<p>Look into Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.</p>
<p>“I’m planning to major in CS, and, until recently, planned to choose safeties like UIUC, UW(CSE), and UMich.”</p>
<p>Glad you decided against applying to a “safety” like Michigan. Your ego would have to endure a serious blow if you got deferred or, heaven forbid, rejected. </p>
<p>MYOS1634: I was responding to OP’s second post stating that he liked LACs that were part of a consortium, but which he admitted were not safeties. Yes, we all know that Amherst is not a safety. </p>
<p>Amherst also appears to have limited CS offerings; a student there seriously interested in CS would probably have to supplement with CS courses at University of Massachusetts - Amherst.</p>
<p>My son is a senior shooting for elite schools in computer engineering (or a double major in CS & EE) with the test score to match. He did early action to Case Western with no interest show and was not only accepted by given a $25K merit scholarship. He also did the same to Northeastern and received $16K merit & honors program. Although he is definitely aiming higher with 3 matches and 6 elite regular decision schools these two were good for safeties who had early action. Case Western is free to apply and both Case Western and Northeastern have no additional essays (except for the Common App essay) - that’s huge when you are trying to get all A’s. If he wasn’t busy submitting to Siemens competition in September he also might have done University of Michigan early action but it requires one additional essay. But we were advised to finish Michigan as early as possible and not wait until the 2/1 deadline (like December or earlier) since it’s regular decision is rolling and the spots fill up. Good luck!</p>
<p>"(For elite-level students, a safety would be a college that admits at least 30 if not 40% of its applicants."</p>
<p>If an applicant doesn’t put forth effort in admissions essays, it might not matter how stellar his/her academic credentials are. </p>
<p>Also, acceptance rate is not a reliable indicator of whether the school can be a safety for anyone. Two schools may have similar acceptance rates, but one may be out of a strong applicant pool, while the other may be out of a weak applicant pool.</p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-acceptance-rate/page+4”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-acceptance-rate/page+4</a> lists all of the following with acceptance rates around 31% to 33%, even though they have significantly different levels of selectivity.</p>
<p>CSU Long Beach
New Mexico Tech
Cal Poly SLO
Oberlin
San Diego State
Northeastern
William and Mary</p>
<p>Santa Clara University has a very good CS program.</p>