us/suite.aspx picked work that way for your course of study, the overalll accept rate is much higher than it is for computer sciences.</p>
<p>Also a school like Michigan is rolling in admissions and the earlier you apply, the better your chances. At this point you are in competition with the bulk of applicants.</p>
<p>Also my D doesn’t spend at her school anywhere near the money budgeted for personal expenses, books and transportation, and she flys each way for every vacation.</p>
<p>You need a safety school, there isn’t one on your list. UW is the closest. The OOS publics are much more difficult to get into than you’re assuming and will offer virtually no aid beyond loans. </p>
<p>If the OP’s parents are concerned about the cost of CMU at $55K/year I doubt that recalculating the COA to the 40s makes that much of a difference.</p>
<p>Michigan is no longer strictly rolling admissions. There is an early submit date in December, followed by a final submit date followed by rolling on a space available basis. The last two years there’s been no space for rolling. Also the Engineering school is probably the most competitive admit at Michigan - I know of more than a few in-state 3.8/2200s who have been denied.</p>
<p>None of these are safety schools. You should already be IN at your safety school or expect a guaranteed admission with all the conditions mentioned in happymomof1’s message.</p>
<p>Use the search function at each college/university website to find the Cost of Attendance. Often different majors have different tuition rates. Likewise, there may be charges for any credits over X, with X varying by institution.</p>
<p>Thanks. I didn’t realize tuition was different for different schools. Business is the most expensive. </p>
<p>Computer Science is in the College of Natural Sciences.
The OOS tuition for the College of Natural Sciences is $16385
Thus, the total cost of attendance, even if you use those ridiculous numbers for books, transportation, and misc, is only</p>