<p>I'm a senior now, Woohoo! And thus starts the college game. :/
Anyhow I have my safety schools and reach schools all set to go. However, I can't seem to find any match schools that I'd fit into. I'd really appreciate any help from you guys. Thanks!</p>
<p>So here are my stats:
Indian Asian Female
Public School in MA (preferring to stay around here or in CA)
Interested in Computer Science or any other Tchnological Engineering program</p>
<p>GPA: 3.9 W (IDK UW)
SAT: 2050 (Best Score)
CR - 660
M - 740
W - 650
2090 (Best composite score)
W increased by 40 points
AP: European History - 5
US History - 4
English Language - 5</p>
<p>Pretty good ECs:
President of National Honor Society
Volleyball - 4 years -Captain for JV junior year, Co-captain for JV sophomore year
Student Council - 4 years
Mock Trial - 2 years
Newspaper - 3 years
SADD - 2 years
Over 150 hours of community service</p>
<p>Applying to:
UMASS Amherst (safety)
WPI (safety)
Clarkson (safety)
UC Berkeley (match?)
MIT (reach!)
Harvard (reach)
Brown (reach)</p>
<p>As you probably noticed, I only have one match school. Any suggestions are highly appreciated!! Thanks in advace :)</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure Berkeley’s average weighted gpa is higher than 3.9, like maybe 4.3 or something. That along with the fact that you’re out of state would probably make Berkeley more of a reach (although I think Cal is planning to accept more out of state students)</p>
<p>Wow I never knew that UC Berkeley was that selective. Good to know. </p>
<p>@tuftsalum12 - What about Tufts? Will that be a reach for me?
Also I’m trying to stay away from liberal arts colleges because arts are definitely my weakness. However, if the college has a pretty good engineering program, then I’ll certainly consider applying. </p>
<p>@tinfoyl - Thanks! I never really thought of BU, but I’ll look into it now. :)</p>
<p>UMass looks like a safety on paper, but if you get into the Honors College you will find it to be a great match. In fields like engineering or computer science you will find very bright students and a challenging curriculum. And the price is right.</p>
<p>Other match schools with engineering and CS- Smith, Tufts (low reach), Rensellaer, University of Rochester, Trinity, Rochester Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>Berkeley is a reach but other UCs with good CS programs are matches: UCD, UCI and UCSD. Santa Clara U would also be a match and is about the same price and they may give you some aid which UCs will not</p>
<p>@2bizee - Thanks for the information about the Honors College. This changes my whole perspective on UMASS. The financial part of it is a plus too. </p>
<p>@Redroses - So what would you say is the next “best” UC for a CS major after Berkeley?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, your UC GPA may be lower than your 3.9 weighted GPA. That’s because OOS applicants only get to weight AP courses. Only in-state UC applicants can weight honors classes.</p>
<p>sonoro is right. UC Berkeley’s average unweighted GPA for the Fall 2010 freshman class was 3.93 and average weighted GPA was 4.3. I agree that it is important to understand UC GPA calculations are different than you might expect.
On UC Berkeley’s admission website, the freshman selection process description additionally notes that some majors are more selective than the above averages because of student demand and computer science is specifically listed as a more selective major.</p>
<p>You may want to think about your reach schools a bit more. Harvard and MIT are long shots even for kids with 4.0 unweighted and 2300+ SATs and outstanding (national level) ECs. Being Asian and from MA doesn’t help. Unless you are a legacy or have something else that is going to make you stand out, you may want to consider reaches that are at least possibilities: Columbia’s FU School, Wash U, Rice, Berkeley</p>
<p>I really have to agree with M’s Mom; I just went through this process and saw the true nature of the beast. Schools like Harvard, Brown, and MIT reject people with 4.0s and 2300+ on their SAT. She is right on the money. More realistic reaches might be your best bet. Also, you would save yourself the time of submitting these lengthy applications when you could at least apply to a school with a better chance of admittance. Maybe pick one of the three so you won’t live with regrets, but I urge you to reconsider. I tend to disagree with M’s Mom on that Rice, Columbia, WashU, and Berkeley (being OOS doesn’t help) are huge reaches as well. The odds are not in your favor, but maybe apply to a couple of big reaches like WashU or Rice or Emory or whatever seems right for you! I just want to recommend to be careful about where you apply because one application here or there could deny you another application at a school with a higher likelihood of acceptance. </p>
<p>Schools like BU would definitely be matches. Some more MA schools would include Brandeis, Northeastern, Tufts (definitely more of a reach school than a match). Expanding your horizon maybe to the northeast would help in terms of match schools like RPI, some of the Patriot League schools, and many more colleges. Your stats really do put you in a great position, but be aware of the warning signs when applying to schools like MIT. It might be a good idea to look at the acceptance thread on CC to see how many incredibly unbelievable applicants were waitlisted or flat out rejected. </p>
<p>Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, Rochester, RPI, Case Western. You will have your best shot at schools who need more females. That would be RPI, Case Western, Lehigh, GA Tech. I remember these schools being heavily male weighted.</p>
<p>Hmm, I understand now. Maybe I’ll drop Harvard since their not known for CS anyways and start considering Berkeley a reach. </p>
<p>My question now is, is it worth applying to any of the other UCs since they’re so competitive when I have UMASS Amherst right here with a great Engineering program? </p>
<p>Also I have no high hopes for MIT, but I’m just trying out my luck!
I’m looking into all of your suggestions now and most of them seem good. My only fear is that I’ll struggle at a liberal arts school. Is it a good idea to go to a liberal arts college when you’re adamant on doing engineering? Thanks everyone, your ideas are really helping me!</p>
<p>There are LACs with strong engineering programs. Lafayette, Bucknell, U of Rochester are all LACs that offer engineering. Tufts is as well (you might want to have a look, I’d say it is a possibility). I’m not sure you have a true picture of LACs. Why do you think you would struggle? Some universities require you to take English and History, some LACs don’t. As for other schools look at Wesleyan and Union.</p>
