Best Computer Science School with Merit Aid

<p>My son wants to major in computer science. He currently has a 2140 (700 Math/720 CR/720WR) SAT scores and an unweighted GPA of 3.8. I am trying to find great options for him where there is a good chance of him getting some merit aid. We are NY residents so the best state options would be Stony Brook/Binghamton/Buffalo but non really rate well from what I've seen for CS. He's interested in RIT and the co-op options, but it doesn't show up on any ratings for CS. Does anyone have any suggestions for us?</p>

<p>Not sure about aid but Illinois/Wisconsin are good schools for CS and aren’t as expensive</p>

<p>Case Western. </p>

<p>Forget Illinois, unless money is no object.</p>

<p>Stony Brook has a good reputation in CS.</p>

<p>What kind of budget are you looking at?</p>

<p>No merit aid for UIUC but acceptance rate is very high.</p>

<p>RPI and WPI give merit aid - I don’t know what sort of SAT scores and ranks make them dole it out though. My son (graduated from high school in 2007) got $10,000 guaranteed all four years from RPI and $15,000 from WPI (Worcester, MA) Polytechnic. I know others who got a bigger offer from WPI than RPI.</p>

<p>He was top 1% rank - 800 CR, 760M for comparison.</p>

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<p>The overall acceptance rate and stats for Illinois are deceiving. The requirements and acceptance rates for some programs are more demanding for some programs than for others.</p>

<p>[U&lt;/a&gt; of I Admissions: Freshman Admission Requirements](<a href=“http://admissions.illinois.edu/apply/requirements_freshman.html]U”>Page Not Found, Illinois Undergraduate Admissions)</p>

<p>The Department of Computer Science is in the College of Engineering, where the middle 50% ACT is 30-34 and you pretty much have to be in the top 10% of your high school class to be considered seriously for admittance. I don’t know what the acceptance rate is, but I’m sure it’s going to be higher than for the College of Education (25-29 ACT range).</p>

<p>Stony Brook does have an excellent CS program that is will respected. He might qualify for the Honors College and free tuition.</p>

<p>He could probably get the RPI Medal award worth 15K/year. It’s one/HS and not that hard to get. High Schools have to be ‘signed up’ but I think that’s also not hard.</p>

<p>[The</a> Rensselaer Medal :: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/admission/freshman/rpimedal.html]The”>The Rensselaer Medal | Admissions)</p>

<p>You might look here for some scholarship $: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>U. Texas at Dallas gives generous merit aid to all high-scoring students–in or out of state.
Your kid would qualify for full tuition+.</p>

<p>Stony Brook is very good.</p>

<p>U Arizona, Ohio State, SUNY Buffalo, UT-Dallas, and Minnesota are worth a look.<br>

[Wisconsin:</a> $41,050](<a href=“Office of Student Financial Aid – UW–Madison”>Office of Student Financial Aid – UW–Madison)
[Illinois:</a> $48,064](<a href=“http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/undergrad/nonres_1213.html]Illinois:”>http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/undergrad/nonres_1213.html)</p>

<p>Thanks for all the input, Stony Brook is kind of off the table because we are on Long Island and for him it would seem like he hadn’t achieved his goal of going to a good college away from home. He’s work hard during HS for his academics and doesn’t want to stay here. In terms of RPI he wasn’t nominated by the school for the medalist award, although his HS know he was interested in the school. He will be in the top 10% of his class. In terms of the budget I’m hoping to stay around $30,000 after any scholarship money.</p>

<p>Case is very generous with merit money for kids with top stats, which yours has.</p>

<p>RIT with its guaranteed merit would fall in your price range. However, with its co-op requirements, it is a 5 year program. It sounds like you don’t think the school is up to his standards for a ‘good’ school though. My S loves it there, but he didn’t have high standards!</p>

<p>I don’t want to say that RIT is not up to his standard, although I am concerned that the program never appears on any rankings. I guess what I am looking for are additional options, and other schools that “rank” and put him in the running for merit.</p>

<p>I don’t want to say that RIT is not up to his standard, although I am concerned that the program never appears on any rankings</p>

<p>How far down do rankings for undergrad CS go? I thought only about the top 5-10 are mentioned in rankings. I think rankings for undergrad STEM are largely over-rated…especially once you get beyond schools like MIT, Cal Tech, etc. </p>

<p>Companies hire CS majors from all kinds of schools…ranging from CSU/Cal Polys to SUNYs to all flagships, to regional publics, to privates, etc. There just aren’t enough grads from the top ranked schools to produce enough people to hire. And, guess what…companies pay the new hires the same…regardless of their undergrad schools</p>

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<p>Which means absolutely nothing. Rankings are based on irrelevant criteria and have no bearing on the quality of an undergraduate education. The only thing they’re good for is generating income for the rankers.</p>

<p>Stony Brook is the obvious choice despite the proximity
few if any other state universities can compete on the combination of price and quality
check out the other SUNYs
for merit scholarship try: Northeastern, RPI, WPI, CWRU</p>

<p>My suggestion is to go to a SUNY and bribe him with help with graduate school, a nice used car, etc.</p>

<p>Sony Brook is considered a top CS program.</p>

<p>U MN is ranked just slightly below Stony Brook and would be about $30,000 per year but you might receive some merit from them. </p>

<p>Overall, U MN is a research powerhouse and under appreciated on a national scale.</p>