International student applying to CS in the US

MYOS1634
Sun, 02 Mar 2025 13:57:03 +0000

You have a solid background that makes you a possible admit at several schools. I would just remove UCSD because they don’t use SAT scores and must be receiving thousands of applications like yours AND their college system with varying but often very comprehensive gen eds aren’t the best fit for your academic background (with science specialization). Finally, UCSD received A LOT of funding from NIH that is being cut so the impact is going to be greatly felt (same at many other public universities but it seems UCSD would be especially hit due to the research there.)

Definitely include UMD-CP and UMass Amherst (MUCH more selective for CS than overall).

If you need a university listed on rankings, use 1) the ranking above (anything top 40 is top notch)
2) US News World Report’s ranking of National universities
3) 2 chosen from most State flagships not listed above but within top 60-ish for CS, like Virginia Tech, NCSU, or SUNY Stony Brook.

I would also recommend you apply to 2-3 Canadian or European universities if that’s not on your list already. Although the funding cuts only directly affect graduate students, since those were TAs for undergrads, the fact they’re being cut by 30%, 40%, or altogether “till we know more” ie., next year, means it’ll trickle down to undergrads.