Realistic shot for CS Master's Program?

Graduate School
1

<p>I am currently in the middle of my Junior year of undergrad, and I'm interested in going to grad school for a Master's in Computer Science after I graduate. I like to plan ahead, and I wanted to know what my chances are as of now of getting accepted into a top-tier program.</p>

<p>Schools I'm interested in: Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, California-Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Brown</p>

<p>-Current School: University of Alabama at Birmingham
-Majors: Computer Science; Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation; Philosophy
-GPA (so far): 3.95 with one W
-I haven't taken the GRE, but let's just assume I score well (I understand if I don't that it will hurt my application). Philosophy and Math majors score highest on the verbal and quantitative sections respectively, and I'm top of my class in both and generally do well on standardized tests, so I'm trying to be optimistic :)
-One year of research experience in mobile software development, but I have zero interest in studying this in grad school. May get involved in a different area towards the end of this year.
-I have a ton of extra-curriculars and leadership stuff (Resident Assistant, CS Tutor, Peer Mentor, some club leadership positions), but I heard this stuff isn't really important.</p>

<p>I'm assuming I can get really good recommendation letters, and one of my professors graduated from Cornell, which is my first choice. I applied to Cornell for undergrad but was rejected.</p>

2

<p>Your GPA is good and if you get good GRE scores and letters of recommendation, you should be competitive. You mention that your goal is to get a Masters degree, if so, remember that not all Masters programs include thesis research and there will be a good chance that you will have to self-fund your studies.</p>