They said they’d never heard of those schools being good at CS, but I can try to convince them.
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University of Toronto claims that they are T10 worldwide for CS. (Not sure of their methodology, of course).
U of T ranked among world’s top 10 universities for computer science (toronto.edu)
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Also, here is a list of top schools by median CS salary, if that is helpful. Some may be easier to get into than ones already on your list, so maybe your parents are interested in that metric.
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OP, always keep in mind that salary data is heavily dependent on the most popular industries/career paths of the students and the location of the major firms in that industry.
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Agreed. I was just trying to find a list that might be acceptable to the OP’s parents and that had some schools that weren’t as highly-rejective as most of the ones on the original list, so that the OP might have some additional options.
Perhaps the ones towards the end of the list: WPI, RPI, RIT.
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Maybe also Rose-Hulman.
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@james0453 In one of your first posts you said you don’t think you will qualify for need-based financial aid due to your family’s high assets. That very well may be true, but it is worth running the Net Price Calculators for some of the schools of interest just to see. Colleges actually weight income much more heavily than assets when determining what a family can pay, and they also don’t count assets in a 401k or IRA, and many won’t count home equity for the family’s primary residence.
So it may be that your family might qualify for some need-based aid. I don’t know if that would make any difference to opening up additional options for you, but it’s probably worth the time to get some estimates via the Net Price Calculator. (Google Net Price Calculator and the name of a college. Or, for a quick option, try www.myintuition.org ). Note that if your parents are divorced or own a small business then the NPCs won’t be as accurate.
Note that all colleges are different, so an estimate for one will not necessarily be the same estimate for another.
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Thank you!
I’ve ran the net price calculator for a few of the my top reaches using data directly from our tax forms, but I got $0 in aid for all of them.
Do colleges take into account the mortgages/other debts we have? My parents own more than two million dollars in rental property but most of that is under mortgage. The NPCs have a spot for debts but they don’t seem to take that into account.
As I recall, yes – the FAFSA asks for the net worth of investments, so that would be the value minus what is owed. The CSS Profile will ask for more detail than that but will take into account what is owed on the value of the assets.
But, if your parents are receiving rents from the properties, that will count as income and if it is high enough it may preclude you from need-based aid.
Tagging @BelknapPoint and @kelsmom for further comments and to correct me if I am wrong.
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But these would not be safeties (and commuting to a mostly residential college may not be the best experience).
Also, NCSU has competitive secondary admission to CS.
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I have worked with a very large number of computer science graduates from U.Mass Amherst and many, many of them are excellent. U.Mass is very good for CS. High tech is of course a major industry in Massachusetts.
I noticed that you thought they would pay for Waterloo, which is also very good for computer science. The Maclean’s university rankings for CS currently has UBC, Toronto, and Waterloo tied as the top three in Canada for CS, with McGill fourth. Any of these schools would be excellent for a degree in CS, and all are well known by employers in the US. Maclean’s is by the way a Canadian magazine that probably has the best known rankings for universities in Canada. Admissions in Canada tends to be significantly more stats based compared to the US, and your stats are excellent. This would help your chances at any of these four very good universities.
Rental property and small business ownership both tend to have very unfortunate implications on need based financial aid in the USA.
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I’ll have knocked out most of the CODA requirements for the NCSU College of Engineering by the time I would enter there because of AP credits and dual enrollment- I would only have to take Chem 101 and the associated lab to CODA.
Edit: also, my Calculus 3 (in progress), Linear Algebra, and Diff Eq classes will all be taken through NCSU’s non-degree program, would that be favorable for admissions if I do well?
Thank you! I will talk to them about the Maclean’s magazine and the other three top Canadian CS schools you listed, thank you so much for providing me with this information! 
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Yes, this is correct. While the investments may be heavily mortgaged, making the net value relatively low compared to their market value, the income received would likely increase the EFC.
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But will your college grades (including converted AP scores) be enough to be admitted to CS in CODA?
Is there a reason UMD isn’t on your list? It’s a top 20 CS program so there is a chance your parents would pay full cost and there is also a chance you would receive significant merit.
A new introductory CS series is being introduced next year, the honors housing is great, at least 3 Atlas Fellows will be attending this fall and UMD was 4th in Putnam this year.
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I have a 5 on the Calc BC exam, which gives me an A on Calc 1 and Calc 2 for CODA purposes.
Also, the Physics C teacher at my school is really good, and I heard most of her students get 5s on the exam, so I can probably count on CODA As for the physics course and its lab.
For CODA, I just have to get As in the Chem course and its lab to have a maxed CODA GPA.
Hi,
We didn’t leave UMD off the list for any specific reason haha, we just never really considered it.
The benefits sound great, thank you for telling me! I’ll go tell them
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I worked with and hired multiple engineers and SWEs from Waterloo at two extremely well known tech powerhouses. They were outstanding and Waterloo’s co-op is second to none.
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Wow! Well I’m happy I’m applying there then haha
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