IF you get accepted. You won’t know until the end of January. Really…you need a better timed plan.
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Ok, I’ll add the safeties I had planned out.
I’d add a real safety and a couple of matches to this list - otherwise you risk being shut out. A match for CS might be Wisconsin - S22 has 4 friends that are going there for CS and they all really like it. I’d also suggest paring down your list of reaches so that you do a good job on the applications -it appears like you just wrote down the T20 USNWR schools which isn’t a great strategy in my view.
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What is cost - whatever.
One would practically kill themselves applying to all these. A ton of essays.
You don’t have to SUNY as an in state. You can get big money OOS but waaaayyy too many reaches and yes you need targets and safeties - which for you might be a strong school like Ohio State or Minnesota, Colorado School of Mines and more - all fantastic schools.
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It’s not inconceivable that you will strike out at every single school on your list for CS. Other than adding actual safety schools to your list, you might want to be a bit more strategic about your apps. For instance, apply for UIUC CS+x program rather than Grainger CS.
You have a good profile but it’s the kind of profile where you will need a big dollop of luck to get into the top cs schools.
Also your list is incoherent and contains a bunch of highly rejective schools with so so CS programs.
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UIUC is much more competitive for CS than for most other majors.
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I would go even further and say UIUC CS for an OOS candidate with this profile is a far reach.
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Agreed. It doesn’t look like OP wants to get into a top CS school, necessarily - he’s just looking to get into a top 20 USNWR “best college” regardless of their CS offering.
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So you want Pitt, Arizona, Alabama or another rolling type admission school for early.
And yes you’d still have access to top level opportunities from any of these schools.
That’s on you.
One student I helped froM UTK has a wonderful internship this summer in CS and is being housed.
My son, engineering at Bama, roomed and interned with Ga Tech kids.
Your school list is awesome but it’s by no means a guarantee of success if you get in or an assurance of failure if you go to a name that doesn’t excite you as much.
But it might excite your folks potentially saving $300k if you choose the right school. So make sure you have the budget discussion. Your grades/test score will earn you great merit if they desire it.
Excellent question.
@stanford_simp : what exactly is a “Bay Area Sweat?” And how is that relevant to your chance me?
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The top privates are iffy (very) for CS because there is no humanities footprint, even if that sounds contradictory to you. The top publics are reaches and/or not a lock because you said your math recc will be a mid. You should at least add Purdue , UMass Amherst, UMD — not that they are easy to get in, but easier than many of the other schools on your list. Some true safeties could be Penn State, UPitt.
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Safeties should be: Penn State, Ohio State, Arizona State. You from Bay Area, you should already know SJSU is not a easier school when you apply for CS. Based on your profile, you should be able to get into at least one of the reach schools if you not apply for CS…
You need to reconsider your " Basic Plan". Students with similar profile as yours don’t get admission to UIUC CS and Michigan CoE. The admission to the CS program in UIUC is very tough. Similarly, for OOS acceptance rate in Michigan CoE is low. For Fall 2023 admission, the overall acceptance rate at Michigan will be below 18%. Every year, thousands of OOS students (who are not seeking financial aid) make the same assumptions that you have made. Please do more research about your school selection for CS.
At umich, the most likely outcome for applicants like OP is a deferral. So he may not get a final answer from them until late March/early April.
OP is from NY.
He needs a SUNY on his list, IMO.
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I’ve just heard the term used before to talk about to how Bay Area kids are usually more competitive than kids from other regions. I thought that term was more popular, but I guess not.
Given recent history, the overwhelming odds are that OP will be deferred by UMich. One cannot plan on being admitted EA in January.
If you let us know how much “whatever” budget is and what you’re interested in (besides prestige via USNWR) that might help us in suggesting schools with likelier chances of admission where you would be happy spending your college years. You could feasibly get into all the schools on your list; the chances of that happening are quite slim. The chances are greater that you would be shut out.
There was an applicant posting here a couple of months ago with an amazing profile…who had rejections from Penn State and similar schools. Turns out, the student had an application strategy very similar to yours and was sure they’d get in somewhere and then was scrambling at the last minute and being given deferrals and rejections at schools that would have been a lock for admissions had the application been submitted many months earlier. Please don’t let that end up being you.
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@BeefStew2 I fully agree…that’s why I put “IF” in my reply. No guarantee anywhere on this current list of highly competitive schools.
I would suggest the OP read the thread I am linking here. It’s older, but I think it’s a must read for anyone considering applying to highly rejective schools. Read the whole thread. This student didn’t really have a true safety the first time around…but was a VERY well qualified student (and admissions were less competitive when he applied well over 10 years ago). I don’t think anyone expected this NMF, top student, excellent ECs, etc to not get accepted anywhere…but that’s what happened.
Congratulations on being a competitive applicant. Hopefully you are aware that the UC’s are test blind and only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation although the review 9th for completion of the UC requirements and rigor and Senior courses fir rigor. You will need to calculate the 3 UC GPA’s based on the A-G courses you have taken the summer after 9th to the summer prior to 12th. Please post your unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted UC GPA’s.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
UC’s offer little to no financial aid to OOS applicants to be prepared to pay around $72K/year to attend. They also do not allow you to apply as a double major initially, so you would need to select a primary major. Both CS and Econ are impacted/High Demand majors at UCLA and UCB.
UCLA does not consider an alternate major in their admission decisions nor LOR’s. UCB does accept LOR’s by invitation only, does allow you to select an alternate major however, no guarantees that an alternate major will be considered for your initial admission review.
Do you have a year of a Visual or Performing art course on your transcript? This is a UC requirement.
2022 CS admit rates:
UCB: College of Letters and Sciences admit rate was 2.9%. For EECS it was 4.5%
UCLA: CS admit rate was 3.8%
2022 Econ admit rates:
UCB: Econ is a High Demand major like CS so you must select either major as a Primary for the best chance. Admit rate was 5.3%
UCLA: The College of Letters and Sciences does not admit by major so the overall admit rate for the college was 10%
Out of State admit rates for 2022:
UCB: 8.6%
UCLA: 8.9%
Best of luck but both schools are definitely Reach schools.
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I think there were also 2 threads this year by disappointed students who were not shut out, but who gained admission at only their safeties (which they weren’t excited about). One had an incredible math background. I think shotgunning T20s (which is essentially what this is) is more likely to end in disappointment than not.
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