Schools to apply for CS?

Ok, so for one, just apply to all UCs because it's basically just checking a box more times. And since you don't care about applying to OOS I'm just going to assume you're wealthy enough to not care about the application fees. For simplicity's sake I'm just going to assume you're an applicant whose qualified enough to actually have a shot (not some kid with a 2.5 and 24 ACT just pointlessly trying to shotgun). This means 3.8+ GPA with high rigor and 1500 SAT/34 ACT or higher. It also means 750+ in Math II and a science subject test.

After that, I would break your list down to

Stanford

Princeton

Brown

Rice

CMU

Georgia Tech

UIUC

Purdue

Harvey Mudd

Caltech

This leaves you with 11 applications, which I think is manageable. I chose schools that have well known CS programs with a mix of publics and private, but I obviously have no idea what kind of school best fits you. But since you claim to be considering 30ish schools, I'm just going to go on a limb and say you don't either. Which is fine, I'm not like some people on this sub who want to tell people that they need to love every college on their list. Prestige is important.

Since you're an in state student applying to UCs, all of the UCs besides Berkeley and UCLA should basically count as safeties or matches so long as you have the stats I mentioned above.

/r/ApplyingToCollege Thread