<p>First of all, thanks for reading this post.</p>
<p>I live in Texas and I am a senior in high school. It would be great if you could chance me!</p>
<p>Desired Major: Computer Science</p>
<p>SAT: 2340 (Reading 740, Math 800, Writing 800)
SAT II: Math Level 2: 770, Physics: 740
Unweighted GPA: 3.85
Class Rank: 14th percentile (this is a very competitive high school)
High School Course Choices: IB program
Extra-curriculars: Opera singing, Piano, Created web sites that are used by my friends in school.
School Clubs: None
Summer Job: Revamping web site for a local company
Computer Science skills: Java, HTML, Ruby, PHP, Databases
Gender: Male</p>
<p>Since my class rank and club membership are far from ideal, I know I won't be able to get into top-tier colleges. But how do my chances look for UT Austin, Harvey Mudd, and CMU? </p>
<p>You definitely have great chances for UT Austin and Harvey Mudd (these might be matches). CMU SCS would be a reach, but you have a better chance than most - look up their admitted student stats for the School of Computer Science.</p>
<p>You could try applying schools like Stanford and MIT, but they’re very high reaches since it does not appear you have any hooks or even club leadership, but you never know. You have a good shot at Berkeley, if you want to apply as out of state to Engineering. I would also recommend UIUC, which is well-known for having a top CS program right behind Berkeley/MIT/Stanford (even though the school overall is not that well known). You could apply to schools like Cornell and Penn that are overall well-rounded in engineering.</p>
<p>Probably little to no chance at UT Austin since 75% of the freshman class will be filled by the top 8% or 9% class rank students, leaving everyone outside of that range to compete for the remaining spots.</p>
<p>But you are automatically in at Texas A&M (top 25% with SAT CR+M >= 1300 and >= 600 on each section). However, this may not necessarily mean admission to the major or division within the university (check to see if the CS major or the College of Engineering is more selective than the university as a whole).</p>
<p>Berkeley is likely to be slightly easier to get in if you apply to the College of Letters and Science (in which there is a CS major) as opposed to the EECS major in the College of Engineering (it is still probably a high match at best for L&S for you). But it is expensive for out of state students.</p>
<p>What kind of cost constraints do you have? Try running the net price calculators at the various schools to get an idea of need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Non-Texas schools with somewhat lower list prices include Minnesota, Stony Brook, Virginia Tech, NCSU, and Cal Poly SLO.</p>
<p>DrGoogle, thanks for posting! I am wondering which of these colleges would be ok with a class rank of 14%, given that the school is highly competitive.</p>
<p>Uiuc, ucb, ucla, umd. I don’t think these schools go for rank. They are mostly GPA based and for the UCs OOS students are very attractive to them.</p>
<p>The UT 8% rule unfortunately doesn’t take into acct the difficulty of the school…that’s why Texas kids attending private prep schools (where a top 20% kid would be top 5% in a public) get screwed. There’s a reason why many of these kids have to go OOS. They can’t get into UT. My kids’ flagship has over 1100 Texas kids largely because of the 8% rule…and many of those kids attended challenging high schools, so they’re not top 8%…even though they have high stats. </p>
<p>If your parents will pay $25k per year, that may be a problem for many schools. I doubt ANY of the UCs would be affordable because you’re OOS and your EFC will be too high to get any aid. </p>
<p>I would guess that if your parent will pay $25k per year that their EFC is higher than that. That seems to be the way it is…parents can afford X…but EFC is X PLUS!!!</p>
<p>So, run some NPCs with your parents on a few schools’ websites. Don’t just look at the NPCs of HYPS…those will mislead you since those schools give “super super aid.” Other schools don’t give FA like HYPS do.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what kind of merit UIUC gives and what stats are needed…and how competitive they are? I rarely ever hear anyone post that they got much/anything from UIUC.</p>
<p>TAMU can be a financial safety for you, but you probably should have at least one or two more financial safeties…schools that you know FOR SURE that you’d get accepted AND get great aid or merit scholarships (for sure)…and that your remaining costs will be within the $25k budget.</p>
<p>Thanks mom2collegekids for your observations! In addition to TAMU, I will also apply to UTD - they seem to have nice computer science faculty and offer great scholarships based on SAT scores. So, TAMU and UTD can be my safety/match schools.</p>
<p>1,500 is not many on a campus with ~25,000 undergraduates, and most of these scholarships are in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. Not much when OOS cost is in the neighborhood of $50,000.</p>
<p>If you’re from out of state and want to go to UIUC, pretty much plan on paying full sticker price, less any federal need-based aid. And then consider anything else you may get as a nice little bonus.</p>
<p>My kid’s friend from CA is going to attend UIUC, I believe he must have received some need-based aid. So if you need aid, UIUC is a good choice. From my googling, 69% percent receives aid.</p>
<p>Note that for the only two paid from non-federal funds (the last two), one of the requirements for each is that the student and parents must be Illinois residents. And to top it off, the available funds for the MAP grant (the main need-based source) were exhausted this year by March 13:</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is a “top tier” college. Strictly by the numbers, it’s about as selective as Stanford. CMU is not too far behind, especially for a prospective CS major.</p>
<p>The CS curriculum is very similar at most colleges. One of the cheapest OOS public flagships would be the University of Minnesota / Twin Cities. Its total OOS cost is a few thousand dollars over your $25K budget. If you manage to get a little aid, or can borrow to cover the difference, your net cost might be affordable.</p>
<p>Minnesota-Morris and Truman State would be below your limit, even without aid.</p>
<p>The University of Rochester is a much more expensive private school. However, it claims to be need-blind and to meet 100% of determined need. I think you’d have a very realistic chance at admission. Other need-blind, full-need private schools to consider: Brandeis, Davidson, Emory, Grinnell, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest.</p>
<p>tk21769 - thanks for posting and providing new possibilities. I will look at University of Minnesota, University of Rochester, and others. Thanks very much.</p>
<p>I know these schools are comparatively quite selective, but I think you definitely should apply to USC, Cornell, and Rice and see what happens. The great thing about these three schools is that they all promise to meet 100% of your financial need and they all have great CS programs. Your GPA and test scores are perfect matches. If your parents make under 100k then you can expect your efc to be right around the range your parents have told you they can likely contribute (or better), which makes all of these affordable. </p>
<p>I really want to urge you to shoot for some reach schools. A few extra $60 application fees will pale in comparison to finding the perfect school (cost, strength, prestige, etc.). Your safeties seem to be appropriate as well. Good luck!</p>
<p>Just saw this and wanted to address a few things. Unless UR just implemented a new policy, they DO NOT commit to meeting full need. They are very close, but not quite full. Honestly, I think this would be a low-match for you, so might as well apply here as well. I visited last year when I was choosing schools and I was really impressed with the quality of the school. If you don’t mind freezing weather (like myself) then it is definitely a solid option.
The other schools listed, for the most part are relatively weak in CS…
I know Davidson doesn’t even offer a CS major and offers about 20 majors total. Emory and Vanderbilt might be reaches, but remember that as you move up the rankings, financial aid progressively becomes more and more generous. I was accepted to Emory and my financial aid package was incredible, although this likely won’t hold true for everybody.</p>