CHANCE ME / Should I wait 1 semester to transfer for Fall 2025 so that I can apply to prestigious schools?

So, I am a currently in my third and final semester at cc and I have a guaranteed admission at a decent state school with a strong cs program. However, since the program is non-binding my plan was always to apply to other stronger schools and if I get in I would go there and if not I would go to the state school.

I have always wanted to attend a school with prestige but I found out the school I was most interested in, Columbia, only takes fall transfers. So, I can take an extra semester of classes at my cc and wait to apply for the fall to Columbia and a few other schools like Cornell, maybeee Stanford. The other two schools I was planning to apply to are NYU and Barnard, both of which take spring transfers, but if I decide to wait I would apply to these schools for fall as well.

After thinking about it, I feel like waiting one semester solely for Columbia might not be worth it since I can apply to Barnard and since Columbia's acceptance rate is so low. So I think I would only apply if I thought I had a good chance at getting into Columbia or another highly ranked school for cs. Do you guys think it is worth waiting a semester to apply based on my stats:

Demographic: South Asian Female, both parents went to college

Intended Major: Computer Science

Stats:

  • Don't remember HS GPA but it was not too good probably 3.5
  • CC GPA: 3.86
  • I took 12 APs in hs and got over a 3 on all
  • SAT: 1440

College Courses: CS 2, Calc 2, Probability&Statistics, Discrete Math, Physics 1, Physics 2, Children's Lit., C Programming, Data Structures, Mobile App Development, Computer Architecture

ECs:

  • Secretary > Vice President and Co-Founder of Women's Student Association (fall 23 - present)
  • President of Women in Computing (joined in fall 23, president in fall 24)
  • Vice President of Muslim Student Association (spring 24- present)
  • Treasurer of ACM (Fall 23)
  • AI fellow with Meta
  • Break Through Tech Program Fellow
  • ICPC Participant

Awards:

  • Machine Learning Foundation Certificate (Cornell University)
  • Dean's List (Fall 23 and Spring 24)
  • AP Scholar with Distinction