CS at Purdue, University of Washington-Seattle Campus, UIUC, NYU, University of Virginia, and Georgia Tech are all reaches. None of these are safeties or targets for anybody.
@durban, I’m certainly not an expert, I’m just a parent that’s gathered a good amount of info on university admissions. I would agree that Gumbymom probably knows as much as all of us combined when it comes to UC admissions.
I’m a Michigan grad (and Minnesota MBA) so my daughter is looking at Michigan. I would say her chances are about 50/50 of getting in to my alma mater with a W GPA 4.2 from a very good HS, 7 APs, 33 ACT (about equal to a 1490) is Hispanic, a varsity athlete starter on a championship team, and a legacy. And this for liberal arts, not CS. I’m also not confident she will automatically get into U of Washington, UCSB, or other schools she likes.
CS is one of the more difficult majors to be admitted in. You need to be realistic that even with a 1500, there is a lot of competition out there.
I can vouch for the University of Minnesota. It’s a very good school in a great city, Minneapolis.
As someone who works for a very big Silicon Valley company involved with major IT projects, just go to a good school and get your CS degree. College should be a good and enjoyable experience. Too many kids get hung up on the rankings when in the end, it doesn’t matter a ton where you go.
You will most assuredly get hired into a good job and it won’t matter a few months in to your first job where you went to school.
OP: You list the University of Washington among your safety schools. UW should be a target school for you except for CS. It is very difficult to get direct admission to CS at the University of Washington. Just to be a competitive applicant, you will need an SAT score in excess of 1500 with a very high math score.
The University of Florida is not a safety school for you whether applying for CS, business or any other major. Based on your current stats, it is unlikely that you will be offered admission to the University of Florida. (As a sidenote, UF has only 2% international students.)
Consider Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio; Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey: and the University of Minnesota. CalPoly should be a target school for you based on your interests & qualifications.
@Publisher So could my targets for CS be:
NYU
The ones you suggested (i’ll look more into them)
Purdue
Can you suggest any safeties for me?
I would target Case Western and not NYU. NYU is expensive and bad for merit/financial aid if that is a criteria.
Case is extremely flexible as they don’t admit by school/major. They are also relatively generous when it comes to merit aid.
@Hamurtle
For the record: merit/financial aid is not an issue for me (yes, I have talked to my parents). Is there anything you’d say differently now? Any more targets and especially safeties you’d recommend?
^Rochester and Case Western. Perhaps RPI, RIT, and WPI can be matches.
@Hamurtle
How about Rutgers, can that be a target? Also University of Maryland is target or safety?
How about Santa Clara, Bentley, Babson, or Northeastern for target?
This is for CS.
Thank you for all the help, so far! Same goes to everyone else!
Rutgers, Bentley, and Babson could targets/matches, although Bentley and Babson are probably better for business/finance.
Santa Clara is a target. Be aware that there are CS majors in Arts and Sciences and in the Engineering school. It’s probably easier to be admitted into Arts and Science.
Consider UMD a reach as their CS program is highly regarded. Northeastern has gotten extremely selective in the last few years so that could be a reach as well.
@Hamurtle Yes, I’ll probably specifically apply for business/finance at bentley and babson.
However, for the rest of the colleges I will do BA in CS. If i want to go more into the engineering field i can transfer to a BS in CS later in college if im up for it and work hard (and i’m guessing there’s some luck involved)
I don’t want to put too much work on you, but if my score improves to 1450 what changes in this list? If my score changes to 1500 what changes? This is given my GPA hovers at 3.9 W, i stay being an international student, and my ECs are the same ( they are above avg, but not hooks)
If you could answer those 2 questions to the best of your abilities I would really appreciate it.
I know hypotheticals aren’t the greatest, but as i am doing my last SAT in october and if my score improves then there will be changes in my college list with some moving down from target to safety or reach to target or i might apply to some more colleges, etc… Obviously right now there is the CURRENT LIST we are discussing with my CURRENT score, but I just wanted to know how the list will need to change depending on 2 different SAT score improvements (see above)
1500 might make a school like CMU in reach, especially Tepper Business School. And most of your schools will be in target although OOS public schools will not be matches since their mandate is to take in-state students first.
@Hamurtle “And most of your schools will be in target” which school can you please specify?.. sorry for the inconvenience, but it was a bit vague what are you referring to since so much is going on.
^Meaning with a better SAT all your schools are targets/matches except Tufts, Yale, and possibly Michigan.
The US has quotas for a number of international entrants. Colleges often do too. So if you are of an overrepresented nationality it’s more difficult for you. Diversity is what US colleges seek in its student body, and this is something that affects international students’ accept rates. If you are of a over represented nationality that tends to have a lot of US college applicants with very high test scores and other high academic performance indicators, you may not fare so well.
That’s not to say you should not try. You have going for you , finances. If you are not applying for financial aid, that makes a huge difference because this process is not need blind to international students except for a handful of among the most selective schools.
I suggest, looking for some regional schools as safeties. It’s going to be hard work. I’m talking about schools like Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Look for computer science programs; I mentioned that one because they have a huge contingent of international students in their student body studying STEM subjects. I went to a graduation not long ago there, and could not help but notice all the international names in the program. These schools, off the beaten path offer excellent admissions value to those who really want to study in the US. I think Catholic schools might be a good place to start
I’m not telling you to give up on your lists of schools. Maybe trim them down and replace some of them with schools without as much name recognition. I would do that if I really wanted to come study in this country
@Hamurtle Ok, so you’re talking about my original list that I posted. Got it.
@cptofthehouse Thank you for your response. You are definitely right that just because I’ve heard it doesn’t mean it’s “not good”. You said it was hard to find, so is there any way you suggest I go about finding these smaller regional schools?
Also, I am of Indian citizenship (only born there never lived there), but lived in Japan as a permanent resident all my life. I’ve been trying to get Japanese citizenship, but will not get it in time for college applications. Will they still be understanding that I’m much more ‘Japanese’ than I will ever be Indian?
I know what’s on paper is paper, but they must be looking holistically right such as the school I go to and what environment is provides, where I live, etc…
@Hamurtle Most of the colleges you mentioned were target/match do you know any safeties good for international students doing CS? (based on my current scores)
@Hamurtle If you did not see the message here it is. Perhaps you are tired of this discussion, but it really is my last question as the only thing left in my college list are my safeties…
“Most of the colleges you mentioned were target/match do you know any safeties good for international students doing CS? (based on my current scores)”
Take a look at Iowa State for a safety, since they offer scholarships to international students.
https://www.admissions.iastate.edu/intl/merit_scholarships.php
If you want CS safeties, I suggest Arizona State, Iowa State, Central Florida.
Matches Texas A&M, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Stonybrook.
For GT, Washington, Michigan you will need a 1500 and even then it is still unlikely.