Like I said, this was a list given to me by my school counselor, so none of it was final. Looking back i realize how dumb some of the colleges are in terms of how i would fit there
That opens a lot of different college option doors. Some @tsbna44 has already suggested.
Have you considered Case Western Reserve University?
Yup! CWRU is on my list of targets/reaches.
And… additionally NYC is typically known as:
The City (or the City) -capitalized😜
Sorry, I missed that when I read your list.
I do think your list is way too long, and I know it’s a preliminary list. I would suggest you find two sure things for admission. You don’t need a LONG list of those.
Pitt has rolling admissions. If you apply this summer as soon as the application goes live, you will have an admissions decision very quickly…and might not need any of those you currently have listed as safety schools.
I’m not familiar with what you are doing in terms of your residency here, but I will caution that in the vast majority of cases, the residency for undergrads is where the parents live…so I’m not sure how that will affect you if your parents move to India once you commit to a college. @MYOS1634 @Mwfan1921 do you know?
Sorry, let me clarify and add some more info if that helps. My mom is mainly the one who wants to move back to India after I get into a college. (All our family is there). She is also not a permanent resident. My father, however, is a green card holder, and is planning to stay here until he retires, which is probably in a couple of years, possibly after I graduate. He does visit India for a month or two at a time usually, idk how this will change given all the immigration status things going on rn
But not before you get a green card, right?
No, definitely not before my mom and I get ours.
Congratulations on your hard work and achievements !
In a sense, you’re in the best category: domestic for admissions (you’ll be compared to your school’s applicants and within your school context, not to Indian applicants from India) and international for financial aid (where you’re “international full pay” ie , an advantage.)
You’d definitely get into Penn State and would have a shot at Schreyer due to rigor&grades (if you put some effort into the essays, prompts published in July). It’s not in a city but in a college town. There’s always PLENTY to do but you wouldn’t have skyscrapers of glass and gleaming steel.
Add Pitt for its rolling admissions and urban setting. Apply in July.
Ucm, UCR, UCSC = good shot at UCSC, so cross out UCM/UCR. UCSC is excellent for CS and its main drawback, the very high cost of housing, doesn’t apply to you since your parents likely wouldn’t have a problem paying 2-3k a month for rent.
Rutgers Honors: very good shot and obvious to keep on your list.
Visit NJIT and TCNJ, choose one.
Visit Stevens and Drexel, only keep if you like them better than any of the above.
That’s 4-6 likelies, more than enough. Even for CS, you’ll get into most of them.
Definitely keep CWRU on your list for urban.
Tulane and UMiami are urban and have parties (you mentioned that) so probably excellent fits - not sure about UMiami for CS though.
Uci is more commuter than other UCs so not ideal for OOS and very very hard to get into (comparatively) for CS so I’d remove it and keep UCSB or UCD only if you’d pick them over your likelies. At UCs, do consider DS or applied CS.
UMass Amherst is very competitive for CS.
Seconding CS+X at UIUC and Northwestern, as well as possibly Olin (but they don’t have straight CS).
You’ll refine your reaches list later - the most important colleges are safeties/likelies. You have to like them so make sure to visit.
That’s good—otherwise, you’d have to switch to a student visa. Hopefully, your permanent residency will be approved before you turn 21?
Then don’t. Talk to your parents about what you really want to do, and hopefully they’ll understand your point of view. At the very least, choose schools where it’s not difficult to change majors. CS can be a grind if you don’t truly enjoy it—spending hours on coding projects or grinding LeetCode for internship prep can be exhausting.
That said, I’ve seen that you’ve completed several programming projects that are impressive for a high schooler, so you definitely have the ability to excel. But if it doesn’t interest you, do something else.
As for your college list, I agree you need to trim it down. Remember to apply EA wherever possible.
I was actually plugging NorthEASTERN, but you’re right, Northwestern has CS+X too and could be worth considering. A 34 ACT is at median for both schools. Both have single-digit acceptance rates, and both are need-aware for internationals while being full-need-met for undergrads (need-blind at Northwestern, need-aware at Northeastern). The difference is that Northwestern does meet need for admitted international undergrads, so out of their 10% of undergrads that are international, a decent share are getting need-based aid, even if it does skew toward full-pay because of need-aware admissions. At Northeastern, there’s very little funding for internationals at all, so not only do they have more internationals (14% of undergrads), but most of those are full pay (some may get merit - not sure how common that is). NEU relies on those dollars to keep the books balanced and cover the cost of staying in the full-need-met category for domestic undergrads; and in the current political climate, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were getting fewer applicants from internationals students who are willing and able to pay full freight… so I’d be bullish about the OP’s chances here. Plus, Northeastern offers a truly urban campus environment. (The actual campus is self-contained and very attractive, but tiny relative to the size of the student body; the city is really a big part of the experience.) BU was already mentioned as being on the list, but for blending CS with other academic interests, NEU really deserves consideration, and I’m betting an EA application would yield favorable results. (Then again, I feel the same way about an ED2 app to NYU. I would do a head-to-head comparison between these two - it sounds like NYC is preferred over Boston, but personally I would lean NEU for the stated interests and also the balance between urbanness and actual-campus-ness. Also for the ability to gain work experience, which is incrementally easier through the co-op structure than without it, for internationals… although hopefully the green card will come through by the time co-ops or internships would be happening.)
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