Confused Junior [NJ resident, 3.7 GPA, 1540 SAT, <$90k; computing related]

First of all you are doing very well. However…

This is my biggest concern. “Top 20” universities are not all the same. A student who loves Harvard might not like MIT, or vice versa. A student who likes Stanford might not like Dartmouth College. A student who likes Yale might not like Caltech.

You should think about what you want in a university beyond “ranking” or “prestige”. Then look for a university that is a good fit for you. This might make it more likely that you will like whatever university you end up attending and do well there. Also, if you know why a particular university is a good fit for you, then this is likely to come across one way or another in your essays and improve your chances of getting admitted.

Also, a 3.7 unweighted GPA is a bit low for a top 20 university in the US. So is “top 10%-15%”.

My other concern is that you need to pick out at least one and preferably two (or more) safeties. I do not know whether or not Rutgers would be a safety for you. However it is very good. I have known many graduates from Rutgers, and they have made the university look very good. The first three Rutgers graduates who I knew were fellow graduate students in the same program when I was at Stanford. They were very strong students.

With regard to reaches, my general approach is to look for schools that are a good fit for you, apply, and then just wait and see what happens.

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