How about ED to CMU? I have heard that it isn’t as much of an advantage as other schools, but what are your thoughts on that?
Budget my friend. You are full pay and cmu diesnt meet need even if you weren’t.
Go ahead. ED. Get in.
Then give your parents a bill for $340k because this year cost of attendance is $78k and college is always $3-5k more than they tell you. And then there’s inflation.
If your parents are a hard no on $340k and last night you said cost is important, then there is zero reason to apply to CMU other than ego to see if they will take you. Because your family won’t let you go and imagine if they did, the financial strain you would put them under.
Now if last night you said my family makes 200k plus and will pay full for any college in America, id have a different answer.
Frankly why do you need to ED at all ? Many do but why ? You hear higher acceptance rates and it’s true. But it also includes hooked students and athletes. It’s not as straight up as they say. If you have 20 schools and no clear favorite or you have budget concerns, you don’t ED as a full pay. Because if you get in, you will likely be full pay.
Budget comes first my friend. Then let’s find schools.
2 Likes
I know you were not asking me, but I don’t love ED for a student that does not have a clear favorite.
Arguably, it may increase the odds of getting into a highly ranked program — but is just getting into any highly ranked program without the chance to go for better merit aid what you want?
I think a lot of people are using ED just to try to make sure they land at a prestigious school, then they are left with regret. Some families I know feel like they didn’t aim high enough with ED and locked themselves out of a potential dream school. Others were sad to walk away from an especially attractive merit aid package from a lower ranked school that they ended up really loving before the ED decision came out.
Consider whether you really want to do ED or not. Guidance counselors at feeder schools often see themselves tasked with getting as many kids into big-name schools as they can, so they advise you to do ED to make that happen. But is that YOUR goal — just a top 20 school, ANY top 20 school, at the price they name? Just food for thought.
3 Likes
Separate from all the very valid considerations that people are highlighting to the OP, I think fit is something that he/she should seriously consider. This past summer, my son met a bunch of people at his internship, and these were his observations of what people were telling him – I am just going to share a few examples. A T5 school: The kid was unsurprisingly very pleased with the CS curriculum but he did say that he sometimes wished there was a bit more humanities presence. A T20 well regarded school in CS that is very popular here in CC: The kid’s main complaint was 1) How rigid the curriculum was 2) how slow it was 3) how vocationally oriented it was. A T25 school: The kid felt similarly about CS at as the kid did, but didn’t see it as cause for complaint. The kid called intro ML a theoretical class which should say a lot.
So pick wisely, within your budget. Talk to a lot of kids at these schools. Don’t just go by the ranking.
2 Likes
My kid goes to Alabama - an engineer not CS. His two roomies for his summer job - he found them because they were on the same team - both go to Ga Tech. While my kid could not gave gotten into Ga Tech, he did get into Purdue with merit, but chose much lower ranked Alabama for what you just said - fit. Frankly, he fell in love wit a gorgeous campus, h having his own modern room vs. living in overcrowded housing. I’m sure being 3.5 hours vs. 6.5 from mom was another factor.
One kid was invited back for this summer. It wasn’t the GA Tech ones.
Just saying…it’s not all about the “pedigree”. That alone, doesn’t assure success.
1 Like
That’s a valid point.
So assuming I do not ED, what schools would you rec for EA/RD?
Again I can’t answer to you give a desired $ figure.
You’re talking to a guy who had a dollar figure. About $50k a year so $400k for two kids.
Two kids combined will cost me $140-150k. So I know how to plan to hit a #. Ultimately my kids chose their schools. I simply said if those you got in, here’s what you can choose. They happened to choose cheaper off the list. And my daughter picked up another $20k in scholarship after accepting. That’s just lucky !!
You are very early and are inefficient in the process.
Until your parents give you an annual #, there is no reason to look. You are way early.
Focus on school. It’s likely your parents may not have a # right away. They may need to think about what they’ve saved, how much they can afford from income etc.
Again, it’s not a question of what they can afford. It’s a question of what they are willing to afford.
I could afford any school in the country. But I wasn’t willing to pay. So my kids didn’t bother with the Ivys, Tufts, Gtown.
Slow down my friend.
I really don’t know about ED for CMU. That said, my thought is if you ED anywhere it should be the one school you love and would attend above all others.
If you don’t ED anywhere then I would EA to any schools that offer that choice. Better to find out early than later.
You have in-state Pitt and PSU for about $35k/year. I would use this as a benchmark. Would you attend a school like UMD, VT, or NC State for $50k/year or more? Save the money. MIT, CMU, Rice and others might be worth the difference. That’s something you have to figure out with your parents.
Good luck.
2 Likes
The acceptance letters do a good job of whittling down the list. The real screening is actually the financial aid package. You throw away the ones you can’t afford, and whatever is left is what you choose from. Keep at least one good “foolproof” school on your list, just in case none of the schools are affordable. Trust me, it happens. Financial aid packages are a mixed bag of worms.
This is true - but if the student is full pay - that’s what he said although he should run a NPC to see -
If the student is full pay, the COA is well above budget and the college gives no merit, there is zero reason to get to the point where you get an acceptance - and you can whittle the list down now b4 you start.
That’s all I’m saying.
If OP says, my family would ideally like to spend $40K but is willing to spend $50K and we ran a net price calculator or two and we are full pay - then you can take PENN, Cal and Dartmouth off the list right now. CMU and NYU do have merit - not sure how much - but if it’s a possible to hit the # - you leave it on - as long as you have a school to hit your # - Pitt.
But to keep Penn, Dartmouth or Cal on up front when there is zero way to come in the ballpark of your desire - again, using a # I made up - you whittle that now - and if you want Ivy, you say - ok, Penn is out but I’ll replace with Rice or Vandy, etc. - places where merit isn’t easy - but at least it’s possible.
But until we have a # - there’s no reason to discuss.
OP’s parents may say - you could go to Arizona or Alabama for $20K…do that!!!
We just don’t know.
1 Like
Chance for: CMU, Penn M&T, MIT, Cal EECS, Dartmouth, GT, UIUC, NYU CAS (CS+Econ). Recommend: Schools to ED to as well as to apply for in general. Also, how much would a B in BC Calculus hurt me?
The suggestions above about confirming with your parents how much per year they can afford to spend are totally spot on. For example, let’s say your household income is $200k/year, but that might not necessarily mean that they can afford $70k/year for college for 4 years.
So until you know what you and your parents can afford to pay, then you absolutely should not apply ED to ANYWHERE.
Once you know what your parents can afford to pay per year, THEN the next step is to go to the websites of each of the schools you’re interested and plug in your family’s financial #s in the NPC (Net Price Calculator). If the NPC ends up greater than what you can afford to pay per year, then you should probably cross that school off of the list. Pay attention to whether the school’s NPC states that a bunch of your family’s financial aid would be in the form of loans, though…you might not want, for example, $50,000/year of student & parent loans ($200,000 at the end of 4 years…that’s a mortgage payment each month).
A true “safety” school, in my opinion is one in which: (a) you know that you’re a shoe in to get admitted to; (b) you & your family can afford; and (c) a school which you could see yourself spending 4 years of your life at.
Let’s say you’re a shoe in to get admitted to School A, but you later find out that you really can’t afford it. Then it’s not a safety school.
Consider, instead, University of Alabama - Huntsville. Let’s say that your parents tell you that they can afford $25-30k/year…thus leaving you thinking, “OMG, I’m not going to be able to afford any Top 20 schools!” I would encourage you to, in that situation, think outside the box a little bit. Bear with me for a sec while I explain…
UAH is a STEM-focused university. In the engineering world, it has a good reputation. They don’t call Huntsville “Rocket City” for nothing. LOTS of tech companies love to hire engineering grads from UAH. There are a LOT of opportunities for internships at defense industry companies through UAH…many engineering students end up doing a 1-semester “coop” internship at one of those local companies (places like Northrup, Lockheed, etc., etc.). OOS cost of attendance for tuition, room & board is about $32,000. Let’s say your parents said, “Hey, we can pay $25k, but not $32k.”
Given your stats, though, you’d qualify for one of their top OOS merit scholarships → UAH - Admission & Aid - Scholarships. This could result in your tuition, room & board cost being $0 - ~$14k-$16k.
That’s a heck of a lot better than paying $78,000/year.
If you were my kid and you told me that you wanted to work on exciting cutting edge stuff in engineering AND if there were cost constraints to college, I’d be telling you to go apply there as well.
2 Likes
CMU, Cal, and UIUC are very highly ranked for CS. They are going to be reaches out of state. I will admit that I am not completely sure whether “Cal” means “UC Berkeley” or “Caltech”. I am guessing the first. It would IMHO be a reach either way.
I think that a B in BC Calculus might hurt a bit for MIT (or for Caltech, Harvey Mudd, and probably Stanford). My recollection from back when I was at MIT was that students still remembered the math class where they did not get a + sign after their A. You are taking it early and it is possible that admissions might just think of this as something that you took a bit too soon and thus a lesson not to “jump ahead” quite as much in the future (and top schools will definitely have lots of math classes where this is a valuable lesson to heed).
You have to make sure that you have solid safeties and that the budget will work out. CS is a very employable major regardless of which “top 100” or even “top 200” university you attend. With your excellent stats you should be able to get into some schools that are very good for CS.
I am not a fan of ED unless you BOTH are sure what your first choice will be, and are sure that it will be affordable.
Hey everyone, so I discussed with my parents and ran a few NPC’s. Almost every school we tried with the exception of a few state schools were giving us 70k+, which is obviously not a small amount. Basically, we would be able to afford 70k a year with significant loans… although doable, I would definitely like to avoid if possible. What are some good schools that provide good aid for CS? Thanks in advance, and this money discussion tip has really helped a lot.
1 Like
You can’t do it with significant loans. Because you can only borrow $5500 in year one and 27k over four years.
See you can eliminate so much of your list!!
You still haven’t given a # or desires, geography etc. I chose under $50k but the first section is $20kish or maybe a tad more.
Btw CS - from what all the CS professionals say on this board where you attend not so critical. What you know is what matters.
So let’s do this. And remember most publics have great Honors Colleges.
Safety, Dirt Cheap and Solid- Alabama, UAH, Arizona, Missouri Science & Tech
Safety. Penn State, NC State, Miami (with merit), Pitt, ASU SUNY BING, Iowa State, UTK, Auburn
Match - RPI (with merit),Florida, OHIO St
Low Reach - Purdue
Reach Ga Tech, Rice (doesn’t meet budget but has not easy to get merit), UIUC
There’s also smaller schools like RIT, WPI, RHIT etc but CS seems mainly in publics
I’d be looking at the first list….cheap. But hopefully this helps !!
I’d check out WPI. Excellent CS program and I know a few kids that got very good merit there with stats a little lower than yours. I’d definitely go EA there if it’s of interest as that can maximize merit.
So glad you and your parents did the NPCs sooner rather than later. I would not recommend taking out large loans for CS. Student loans are limited at $27K total for undergrad, anything above that is on the parents, either directly or as a co-signer.
Did you and your parents discuss a budget, one that wouldn’t require more than the student loans?
Take some time to define what factors are important to you in a school…size, location, setting, etc. Start doing some virtual admissions session to learn about schools and see what appeals to you.
I would start with your PA instate options, including Pitt and PSU. You would likely get good merit at U Dayton and DePaul, both excellent for CS, both may get to under $40k in net cost for you, maybe even under $30k.
Do liberal arts colleges appeal to you? Many have excellent CS. Maybe run the NPCs at Rice and Colby and let us know how those fare.
It’s great you will be able to build a solid college list relatively early, which will give you time to do research and even make some visits on spring break/in the summer before you start applying.
2 Likes
I’m glad that you had a discussion with your parents and ran NPCs. When at all possible, I think it is best to avoid loans to pay for college. It sounds as though your family would be able to afford a number of schools without taking loans, but not $70k+ (very understandable!). What would your family feel comfortable paying per year without taking out loans? Once we have that number, the board can help offer suggestions that would either come in under budget and/or would be likely to provide enough merit to reach the budgeted amount.
Additionally, what kind of a college are you looking for? Size, geography, Greeks/no Greeks, big athletics or not, etc.? Are debate, Model UN, or any of your other extracurriculars something you’re interested in continuing in college?
With your stats, at Univ of Alabama-Huntsville, you’d qualify for the UAH Academic Excellence OOS merit scholarship, which is $19,900/year. It will require you to have a cumulative 3.0 GPA at the end of each semester in order to renew it.
OOS total direct costs (tuition, room, board, fees) at that schools is $34,648 (this does not include travel expenses, books, personal spending money). With that scholarship, it brings the cost down to $14,748.
That school really has some excellent CS opportunities. You should also look at Univ of Alabama in Tuscaloosa as well…it has a good engineering school/CS program as well. At both schools, you’d qualify to get into their honors college as well, which will get you priority registration.
In the tech world, most employers don’t really care WHERE you get your CS degree in. Like the other poster said…they care about what you know, what you can do, what your skill set is.
The UAH dorms are all single person rooms, by the way…2 people share 1 bathroom, and 4 rooms connect to a common space/living room sort of set up.
The great AP scores you’ve already gotten will get you out of some general ed requirements.
I would highly encourage you to consider touring both schools. Or at least go explore their websites and look into some virtual tours that they might have online. Contact their admissions department and ask questions.
You have great stats, ECs, and a penchant for high ranking schools. After running the NPCs, colleges don’t think you’ll qualify for financial need. Your family’s budget is somewhere south of $70k, as paying that much would require loans.
Based on the above, this is the list I’d draw up for you if I was a high school guidance counselor. For many of these, I think the cost would be even lower because I think you’d be highly likely for merit aid, quite possibly very generous merit aid. I’d research these, visit if possible, and see where you think there’s a good fit. Then in the spring of your senior year, see what kind of scholarships you’re offered and what the final price of these will be. Because I think you’ll be a highly-desired candidate, and getting a top scholarship from a university will also frequently bring special perks, like meeting with notable visitors, getting special research opportunities, etc.
Reach
• University of Washington $55k
• University of Illinois – Urbana – Champaign $47k-$54k
• University of Texas $52k
- Georgia Tech (moved from Likely to Reach based on comment below)
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo $44k (edited from prior price based on discussion below, and from Likely to Reach)
Likely
• Rose-Hulman $56k (merit aid likely to take it closer to $40k, or more for your stats)
• University of Maryland $52k (as you included this in your original list)
• Rutgers $46k (saw it on separate lists for notable Model UN & debate teams)
• Worcester Polytechnic $71k (about 1/3 of students get merit aid averaging $19k…suspect you’d get more)
Safety
• University of Pittsburgh $30k
• Penn State $30k
• SUNY Stony Brook $43k
2 Likes