<p>u/w GPA: Around 3.8
ACT: 32 (31 E 34 M 30 R 32 S 10 Essay)
Rank: Top 10%</p>
<p>Intended major: Computer Science</p>
<p>Schools:
Brown University (Might ED)
Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
New York University
Purdue University
Tufts University
University of Connecticut
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Rochester</p>
<p>You’ve got a broad list – which includes some great programs that you’ll likely secure admission (Purdue, UMass, UIUC, URoch). </p>
<p>The first thing you should do is find out what is affordable. Run net price calculator. If you can’t afford them, they shouldn’t be on your list at all.</p>
<p>You should also look at GA Tech, Rose Hulman and maybe RPI</p>
<p>I ran the financial aid calculator for the many of the schools and some of them seem very generous.</p>
<p>Example:
For Brown, the financial aid that the calculator stated seems way too good to be true. My parents are well off and didn’t think they would get any financial aid when I was applying to schools. If I got into Brown, according to the calculator, it would cost me less than if I went to my state school and the financial aid they offer.</p>
<p>I did look at GA Tech, Rose Hulman, RPI and many others like RIT and WPI and they don’t interest me. Although I intend to major in Computer Science the pure tech based schools don’t interest me very much.</p>
<p>Sure. Then def apply to Purdue, UMich, UIUC, UMass and others under their early notification so you’ll know you have some schools in the bag. It may clarify things for your December and you may omit A, B or C, if you know you already have a spot waiting for your in W Lafayette or Ann Arbor or Storrs. If you have a great slot secured, you might ONLY apply to Brown and CMU, for instance. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>The schools you are most likely to get into aren’t the ones that offer great aid to OOS students… you didn’t clarify what the net price calculators showed for those.</p>
<p>Get an early notification acceptance (or two+) from a school you can afford and then apply to all the reaches you care to. </p>
<p>Be mindful of schools that admit directly into the major without publishing admission stats per major (UIUC for sure, maybe others on your list). Call them and ask how competitive CS is. They may not give you numbers but you can get an idea. For UIUC, the stat profile for applicants for CS in the College of Engineering is as high if not higher than any school on your list. You want to make sure you have CS safeties, not just overall college safeties.</p>
<p>Incidentally, UIUC canceled its early notification this year. You will not hear back from them until Feb 13. But several of the others on your list will give you an answer back before the end of the year, and as stated above you should definitely take advantage of that.</p>
<p>If you can afford the application fees, and want to go to those schools, why not apply?</p>
<p>If my kid actually wanted to go to any of ten or even twenty schools, and had time to write up all the essays, I’d pay for it. However, I agree with the NPC thing - if there are any iffy schools on that list, and you run the NPC and it’s not favorable, forget about it.</p>
<p>It is interesting you said Brown would offer a lot according to the NCP - it offered us almost nothing, drastically different from Columbia, Dartmouth, and Penn.</p>
<p>IMHO - too few reach schools is more of a problem unless you are less than 25th percentile in every pertinent stat.</p>