I think Tufts is a low reach - close to a match, but not quite. Northeastern is probably a solid match, given you fall right in the middle of the 50% in both GPA and SAT, but it’s getting more competitive each year.
I’m really happy that I got an NEU student on my thread. I’ve taken a summer course at Northeastern and I really like it and the area. I would be really happy going there. But I got the vibe that they care a lot more about engineering than CS. If you have the time, can you link me to your NEU RD info?
Also: it might not be in my best interest, but I like Penn better than CMU. I like the area more, and the odds of getting into the CS program are waaaay greater at Penn than CMU.
(The numbers I found: 6% acceptance rate for CS@CMU, ~10% overall for UPenn)
I like the list you made me, and again, I really appreciate the thought you put into my situation. I very slightly revised it: (changes are marked with a “+”)
⊳ Reaches:
Brown
- Penn
- Dartmouth
Cornell
Tufts
⊳ Matches:
Northeastern
Boston U
- Trinity
⊳ Safety:
UMass Amherst
Drexel
I retracted RIT. It’s a little too far from home, and I’m not into Rochester. But again, I really like Penn and Dartmouth.
Tell me what you think.
That looks like a great starting place! Again, you’ll need to replace them with a few more matches, but that is a much more balanced list now.
As far as CS goes, Northeastern has the oldest college in the US specifically devoted to CS - it’s completely separate from the engineering department, though of course we do work with them often enough. Did you take a course in engineering there? If so, that’s probably why you didn’t see much CS - it’s a whole different department 
I don’t think the school has a preference either way - CS students get tons of flashy co-ops (Apple, Facebook, Amazon etc) - I can’t imagine they have any preference to engineering. I’ve never felt that engineering was more cared for - sometimes even the opposite being in the CS college.
The CS college is also the smallest college on campus, so it’s a tight knit community. Your advisors are all specifically for CS, and the program has a really unique teaching philosophy - we don’t teach the standard industry language to start but really focus on systemic design and problem solving over all else.
There’s a great essay on the program written by the creator (who is teaching the intro class in the Fall) here. I actually help TA the course.
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Thoughts/Growing_a_Programmer.html
There are a few other schools that use our approach (noted at the end), and the number is quickly growing actually. Brown is one of them - my favorite of the ivies for CS. A lot of the other top CS schools have different approaches that share a similar philosophy - while CS can be taught anywhere, the philosophy is the key difference IMO between an average and a great programmer and CS student.
I’m not sure I have my stats posted anywhere fully, and it would take forever to find if I did, so here’s what I had:
3.8 W GPA at a college prep school
34 ACT
FL (so not northeast region, where it’s actually harder to get in)
Internship in CS was my main extracurricular
3 season varsity sports
I got in EA (do apply EA, there’s 0 harm) 2 years ago - the admissions profile has actually been raised since then. For me, Northeastern was a match. Hope that gives you some frame of reference.
I think the term match is the worst of the three. Reach is clear. Safety is fine as long as one understands it means acceptance and affordability.
Match is not definite admission. Some have the idea that if they apply to every Ivy (reaches for everyone) that they must get in to one and that is not so. However applying to 3-4 matches does increase your chances to be accepted to one because your odds are better individually at each school.
Please read the horror stories about seniors who applied to too many schools. You are aren’t suggesting that you will apply to 15 but it’s a good read anyway. If you apply to more than 6-8 schools, you have to evaluate whether you have adequate time to devote to school specific essays, etc. Many a student has regretted not spending enough time on the “Why XYZ University is best for me.” If I have time later, I’ll link a couple threads.
oh yes - ^^this. And it’s corollary: what I bring to XYZ uni. It takes some time to get past the headline / easy bits- to know enough about the college to have some specific reference points that show you did more than look at the cover page of the website or read the mailer that you got.
Seen it, lived it.
I prefer “Target” to “Match.”
Sent you a PM on your questions, seventyeight.
As an exercise in humility you could study the scattergrams of the admissions process on websites like Cappex or Niche. It is annoying because you fluctuate from being confident of acceptance to being devastated that you have little chance all from looking at the same graph.
Not sure where they get their data, or how recent the data is, but you see a plot of accepted vs rejected/waitlisted students. You will find that your stats are superior to many, if not most, of the students admitted to all of the school on your list. You will also see a lot of students with better stats, even 4.0 GPA and 36 ACT, rejected. As you move chart to chart from reach schools to safety schools, you will see many fewer rejection dots of people with your scores. This is why people are suggesting that you diversify your portfolio of applications so that you are much more likely to hit one of your targets schools.
You’ve gotten some really good advice, but I do want to add one thing. Make sure you run the Net Price Calculators on each of these schools and consider costs as part of your safeties and matches. It’s not a true safety if you won’t be able to afford it. Also, talk to your parents or whoever and get a realistic idea of what you will have to work with if you haven’t already.
“Sent you a PM on your questions, seventyeight.”
Thanks! I’ll reply soon.
“Internship in CS was my main extracurricular, 3 season varsity sports”
I don’t really have CS experience, besides fooling around and having a general interest in it. And I don’t do any team sports 
Also, I’ve been digging around CC forums, and I’m finding it difficult to find the threads I want to find. I’ll use these forums to know what each admissions wants to see in an essay.
Last objective for me is to find one last good city college for my Target/Match list. These forums ended up being greatly helpful after all.
As far a CS extracurriculars go, you don’t need to have them - many CS students enter college in the same position you’re in. It helps for admissions, but in the end, you’re going to do fine from either background. Don’t worry there!
As far as forum navigation goes, I would highly recommend using the following boards. Include as much relevant info as you can think of - it’ll help other posters a lot.
For finding target/matches:
General - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/
Math/CS Specific - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/math-computer-science-majors/
For application advice and help:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/
For essays, most here don’t know any more than a counselor - essay’s are subjective and no one can really be sure what’s a good essay and what isn’t. The best advice I got was from admissions counselors - don’t be afraid to seem proud of what you’ve accomplished (just don’t brag like hell), and allow your personality to really shine through. It’s a personal essay, not an academic essay.
Starting a new thread is a great place to start - if a thread exists that will help you, people will often post a link in your thread.
Good luck!