rate my final list

<p>reach to safety, CA resident</p>

<p>school / (major)
stanford (cs)
princeton (cs, is it easier to get in under a BSE or BA?)
caltech (cs if they have it)
harvey mudd (cs)
uc berkeley (eecs)
uc san diego (eng.)</p>

<p>3 reach, 1 match, 1 safe match, 1 safety.</p>

<p>my ideal acceptances would be stanford, princeton, berkeley, all three are equally good (academically, i would say berkeley wins, with princeton being the king of fin. aid, w00t). if h. mudd gave me a load of money i would go, same with caltech. ucsd is a good school too (campus is nice), and i think it's a good safety (4.0uw/2300+/UC ELC (top 4% of school) = i better be in).</p>

<p>although i kind of want to go to ucsc for the girls.</p>

<p>Considering your stats I'd say you had a pretty safe list, nice and concentrated. Princeton seems like a bit of an outlier as far as geography goes but I'm sure you've researched your stuff well by now. As far as best academics though I think it's a borderline impossibility to compare (among your reaches) without tangible experience, as such a quality is based on many intangibles.</p>

<p>It's a good list. If you are looking for financial aid seriously, I would add at least a couple match/high match schools that have great track records in giving aid in your need category.</p>

<p>whoamg:</p>

<p>UCB: Match (Engineering)
UCSD: Safe Match (Engineering)</p>

<p>it's kinda topheavy</p>