<p>Although your ACT is good, it isn’t remarkable considering that the public schools where you’re applying have highly competitive EE/CS departments (especially UDub). For example, the 25th-75th ACT percentile for UIUC engineering students is 31 - 34. Even if you’re qualified for most of these schools (and overqualified for some), the holistic admissions process is incredibly random. I would suggest looking into applying to UCR via “guaranteed admission” as a definite safety in case you have absolutely terrible luck.</p>
<p>Did you take the ACT with Writing? What are your subscores? (the most important thing here is a high M)</p>
<p>Assuming that you’re applying to Engineering departments for CS (not L&S/LSA/whatever the college calls its College of Arts and Science ):</p>
<p>CMU SCS: High reach for everyone
Harvey Mudd: High reach (it’s pretty self-selective)
MIT: High reach for everyone
UC Berkeley EECS: High reach for everyone
Cornell: Reach
Dartmouth: Reach
Johns Hopkins: Reach (barely above the 25th percentile)
Northwestern: Reach (at the 25th percentile)
UDub: Reach
WUSTL: Reach (better chances if you exhibit interest; but your ACT is below the overall 25th percentile)
UNC-CH Low reach (I can’t remember if they have to have a certain percent of in-state students)
UCLA: Low reach
UT-Austin: Low reach (I’m guessing that a large portion of the class will be auto-admit students; I could be wrong)
Case Western: Match
UCSD: Match
Other UCs: Matches-low matches-POSSIBLE safeties
Purdue: Match (possibly low match-safety)
Santa Clara: Low match (don’t know much about it)</p>
<p>Tufts: ??? (does “Tufts Syndrome” still exist? I can’t find its CDS)
Don’t know enough about USC or UW-M to chance them, sorry.</p>
<p>These chances are based on purely hard stats (ACT, GPA, etc.) and not intangibles like ECs or essays. Improve that ACT to your projection and your chances improve greatly :)</p>
<p>One other thing—your list doesn’t seem cohesive. You have giant publics mixed with Harvey Mudd/Dartmouth. I’d encourage you to think about why you want to attend these schools BEFORE you spend all that money on airfare/the like ;)</p>
<p>Edit: I just saw your SAT score. Consider sending that in. 800+630 (M+CR) is better than your current 31.</p>