Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): First-gen
Intended Major(s) - CS, may apply undecided
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.71
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.51
Weighted GPA maximum limit will be capped at 4.95 due to state mandate
Honors get 0.025 bonus points, AP gets 0.05
Class Rank: 28/124
ACT Score: 27 composite - 24 english and science, 27 math, 32 reading
Coursework
Awards
Scholar Athlete Award (Athletes who maintain a 3.5 UW GPA or above will get this award) - 10th, 11th
Some dance award for a school program (the program is required by the school, it is a modified version of homeroom) - 10th, 11th
Some state-testing award that basically states that the recipient is in the top 5% of the state - 11th
Extracurriculars
Played Saxophone in jazz band and wind ensemble as first chair (9th, 10th) - quit due to scheduling conflict
NHS member (10th, 11th) - participated in not only volunteering for a school festival booth but also helped out with service projects
Cross Country Athlete (JV 10th, Varsity 11th)
Volunteering in a library (11th)
Held leadership position in Varsity Quiz Club (help found club with nine others during 9th) - 9th, 10th, 11th
FIRST Robotics Club member (only founded during junior year, status unknown for next year)
Will volunteer as a teacher assistant next year
Took care of grandparents by not only translating for them but also helped grandfather after a car accident (9th, 10th, 11th)
Cost Constraints / Budget
EFC estimates at ~$20k
Schools
Safety (certain admission and affordability): ASU, UNLV, UNR, WazzU, U of U
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable): Iowa State, UHouston
So check if WUE scholarships are assured - not all schools do.
If not, you’ll have to reassess based on your budget. When you go OOS, they’re not necessarily going to meet your EFC - which is what the feds say.
For example, ASU is going to help Arizona residents…not Nevada residents - so you’re likely not going to get need aid and thus be full pay - or close to it - minus merit. WUE is not good at the main campus. It is good at U of Arizona - but you have to find out is it automatic or one has to apply and hope to be offered it.
A school like Wyoming might get you to where you need, for example.
But for each on WUE, you need to find out - is it automatic or not.
I’d say you are highly unlikely for CMU and BU. Not telling you not to apply but they are not realistic.
A Colorado School of Mines would be a reach but then there are schools like SD School of Mines.
With $50K, you might try U of Denver - it’ll be close. Or schools like Butler or Dayton or even an RPI or WPI - which would be reaches.
A UAH would be within budget and is a fine school. Lots of big publics would work whether a WVU or Miami of Ohio, or Ole Miss / Miss State. If you want to stay out West, you had the Oregon State, Utah that you mentioned but also UNM and even schools in Idaho and Montana…and nothing wrong with UNR, for example.
For Cal Poly Pomona:
No additional application is necessary. Award recipients are selected based on their academic profile (GPA and SAT/ACT test scores), and will be issued to the top 15% of WUE admits.
So the WUE scholarship is not guaranteed for all applicants.
Let’s step back. Are you a sophomore? If so, you need to not think about schools. You have another year - keep doing well, stay involved, and next year you’ll likely score higher.
The truth is - you’re more MIchigan State than Michigan, West Virginia then Virginia.
And these are fine schools - so nothing wrong with Oregon State or Washington State or Cal Poly Humboldt, etc. Lots of solid schools and in CS where you go is less important.
But with a 27 ACT on math, it could predict a struggle…could.
But if you’re in 10th grade, all this talk is premature.
Is it important to you to attend a school with engineering programs, or would a liberal arts college with strong computer science work for you? If so, run the Net Price Calculator for St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Net Price Calculator – Financial Aid St. Olaf meets full need, so this will give you an idea whether need-based aid will make this school, and others in a similar tier, would be affordable. If so, it could be a good school to look at, as its Math and CS department is very well regarded, and it’s also great for non-major musicians if you wanted to pic your musical EC’s back up. If you found that you really liked St. Olaf and the cost projection were affordable, ED gives a huge boost here.
CMU is insanely reachy for CS; even getting in outside of CS would be reachy, and even if you did, switching into CS would not be an option. This probably isn’t a realistic school to consider. Even BU would be tough (maybe if you’re open to starting in the College of General Studies, which would allow you to track into the CS major). Lehigh could be one to look at - they meet full need as well. It’s a little less tough of an admit generally, plus they treat Asian applicants as URM, unlike most colleges. They have opened a regional office in the SF Bay Area in hopes of attracting more west coast students https://westcoast.lehigh.edu/ Still a reach, but a more attainable reach than CMU or BU… and this is another school where ED helps significantly.
Portland State is another WUE school that punches above its weight in CS. It has a large commuter population and a lot of nontraditional students, but I know several students who lived in the dorms and found a really nice community there. Admissions are rolling, so this is one where you could get a very early acceptance in your pocket if you apply when the application opens in August. Cal Poly Humboldt and Northern Arizona are additional WUE options to consider.
Carleton is a tougher admit than St. Olaf. My 3.9/4.3 GPA, 34 ACT kid applied in 2013 and didn’t get in, and I’m sure it hasn’t gotten any easier since then. If you show lots of interest, it might be remotely possible, but unlikely tbh. Macalester in St. Paul is in between St. Olaf and Carleton, competitiveness-wise. A guaranteed-to-be-affordable option in Minnesota is their public LAC, UMinn-Morris, which has good CS in its own right… plus there’s the option of an internal transfer to the Twin Cities flagship, which I don’t think would be affordable for all four years but you might be able to swing it for the last 2 years after saving $ at Morris for the first two.
There’s Lafayette, which is Lehigh’s crosstown rival - they may also give a URM boost to Asian students, but I’m not certain. They do meet need. Denison in Ohio might work. U of Miami (FL) maybe? These all meet need.
The thing is that you’re not going to get merit from a reach school, so you need to determine that you can expect enough need-based aid from any reach schools you apply to. And most schools that meet full need are pretty reachy… and the less-reachy ones are need-aware.
It seems as if you have some flexibility above your EFC, though, so even schools that meet, say, 85%+ of need on average may work for you. You’ll have to run EFC’s and see. This would open up possibilities like RIT which is excellent for CS and offers multiple related majors as well as an “exploration” option Computing Exploration | Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences | RIT
There might be some options for you in the SUNY system. SUNY Buffalo is quite strong for CS, for example. Oswego has a project-based curriculum and a strong co-op program. Unfortunately, Nevada isn’t one of the states included in SUNY’s new flagship match program, but the sticker price isn’t awful and you might get some merit. (In terms of OOS publics, I want to suggest Pitt too, but I don’t think merit would happen and the OOS sticker price is a bit too high.)
Sure, there are match options outside of WUE - it’s just that WUE can be hard to beat on the affordability front. UH and Iowa State are relatively affordable - the question is whether they’ll be above the curve in terms of desirability vs. cost, relative to your other options. And then you have to assess how much more competitive CS is at each school, vs. the general admissions statistics. You mentioned applying undeclared, which is fine if there’s still a realistic path into CS, but often there isn’t.
If you like Texas as a destination, you might run the NPC for SMU and see if that would be affordable, particularly if you are interested in the more business-y side of CS, since that’s a strength there. Texas-adjacent options would include U of Oklahoma (flagship) and U of Tulsa (private but gives lots of merit).
U of New Mexico hasn’t been mentioned yet - that would likely be very affordable (you’d get the “WUE+” rate), and Albuquerque has a lot to offer.
It’s hard to tell from your list what you are looking for in an environment, other than not-Nevada!