Asian Male for CS - ED Schools? Reverse Chance? Chances?

  1. I don't agree with your categorization of UIUC as a target, as compared to your categorization of UW-Madison and Purdue as reaches. I think of UIUC's CS major at least on par with, if not more difficult to get into than, Madison and Purdue.
  2. On UIUC's application, one has an opportunity to apply for a first-choice major and a second-choice major. Certain majors (including CS and CS+X) are so popular that they are available only as first-choice majors. While I agree that your stats thus far are great and your EC's are laying a nice groundwork to support CS+Geography as your first-choice major, I wouldn't make the mistake of assuming that admission to UIUC is a slam-dunk for any variant of a CS major, especially for out-of-state applicants.

@hatchette UIUC CS engineering is a high reach for anybody. However, CS+Geography may not be as selective, because fewer are applying. There are definitely fewer enrolled. According to UIUC, there were only 5 CS-Geography/GIS majors enrolled in 2019 (https://cs.illinois.edu/about/statistics).

This almost certainly translates to a higher acceptance rate than for CS Engineering, but I do not know by how much. It could be a lower reach for @squ1rrel than CS Engineering or it could be a high match. It is too new and has too few applicants to be able to make any inference.a

However, @squ1rrel - your Naviance for UIUC is not reliable, since it will include applicants to all UIUC programs, and for many of those UIUC would be a safety for you.

You are competitive for your reaches. I would not ED for Dartmouth for CS. It is not at the level of any of the rest of your reaches. Cornell is a better shot than MIT.