Get those applications in early, like NOW! When state schools fill up, that’s it. Einstein wouldn’t get in there once they are full up. Rolling admissions is just that.
It’s a good thing to get a number of your apps in early because it can either be affirmation that you are competitive with your choices or a wake up call. My one son applied to Georgetown, BC, Binghamton and St Bonaventure , all early. Got full ride at , St B, got accepted, no money, but good low in state cost at Bing, Accepted with full Top of the line costs atBC and deferred st Georgetown. That gave him a good “map” for his RD choices, and he was not feeling too shabby with a highly desired acceptance in hand along with some well priced back ups.
When looking at the Public Ivies, you need to focus on (if you can find it) the admissions data for only OOS applicants. The overall data is a blend of IS data and OOS data which are two completely different rodeos at places like UVA, UNC.
At UVA for example, the IS admit rate is 36%. The OOS admit rate is 19%. And a lot of the OOS admits go to UVA legacies. So the admit rate for non-legacy OOS-ers could be approaching (or maybe is) a single digit.
UDub IS for history is one thing. UDub OOS for compsci is completely different. I’d say the same about GTech OOS compsci and Berkeley OOS compsci. Maybe not up at the MIT and Carnegie Mellon level, but not that far off.
Unless your parents are independently wealthy, they probably wouldn’t be able to afford to send you to a university at triple the tuition cost at full pay. You’ll need to talk to your parents about what you can reasonably afford, otherwise you’re wasting your time.
Thank you all for the information. I will make sure that I have some more safeties and target schools on my list just in case. And applying ED is something I will probably do (just have to decide to which school). @coolguy40 I am very grateful for this, but no matter what the college or the tuition is (even up to $80,000 a year), my parents will pay full cost. My dad has worked super hard to get the amount of money he has now so financials technically aren’t too much of a concern.
What is your schools history of acceptance to these schools? For example, at our northeast HS…if any top 10 students apply to UVA (as in numbers 1-10), they normally accept the top 2 out of this group. Most students beyond the top 10 or so are not accepted Does your school have Naviance? Have you spoken to your guidance counselor?
There are lots of schools that would love to have you. The full pay angle will be useful. For the top schools like NW, UC, they have plenty of full pay kids to choose from.
Your scores are a tad low for the top tier of colleges. If you’re looking for schools where full pay + ED will be an advantage then consider: Tulane, USC, Wash U, Rice, Vandy, Emory. These are all top notch schools.
@sgopal2@Knowsstuff@Hamurtle@twogirls@coolguy40@northwesty thank you all for responding. I was looking at some other schools good for CS. What does everyone think about UCSD, UCD, UCI, BC, or UT Austin (All for CS)?? Are any of these schools harder to get into for CS than general admission?
UT-Austin for any flavor of Engineering is going to be tough. So that’s a reach.
If you are willing to pay OOS for UCs, the 3 on your list could be possibilities. You need calculate your 10-11 UC GPA. Only AP/IB/DE get the the extra GPA weighting though.
I would be thinking next tier down schools. You keep asking about reach schools. I would suggest a quick meeting with your schools advisor to get a list of schools that match your profile and let us know what they say. Look at your schools Naviance if they have this.
If you’re getting a degree in CS, there’s no need to spend that kind of money going out of state. CS degrees are ridiculously employable. Also, speaking from experience, employers are interested in what you know and what you can do. The school means nothing to them. Spending that kind of money offers no benefit especially for schools in CA. There’s nothing wrong with going out of state, but scholarships are the best way to do that. Try University of Alabama, Univ of AZ or Univ of KY. There’s a lot more, but you need to google them school by school.
If you are interested in the California UC’s, first calculate your UW UC GPA, Capped weighted UC GPA and Fully weighted UC GPA. Since you are OOS, only AP/IB classes count for the extra honors point weighting in the calculation. https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Also be prepared to pay full fees at $65K/year to attend.
@Knowsstuff I’m just wondering: how would UCI, UCSD, and UCD be reaches? The 75th percentile for UCI is 1410 and for UCD and UCSD its like 1370. My SAT is a 1470 (if I don’t take it again and improve it). Plus my UC GPA is 4.33. I’m just wondering how those schools would be considered reaches.
The top UC’s have a holistic approach to admissions. There are plenty of high stat kids here in CA, located in affluent communities, who were denied at some of these schools.
Nick – seems like the sweet spot for you is to go the full pay/ED route at a top 40 private that has computer science.
Top 20 (NW, Vandy) would be aggressive, but you could try it and go ED2 someplace as a plan B if you miss in ED1. FYI, ED is brand new this year at UVA. You could give that a shot, although it is hard to know how that is going to work at UVA given this is the trial run for ED.
Top 40 should be pretty matchy. Tulane, which takes tons of kids from CT, comes to mind. Or maybe a place like BC, Bucknell, Lehigh, Nova or Santa Clara.
UC OOS admissions are a unique animal, so you should try to get feedback from one of the UC-specific mavens on those schools.
@northwesty thank you that’s actually very helpful. I’m trying to get my SAT higher. I’ve taken a few practice tests (after lots of studying), and most of them resulted in around a 1520. So not a HUGE improvement, but if I could get a 1520 that’d be great. With all that being said, do you think going that top 20 route (Vandy, NW, etc) ED1 then if I don’t get in go ED2 somewhere else would be logical?