I posted the same question in another forum but thought I would try it here. I was raised in Nevada, a state that consistently ranks in the bottom of education so my high school was not proactive about assuring students were well informed and prepared for college. My parents were uneducated immigrants so they were unable to provide any guidance either. I considered myself smart but nobody around me seem to know what to do with it. I knew smart people went to college and that’s all I really knew. I knew they took a lot of debt to do it and I didn’t want to do that so I thought the military would be a good way to assure my education would be covered without and financial burden. I joined at 23 and am now 26. I would like to go to a top institution for Computer Science. I don’t want to just go to any college that will take me. I want to know what the best schools want in a student and where do I go to get it. Sometimes I get mad at the idea that nobody around me growing up gave me any guidance but I want to make up for it. Any advice??
Which state do you live in now?
Basically, you have two admission pathways to four year colleges generally.
- If you have not taken college courses after high school, you could apply for frosh admission using your high school record.
- If you have taken college courses after high school, or your high school record is not good enough to get into a suitable college, you can take frosh/soph level courses at a community college, do well there, and then transfer to a suitable four year college based on your college record at community college. Some states are better than others in terms of community college preparation for transfer to the state universities, including the flagships.
In terms of paying for college, take a look into your veterans’ benefits: https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/ and https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11/yellow-ribbon-program/ .
I’m a vet and have a CS degree. I wouldn’t worry too much about going to a “top institution for Computer Science.” People would argue about what that means, anyway. There are hundreds of schools with good CS programs you could go to. Most public state universities would fit the bill.
Be aware that a CS degree not an easy degree to get. Have you ever programmed before? A lot of people find they hate it. Are you OK with math?
I have no idea where you are right now, but if you’re in Nevada, going to UNR or UNLV is perfectly fine. I live in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area, and I’ve worked with several software developers who graduated from UNR. If you’re totally lost on what college involves, going to a community college for the first two years isn’t a bad suggestion. You might want to take a look at the following purely as an example of a community college program that might work for you -
http://catalog.csn.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=3&poid=700
If you go to a community college, you need to be sure that the credits transfer to whichever 4 year CS program you want to attend afterwards.
Have you looked into the veterans posse foundation programs? There are a number of excellent schools that participate in this program.
The OP hasn’t been back in almost 2 months.