An computer nerd's search for colleges

College Search & Selection
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Hey everyone! The school year has been starting up, and I’m already anxious about college! As a junior, next year is on my mind. So many thoughts cross my mind: what do I want in life? What do I want in my post-secondary education? What do I want for dinner?

So, here we go. Embarking on a college-venture. I’ve been around this forum for a while, and I’ve been posting about college stuff for about the same length of time, but I’m old now. I’m almost 18, living my best life, so might as well sprinkle in another layer of stress!

Ookay, let’s start with the academic stuff, to sort of show what kind of student I am. Got to get the boring stuff out of the way.

3.9? 3.8? 3.7? lord knows GPA, 1420 SAT (from 2018, retaking that bad boy in December, averaging like a 1540 on practice tests right now), attending a prestigious boarding school which offers no APs. I’ve taken one of the most rigorous schedules possible, and will continue to do so :wink:

My extracurricular activities include being president of a club dedicated to fixing the gender divide in STEM, president of a cool lil’ school initiative to teach computer hardware education, research in VR with a local professor, programmer on the FRC team, volunteer Python instructor for a non-profit, member of coding club and competitive team, freelance web development, board member for theatre festival, Quiz Bowl Nationals, CMU SAMS, USC Viterbi Tech Bootcamp, avid school actor, and debate team instructor.

So, to the fun stuff! What do I want in a school? Where do I even begin?

Well, I’m a nerd, so a nerdy school would be great. I want to study computer science, so I hope for a decent program (although rankings aren’t that much of a concern for me). I’m low income, so I’m looking for a school with good financial aid! I want to go to school in a big city; I’ve spent too much of my childhood surrounded by farms.

So far, I’ve really liked Northeastern University and Carnegie Mellon University, but I’m stumped as to what else. So, I enlist you, good College Confidential community. Could any of you possibly help me scope out some schools to tour and research?

Thank you all for reading this word salad and helping!

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Brown has a decent CS program (though no where close to CMU,) but more importantly, has an extremely strong financial aid program that meets full need w/o loans (the Brown Promise) and is home to the Open Curriculum. If you love CS, the Open Curriculum’s freedom means that you could theoretically (though this is obviously not advised, and is why you can Pass/Fail (S/NC) any course in-order to branch out in college and why Brown doesn’t calculate GPAs) take 30 Computer Science/Math courses and graduate (w/2 of them being designated as writing, though these are available in CS, Bio etc. not just English.)

Have you looked into the Questbridge and Posse Scholar programs? They make attending schools like Brown with extremely high sticker prices, much, much more affordable. I would recommend Questbridge in particular as the College Match essentially lets you apply ED to up to 12 selective schools that they partner with (the Ivies, MIT though this is the only non-binding one if you match here etc,) and if admitted you are guaranteed a full ride.

Questbridge: https://www.questbridge.org/

Posse Foundation: https://www.possefoundation.org/

Also, if you’re at a prestigious prep school, your guidance counselor is likely extremely familiar with selective admissions and would best poised to offer advice on your chances at other schools, especially taking into account prior admits’ legacy/recruited athlete statuses and not.

Hope that helps!

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@PikachuRocks15 Thank you so much for the great information! I’ve never really looked into Brown, but the idea of an open curriculum is pretty cool. Not having to take another history class… that’s nice. US History has been too much reading. The promise of good financial aid is also quite tantalizing… no loans sounds great!

I’ve looked into QuestBridge, and plan on applying for the College Prep Scholars program this spring. I’ve never heard of Posse, though. I’ll definitely check it out!

We meet with our counselors starting in the winter term, so I’ll make sure to talk to him about my chances at schools and financial aid, all the goods. I just want to have a rough list before I go to him so that he can really tear into it!

Again, thanks so much for your help. Much obliged!

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Aren’t you at a great prep school now? If my recollection is correct I’d wait until the next term and meet with your counselors as a first step. They should be incredibly knowledgeable, they know how admissions work at your school, and they should be able to help you with the financial piece etc. Before the counselor meeting you should think about what is important to you in a college expereince so you can walk in prepared.

If you want to do something now you can always get your hands on a good college guide book (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) and read up on some different options. I’d focus on doing as well as possible in your classes, doing well on the SATs etc. for the rest of this semester.

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@happy1 I’m very blessed to have such a great college counselor! I just sort of want to have a barebones list of schools I like before I go in, just to save him some hair-pulling.

I’ll see if I can find one of those college guides online and peruse it! Thank you.

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You should be able to find one of those books in the library or your counselor’s office if you are on campus. Good luck.

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State of residency?

When considering a college, start off by running its net price calculator to see if it is likely to be affordable.

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@ucbalumnus Indiana! I’m lucky enough to have a great school like Purdue in-state.

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It’s hard to know exactly what to target - 3.7 vs 3.9 and 1420 vs. 1540 yield vastly different possibilities.

At the high end with CMU are MIT and Stanford. Then places like Michigan, Cornell and Georgia Tech

Purdue is certainly a great option at an in-state price (my D is there now, paying OOS premium).

UIUC is next door, but I’ve heard OOS admissions are limited.

My D is a Junior looking at CS - theses are from the top of my head. When I’m home and can look at my spreadsheet, I can post what I may have missed

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@RichInPitt It’s hard to calculate my GPA. Before I came to prep school, I had about a 3.9, but it’s probably around a 3.8-ish cumulative now. The SAT is from 2 years ago, so here’s hoping I can actually raise it!

Thanks so much for the ideas. MIT is… amazing… but so scary to get into. Same with Stanford! I toured Cornell and loved it, and my dad wants me to go to Michigan!

Has your D liked Purdue? It’s a great school!

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there is always RIT for a safety school. But it is nerdy and a great CS/coop program

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Why is it hard to calculate your GPA?

You can just add up A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0 for each semester, then divide by the number of grades. You can do this for each school separately, and combined (although if the schools have different calendars, you may have to weight grades in proportion to the length of class time they represent).

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@ucbalumnus I’ve always tried to calculate the GPA within the confines of each school, but I guess that’s not accurate, and my schools have switched from quarter, to semester, to trimester. At this point, I’d thrown up my hands.

However, I’ve taken the time to make proportions and all that jazz. After calculations, I’ve got a 3.85. Not bad, I guess!

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Hope everyone’s been doing well in this rollercoaster of life. I’ve been looking into some schools, and found that I really like the vibe of schools like Barnard, Caltech, and MIT. I’m just so scared about getting in. It’s so competitive!

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@CavsFan2003 Have you considered applying ED to any school? Definitely apply EA to Caltech and MIT if possible, as it’s not binding. Have you tried running the FA calculators on their websites?

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Just realized Barnard is a women’s college. Very unfortunate, as I really liked its vibe. Not quite sure how I missed that, but…

Anyway. @PikachuRocks15 I’ve considered the idea of EDing to schools, but haven’t thought of any school that I’d ED to. I’ve ran quite a few net price calculators, which is why I’m so nervous! It seems the best aid will come from top schools. In fact, the Harvard NPC says that it’ll be cheaper for me to go there than Purdue. Wowza.

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Harvey Mudd would be another in the “nerdy” genre. It has the STEM prankster camaraderie like MIT and Caltech, but it’s also part of the Claremont Consortium, with cross-registration and shared EC’s with Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna, so there are a variety of “vibes” and “tribes” that you can partake in. CS is one of the most popular majors, and it’s a top-notch program and a leader in gender equity. All of the 5C’s meet full need, although their formulae and utilization of loans vary. Mudd has ED but not EA

Rice is another super-reach school where the nerdy demographic is well-represented, CS is excellent, and financial aid is generous. Rice also has ED but not EA.

Not sure whether any of URochester, RIT, RPI, or WPI would come in cheaper than Purdue, but it’s worth running the NPC’s as they could all be good options.

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@aquapt Thank you so much! I went to a Harvey Mudd info session last year, and it seemed like a really interesting school. The location is really nice!

I’ll look into Rice as well. I’ve heard it’s an amazing CS school!

I’ve got a friend who goes to URochester and my robotics teacher went to RPI, so I’m totally down to look at some of these schools. I like their locations!

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It’s funny - I had friends from Atlanta who’s DS took courses at Gatech while in HS and was assured admission. So they were seeking my advice on Cornell et al … and I couldn’t understand why would they even want to consider applying ANYWHERE else if they had Gatech in-state.

Look there is the 1st tier: MIT, CMU, Stanford, if you get in one of those, sure
consider going. Any other school would not be worth paying for over in-state Purdue.
(not even my alma mater, nor UCB, nor UCLA nor UT nor Gatech nor UIUC … )
if the money is 300% not a problem, say you have a fully paid for educational trust and your parents want you to explore the horizons … other states … anything … only then should you consider any other school …

1 Like
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It’s been so long since I’ve written on this thread! Even looking back at the beginning of my junior year, a bit has changed!

My GPA’s getting a nice uptick, with a 4.0 UW last term and a probable 4.0 this term. I’ve been participating on my robotics team and realizing how much I like the hardware side of computers. I think that I want to pursue a major in electrical/computer engineering, rather than CS. CS is really cool, and I like the software side too, but I think ECE/CE would fit my interests much more.

I’ve been doing some research as my formal college counseling process has started, and I’ve found a bit more of what I like in colleges. I still definitely want nerdy schools! I don’t want anything with a big Greek life. I’m a huge nerd, and not much of a partier. There’s nothing wrong with a party culture, but I don’t think I want a school whose social life relies a lot on alcohol/drugs/whatever (although I recognize that a lot of college students partake in that, and I’m not judging them for that). I’ve been talking a lot to Carnegie Mellon students, and am falling more in love with that school everyday. I was also told by the CMU SAMS admissions office that I will be accepted this year again (since 2020 was cancelled), so I’m excited to maybe spend my summer learning from CMU professors! I am still waiting on my MOSTEC application, though.

I retook my SAT in December and scored a 1470 (710 M 760 RW). It’s a good score, but my counselor and I decided that I would take it again. I’m also sitting for the ACT in February, as I finished the SAT very quickly and he thinks that I would do better with easier questions in a quicker time period. I hope I do well on it, but if I don’t, I’m going to take the March SAT. I’m also very relieved that subject tests are cancelled, because I was very worried about the Math 2/Physics tests I was going to take in May.

So… yeah! College research is fun. I’m looking at MIT, CMU, Purdue, IU, Northeastern, Cornell, Harvey Mudd, Caltech, and Lehigh with my counselor. On my own, I’ve done virtual tours for Michigan, Stanford, Notre Dame, and Harvard. I didn’t like the social scenes at Notre Dame, Michigan, or Stanford, but my dad wants me to keep looking at Michigan, since it’s been his favorite team for so long. I have fee waivers, so I might apply, but OOS financial aid is a bust from a public school like that. I didn’t really like the abundance of Greek life at Cornell and Lehigh, either. I really like the academic programs at Cornell, so I think I’ll still apply, but I’m pretty much turned off of Lehigh. Purdue and IU are a bit big for my liking, but as in-state options they’re as good as I could ask for.