Assistance in formulating college lists![CS/Software Engineering at liberal campus for domestic applicant w/no state residency]

College Search & Selection
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Hi, everyone! I’m a junior in California (small private bs) who will most likely be unable to visit any schools because I do not live with my parents most of the year and they’re most likely not going to spend summer visiting schools. None of my parents went to university in the US and neither do my siblings. Not an international applicant.

What I am looking for:

I want to major in computer science/software engineering. I currently do not have plans for masters or a PHD.

My heart is inclined to the West Coast because of warmer weather. I don’t know how I’ll fare in cold weather, but the random bouts of cold morning wind in Cali have defeated me (mainly because I don’t have the clothes for that kind of weather).

Also inclined to a liberal-esque community suburban/urban area. A school with an active campus life please (the amount of commuter schools that have broken my heart as of late is saddening.)

I’ve only ever been to small schools (less than 500) so I am unsure of how I’ll fare in bigger schools, but I’m very open to them.

I can’t apply to an HBCUs because my parents are not open to them at all.

Statistics:
PSAT score is a 1290 without studying. I got 700+ in the reading writing section… math was a doozy lol but I’ve been studying as of late to get a better SAT math score, I can’t “wing” math the same as reading and writing.

UW GPA: 4.00 (currently). I do not take any APs this year (unfortunate) and my school offers less than 10. I hope to take at least 2 in senior year. No honors classes available. I have to do Geom this year (I have credit for algebra 1 and algebra 2) because it’s a California graduation requirement. This means I will most likely end high school at the pre-calc level.

Here’s where it gets a bit confusing for me. In freshman and sophomore year, I was doing an IGCSE curriculum (will never do A-levels) and I am unsure of how that translates into an American curriculum. I did the IGCSE exam for 10 subjects (comp sci, econ, physics, chem and others) and got 9s (essentially a higher A+) on all of them.

I’m on my current school’s basketball and volleyball team and also participate in our FIRST tech robotics team and volunteer frequently.

In my older school, I held essentially a student govt position for two years (the oldest grade in that school is 10th). In the dorms, I had the role of house captain which is student govt for dorms.

Additionally, I did basketball and track there. I participated frequently in speech, debate and spoken word in my older school. I came 2nd in the spoken word competition at an interschool league, won a debate contest at another interschool league with a group of my classmates. I did SAMO (South African Maths Olympiad) but never could get past the 2nd round.

That school did do internal awards for the subjects split by grade (a few of which I’ve won) but I am unsure of whether it really matters.

Demographics:

Black (not African-American).
2 siblings in college (not in the states).
Female
Applying for FA
I believe my parents’ EFC would be in the 20k-30k range.

If you’ve read this far, thank you so much and I appreciate it! If you know me, please delete this from your memory.

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Are you a US citizen or US permanent resident? If you are, and you are black, you will be considered to be African American, with possible racial preferences for acceptance and scholarships, even if your parents are both South African. Do your parents live in the US, and if so, in what state do they live? You are then in-state for that state, and your best option for your academic qualifications and your finances is going to be your in-state colleges and flagship.

If your parents don’t live in the US, you really need to figure out whether California schools will consider you to be a California resident. You go to school in CA, and if you’re a permanent resident/citizen, you might be able to convince them of this, even if your parents don’t live in the US. If they don’t live anywhere in the US, maintain a home anywhere in the US, pay in-state taxes anywhere in the US, then if I were you, I’d look into whether getting a CA non-driver’s ID, registering to vote (if you’re 18 or nearing 18), and even getting a tiny part-time job, on the books, so that you can file and pay CA taxes yourself this year, will make any difference, but I’m afraid it may not. The reason that I say this is that I have a feeling that your best fit, financially and weather-wise, will be a public CA college, IF you can be viewed as in-state.

From what you describe, I don’t think that you’re likely to be awarded enough fin aid at a private college to meet the 20-30K/yr that you say is your EFC and that your parents can contribute (presumably).

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US Citizen.

My parents typically don’t live in the states but coincidentally, this year my dad and my mom are stationed in another US state. However, by summer of this year they’re moving away (dad lives in Europe, mother lives in Africa regularly). So just for my junior year, they’re in TX.

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California residency for tuition is described at Residency requirements | Understanding residency for purposes of UC tuition

However, there is also a provision for those who graduate from California high schools after enough attendance: AB 540 nonresident tuition exemption | UC Admissions

If you qualify for either, then you may want to look into UCs and CSUs. Note that CS does tend to be a more competitive major.

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Note: UCs and CSUs do not consider SAT, ACT, race, ethnicity in admission.

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Don’t think I qualify for the cali residency tuition (nor will I have enough attendance). Oh well.

Thank you for the recs!

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Sounds like a smaller school such as Occidental or slightly larger one like a USD or LMU might work. Or a smaller state school like CSU San Marcos.

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This is a list of colleges you might want to consider. California and Texas are both really good places for CS. The Texas schools are all in more liberal-leaning areas of Texas. Rhodes and UNC-Asheville are the only two not in those states, but both are in the south. UNC-Asheville would probably have the coolest weather of the bunch, but nothing like real “northern” weather.

  • California Lutheran: About 2600 undergrads

  • Occidental (CA): About 2k undergrads

  • Rhodes (TN): About 2k undergrads in Memphis

  • Saint Edward’s (TX): About 2900 undergrads…and Austin is liberal Texas

  • Southwestern (TX): About 1500 undergrads in Georgetown, just outside of Austin

  • St. Mary’s (TX): About 2k undergrads in San Antonio

  • Texas Wesleyan: About 1800 undergrads in Fort Worth

  • Trinity (TX): About 2500 undergrads in San Antonio

  • U. of North Carolina – Asheville: The public liberal arts college with about 3200 undergrads…and Asheville is very liberal

  • U. of Redlands (CA): About 2600 undergrads

  • U. of the Pacific (CA): About 3300 undergrads

In reading that your verbal SAT is so much higher than your math one and that you can’t “wing” math in the same way, and that it doesn’t appear as though you broke 600 on the math section, I would talk with some folks and see about taking some computer science coursework to see if that’s really the field you want to be in. Back in the stone age my verbal & math scores were much closer, and the CS for majors class still kicked my butt. Not saying this would happen to you, but there are a number of people who thought they would go into CS and then realize afterwards, it’s not the field for them. Basically, I’d see about trying to get more exposure to see if it’s a good fit.

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OP is not advanced in math, so it is possible that an early 11th grade SAT may have math not yet covered. OP is on track to complete precalculus in 12th grade, which is not behind in real life, even though it seems “behind” on these forums where it sometimes seems that taking calculus in 10th grade is typical.

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Oh, what I mean by wing is not studying. If I want to get a good score in a math test, I have to study beforehand. I will see if computer science coursework might be a wee bit too hard me, so thank you. Are there any websites I can find this lying around, or do I have to meet someone physically?

Some of the math did confuse me (because I’d never learned it) so hopefully, the second time around it will go well.

Thank you for the recommendations! I’ll be checking them out. Been thinking of expanding my tastes to the colder sides of the US, for example Drexel University in Philly!

Very, very appreciated! <3

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If I didn’t think you were capable of doing CS, I wouldn’t have looked for schools where I think you could get a good CS education and launch well. So please don’t take my earlier comment as an idea that you’re unlikely to be able to do CS or to do it well. It’s just something to be aware of that it might be very challenging, initially.

What are your summer plans? Perhaps look into a summer camp that has an intro to CS? Or audit an introductory CS class at a local college? I’m sure there are online tutorials and such, I just don’t have good resources for them. Does your high school offer any CS classes? Also, sometimes local community organizations will have programming or other CS-related classes, sometimes at the library or with local nonprofits, etc. There are probably also options available for females and/or people of color, as both of those are underrepresented in CS and other STEM fields.

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It’s all good! Did I sound offended? I hope not.

My high school offers a coding class but my schedule is full so I’m hoping to take it in my senior year.

I’ll look for the things you’ve mentioned, thanks!

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No, you didn’t sound offended. I just wanted to make my intent clear for you, and for anyone who ends up reading this down the line.

What’s inspired your shift to the north and to Drexel in particular? Are there any other aspects of colleges that you’re looking for that you didn’t include in your first post or that have shifted since then?

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To see Joel Embiid and the sixers! Jokes aside, it’s the co-op program that Drexel has that was interesting to me so I’ve just noted it down to research.

I guess something I didn’t mention is an apathy towards religious schools in general.

The thing with cold weather is I could probably bear it if I have winter clothes (which I don’t have as of now), and so I focused onto the west coast as its generally warmers. I haven’t been to many of the states and so was making assumptions based on what I think of the state.

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If you’re interested in co-op programs, then I’d also take a look at U. of Cincinnati, Northeastern, and…either Rensselaer Polytechnic or Rochester Institute of Technology, I can’t remember which does a really good job of incorporating co-ops, though I think it might be RPI. For these and any other institution, make sure your family runs the Net Price Calculator at each school, even though your family’s situation may or may not help to get a good estimate. Perhaps @Mwfan1921 might have some advice about that?

With respect to religious schools, are you opposed to any religion affiliations or are you opposed to a religious atmosphere? Some schools have religious affiliations but it bears minimal impact on everyday student life, or if it does it’s more about values of community service and such. Then there are other religiously-affiliated schools where there’s a definite influence on college life. Are you okay with the former, or do you want no religious affiliation whatsoever?

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Religious atmosphere is a no from me, but if a college is religious in name it shouldn’t truly matter. The net price calculator and my finances are best buddies now lol. I’ll check each of these out. Thank you very much for helping with my list!

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Why, and are there other parental restrictions other than the limit of what they can pay?

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They fear stigmas related to HBCUs, but are neutralish to them as a whole. No other restrictions I can think of currently.

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You can take a free introductory course online. Like this one:

This will give you a taste of programming. Take the course and see if it’s something you enjoy doing.

Aside from programming, if you major in CS expect to do a good number of math courses.

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I don’t know about RPI, but my brother-in-law went to RIT (25 years ago) and they had an extensive co-op system that he found really valuable. He got a great job right out of college with the company he co-op’ed with and has worked there ever since!

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