Chance Me - Latino MA junior, 3.85 UW, CS/Engineering, T20 + reaches + safeties + service academies

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • Location: Massachusetts (small town, ~30 min from Boston)
  • US citizen
  • Latino male
  • High school type: Small public school (~284 students total, no formal CS program beyond AP CSA, limited advanced electives)
  • First-gen on mom’s side (mom = HS diploma, immigrant); dad attended William & Mary
  • Family income: ~$195K (no Pell/need-based aid eligibility at most schools)
  • No legacy

Intended Major

  • Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering (varies by school)
  • Strong interest in computational biology + hardware/software integration
  • Open to engineering broadly

Academic Stats

  • UW GPA: 3.85
  • Weighted GPA: ~4.5
  • Class rank: school doesn’t rank
  • SAT: 1350 (May 2026), retaking June 2026 (Bluebook practice 1520-1540)
  • PSAT: 1430 (above NHRP cutoff, eligibility verified)
  • College Board National Recognition Program eligible (Latino track)

Coursework

  • Freshman/Sophomore: Honors track
  • Junior year courses: AP Lang, APUSH, AP CSP, AP Stats, Physics Honors, Spanish III Honors, Algebra II Honors (one B+ here - the only sub-A in junior year)
  • Junior year grades: 3 As, 3 A-s, 1 B+
  • Senior year (Locked): AP Calc AB, AP Physics C (Mech + E&M), AP Lit, AP Spanish, Cultura (Spanish Immersion required), UT Austin Dual Enrollment Engineering Your World, Digital Photography + Discrete Math (combined art credit graduation requirement)
  • AP exams: Bio (4) banked, sitting Lang/APUSH/CSP/Stats in May 2026

Note on math: Taking AB not BC because BC creates schedule conflicts; self-studying BC topics + early multivariable concepts to support AP Physics C E&M. Will mention in supplements.

Awards / Recognition

  • MIT Blueprint Hackathon - 1st Place (Jan 2026), led firmware on team
  • International Research Olympiad - Semifinalist (Top 127 of 1000+ applicants)
  • SeaPerch National Underwater ROV Competition - Top 50 (Team Captain)
  • JROTC unit ranked #1 Nationally (member)
  • BWSI UAS-SAR at MIT Lincoln Lab - Selected for Summer 2026
  • Computer Science Student of the Year (school award)
  • Dream Venture Pitch Competition - 1st Place
  • High Honor Roll (consistent)
  • College Board NRP eligible (announcement Sept 2026)

Extracurriculars

Research / Technical:

  • Independent research: AlphaFold2 prediction accuracy in viral vs human proteins, advised by PhD at UChicago Marine Biological Laboratory. Targeting Journal of Emerging Investigators submission Aug 2026, IEEE MIT URTC poster Sept 2026.
  • Building Uplink: open-source, 3D-printable CubeSat platform with modular payload system (GitHub - 2008wbbv/Uplink-R3-Cubesat: An open-source, 3D-printable CubeSat platform for students. · GitHub). Applied for Hack Club Burnout Hackathon funding.
  • Hardware portfolio: PCB design (KiCad), embedded systems (Arduino/ESP32), RF sensor arrays, LoRa mesh networking, Discord productivity bot with active users

Leadership:

  • Hack Club Stardance Ambassador (community outreach + hackathon organization)
  • Founded Hack Club at school (no prior CS extracurricular existed)
  • SeaPerch Team Captain (multi-year, Top 50 national finish)
  • JROTC progressive leadership

Service / Military Track:

  • U.S. Naval Sea Cadets - Petty Officer 1st Class (PO1). Took sole overnight responsibility for 30 junior cadets during training week.
  • Boy Scouts - Life Scout, Eagle Scout candidate (project: updating Millis Historic Trail signage + digital guide, target completion Sept 2026)
  • Volunteer robotics instruction to local middle schoolers (taught CAD, soldering, basic robotics; two students went on to build their own robots independently)
  • Youth in Philanthropy - helped allocate $10K+ in community grants

Employment:

  • Roche Bros Supermarkets, ~18 hrs/week during school year (on leave summer 2026, returning Sept)

Summer 2026

  • BWSI UAS-SAR at MIT Lincoln Lab (July 6 - Aug 2)
  • AlphaFold2 paper push toward JEI submission
  • Eagle Scout project execution
  • Germany family trip Aug 9-15

Essays / LORs

  • Common App essay in drafting (June). Strongest angles: self-taught from small school, hardware + bio intersection
  • Recommendations: planning to ask AP Physics (Streck) and APUSH (Fallon) teachers - both gave As and would speak to specific work
  • Counselor: long-term sub this year; working to brief her on outside-school work

Cost Constraints

  • Family can contribute ~$30-40K/year max realistic; need merit aid or service academy
  • $195K income means no Pell/limited need-based aid at most schools
  • Targeting merit at WPI, RPI, Northeastern, Purdue, UMD, NHRP-aware schools

Service Academy Track (Parallel)

  • Pursuing nominations through Rep. Auchincloss (MA-4), Sen. Warren, Sen. Markey
  • USMA Candidate Questionnaire pending
  • CFA + DoDMERB to schedule summer 2026

School List (22 schools, will trim to 12-14)

Safety:

  • UMass Amherst (in-state, fit)
  • RPI
  • UVM
  • NC State
  • Rose-Hulman

Match:

  • WPI (likely EA)
  • U Maryland (EA)
  • Northeastern (EA)
  • Georgia Tech (EA2 for non-residents)
  • University of Florida
  • Purdue (EA)
  • Case Western Reserve
  • Olin College of Engineering

Service Academies (separate process):

  • USMA (West Point) - primary
  • USNA (Naval Academy)
  • USAFA (Air Force Academy)

Reach:

  • MIT (planning Restricted EA, Nov 1) - top choice
  • Harvard (RD)
  • UC Berkeley (UC App Nov 30)
  • Stanford (RD)
  • Carnegie Mellon (RD)
  • Caltech (RD)
  • Columbia (RD)

Strategy notes:

  • MIT EA uses my one restricted private early slot
  • Cannot REA Harvard/Stanford/Caltech or ED Columbia/CMU as a result
  • Non-restrictive EAs (GT, WPI, UMD, Northeastern, Purdue) compatible with MIT EA

Specific feedback I’m looking for:

  1. Is the list realistic? Anything to add, drop, or reconsider?
  2. Biggest weakness in my application as presented - what would you fix first?
  3. Is MIT EA the right use of my one restricted early slot?
  4. NRP merit schools I should add given Latino + STEM (Alabama? Arizona? Texas A&M?)

Thanks in advance.

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U.Mass Amherst is EXCELLENT for computer science, and related fields such as computer engineering and EE and mathematics. I have worked in high tech my entire career, and worked for most of this in the northeast of the US. As such I have worked with a large number of U.Mass graduates, as well as multiple graduates from MIT and some from Stanford and Harvard. The best graduates from U.Mass that I have worked with are every bit as strong and every bit as successful as the best graduates from MIT or Stanford (which is superb). You can get an excellent education at U.Mass.

Your SAT is low for MIT and Harvard (and Stanford). What was your split between math versus English?

I have worked with a lot of U.Mass graduates and a few Harvard graduates. Based on the people I have worked with, frankly I would prefer U.Mass for computer science. A tiny little bit of this is based on the worst software engineer who I have ever worked with, who was a Harvard graduate. To be fair he had to be very, very smart to get such horrible code to even appear to work (and I did spend a couple of weeks once looking at his code). It had to be thrown out after he left (at least three of us looked at it and were in strong agreement).

Separately I have twice asked hiring managers, who typically hired software engineers, whether they would prefer to hire graduates from U.Mass or Harvard. Both without any hesitation said that they would prefer to hire U.Mass graduates. To be fair I am pretty sure that one was a U.Mass graduate himself.

UC Berkeley would be very expensive as an out of state student, and way, way over $40,000/year (probably more than twice this). Of course most of your other reaches would be also unless you qualify for a lot of need based financial aid. Have you run the NPCs for the private schools on your list? My best guess is that they would run way over your budget.

However, U.Mass, since you are in-state, would most likely meet your budget or be a bit under budget.

UVM does have some merit aid for out of state students. You would need a very good merit scholarship for it to be close to your budget, but I think that merit aid is likely. At least for us their Net Price Calculator (NPC) did predict merit aid and was spot-on-accurate. I do not know how much your SAT score matters here, but your GPA should be fine to get good merit aid from UVM.

Do you want to serve in the military? Do you know whether with a degree in high tech they would allow you to serve in a high tech role? I am pretty sure that the military does need software engineers.

Have you run the NPC for MIT (or had your parents run the NPC) and is it even remotely close to your budget?

For MIT, Stanford, Caltech, or for CS at Carnegie Mellon, and probably for the Ivy League schools also, your SAT is low. UC Berkeley will not care about your SAT, but will not be remotely close to your budget.

I would check with your guidance counselor and see whether they agree that U.Mass Amherst is really a safety with your stats. If so, then it is an excellent choice, would most likely be in-budget, and would give you a very good start on a very good career.

I think that RPI is also a very good option for you.

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I see mostly reaches due to budget (our budget was similar), my kids with higher stats applied to several of your schools listed and only UMASS Amherst oos came in budget. Three stayed in state, two went oos with merit but still paid more that siblings staying in NJ.

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I think your biggest issue is going to be budget. Many of the out of state publics on your list are stingy with merit aid for out of state applicants and unless you hit your predicted SAT, they will be reaches for your intended major, not matches.

You are really fortunate that your in state public is amazing for your intended major and will be in budget.

If RPI is one of your targets, see if your school will nominate you for for the RPI medal award. Talk to your counselor as soon as you can. That will get the tuition down to about $40K.

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to be more specific my financial situation my families net income is usually 197-202k so right above the mark for most aid except at Harvard/MIT, my SAT I dont even know what happened but I will study way harder over the summer, the bluebooks made me think I did way better than I did. I will not stop taking those tests until I break 1450+, its was 690M 660RW, I think if I secure a good SAT ROTC is in the cards which makes tuition a nonfactor, and makes UC Berkeley a great pick in my mind. I am very interested in serving, and the sectors that intrest me are growing. MIT if I get in should be affordable considering its free at sub 200 and cheap slightly above. SAT is something I will not concede, and I will be retaking it. Tuition will be a very possible nonfactor.

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ROTC scholarships may be competitive, so it is not assured that you will get a large enough one just by joining ROTC.

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OP- you sound terrific.

Make sure you speak with a current ROTC student at any college where you are considering an early application (whether binding or not). At some colleges, it’s relatively straightforward to balance a challenging course load with the ROTC requirements. At others (especially if your training location is a distance away from campus) it is tough- and really interferes with your ability to do much of anything else besides academics, including a paid job.

So get granular here. How long does transportation take. Realistically, what can you manage besides classwork and ROTC commitments. Etc. You need to know what you are getting into!

“MIT if I get in should be affordable considering its free at sub 200 and cheap slightly above.”

Make sure your parents have run the Net Price Calculators for EVERY school you are considering. There is fine print here- sub 200K assuming “normal assets”–some of those asset limits are extremely low, and your family may be well above the limit.

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The UCs are test-blind (not test-optional). They will not consider your SAT even if it is 1600. And as noted above, the out of state cost is above your budget. There’s almost no merit for out of state students and what little there is would not be enough to bring the cost down to budget. Berkeley is over $86k cost of attendance for out of state this upcoming academic year and will likely be higher the following year. You have other good options - focus on those,

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Have you considered Princeton (with ROTC)? If you apply SCEA there instead of MIT, I think your background would make you stand out. MIT has not (IME) given as much admissions boost to early applicants as other schools, perhaps because of being non restrictive. (Is Caltech restrictive now?)

I agree with the others that schools at that level absolutely will require your hoped-for SAT increase, but then they become possible. (Remember they’re super risky for anyone.)

I think U Mass should move to the top of your list. My own DS (we’re in MA) is currently at U Maryland and got a partial merit scholarship for engineering (chose it over “higher” places); I think UMD is one of the few that actively pursues OOS students in that way.

Good luck!

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p.s. I think personally Harvard should be removed from your list as it is not competitive with the others in Engineering.

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MIT does not have restricted EA. While you cannot apply EA to MIT and REA to schools that offer that plan, you’re free to apply ED (to a that school that is affordable and unequivocally your top choice).

As others have said, affordability will be your main challenge. You will likely have to revise your list.

But OP’s SAT score is below UMD’s 25th percentile (and that’s considering the school-wide admission stats – the 25th percentile for the CS college is very likely higher). So OP is unlikely to be offered merit, IMO.

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OP- your school may not rank, but do you have a sense (or have you asked straight out) if you would be considered one of the top students in your class- combination of rigor, grades, suitable intellectual challenges?

And do you understand why you got a B+ in a math class- careless mistakes (that’s fine, learn from them) or you had the flu and missed a week and never got back on track (in which case you know you need to teach yourself the material), or something else?

The language of MIT is math. So your hacking and creativity and obvious love of CS and engineering is fantastic- but the single most important qualification is having a rock solid base in math. Without it, you will flounder- even if you are a linguistics or poli sci or urban planning major.

You sound terrific. But get a handle on where you stand in your own HS class before you load up on reaches.

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You’re right, of course - I was assuming he would retake for the predicted (Bluebook?) in the mid-high 1500s. I actually don’t know what the UMD cutoff was (but my DS adores it there :slight_smile: )

If OP doesn’t get that higher SAT, I think his whole list needs to be rejiggered.

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Given your stats and the fact that you’re applying from a competitive state, I would reclassify UMD and Purdue as very high targets or low reaches (more likely the latter), GT as a reach on the same level as your other reaches, and Northeastern as a slightly easier reach (only because they appear to admit MA residents at higher rates).

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Some of the top tech schools will look adversely at the number of times you’ve taken the test.

Our son attended Caltech for CS. He missed 1 question on the SAT, on his first and only try. His classmates at Caltech were at perfect scores or missed 1 or 2 questions.

If you have to work that hard at getting your score above a 1450, I don’t think those kinds of schools will academically fit you.

If essays are not your strong suit, then the UCs will be out of the picture. Not only are they academically tough, but the PIQ can throw you off if you haven’t had frequent exposure to them like the California kids have daily.

And unless you’re a Stanford Legacy, or a recruited athlete, then Stanford is out of the picture. It’s not that big of school. Acreage-wise yes, population wise not so much.

Our son was considering Stanford but didn’t want to do the extra essays. Our daughters’ were rejected from Stanford, and their SATs, were above your target of 1450 but were not as high as their brother’s test on the first try.

Massachusetts has a good track record and a good reputation. You need targets that are not all reaches.

Edited to add, we are Hispanic/Native American and it’s not as uncommon as you might think, especially in the Western States. The UCs can’t use race for admissions.

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OP, does your school have naviance/scoir/maia that you can see how your profile compares to others who’ve applied to similar schools?

For example, talking about Stanford, I can see from Maia that our school had 3/29 applicants accepted to Stanford this year. What Maia shows me is that the average gpa of admitted students was 3.97 and the minimum 3.93. It also shows some 4.0/1600s who were rejected. What it doesn’t tell me, but what I know, is that of the 3 admits this year, 2 are recruited athletes and the third a double legacy.

I am not saying not to take your shot - but applications to top schools are time consuming and it may serve you to figure out which ones it is best to spend your time on doing, either because it’s your ultimate dream school (MIT, assuming you get your SAT score up) or because it looks like they may be (somewhat) more attainable than others.

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from my understanding if I bring up my SAT, as described by a current recipient, to be a “slam dunk”

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many of the schools where ROTC makes sense are large enough or close enough to satalites, NPCs I heard are not very accurate as far as those MyInTuition ones.

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yeah I love the culture fit but probably is not the move just because of OOS

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Do you think I would have better chances for my background at Princeton, I might tack it onto the list if so, I will be locking in on the SAT and UMASS is a great option for CS so I am not that worried as far as that, UMD is great also, Thanks!