Chance an Asian High School Junior for T20 CS [parents will only pay for top 20 or Oregon State]

[parentologist]

Just to let you know, RPI might give you good merit money, bringing the cost of attendance down to close to your in-state option.

[eyemgh]

The original is in San Luis Obispo. It’s generally referred to just as Cal Poly, but some will call it SLO. Pomona and Humboldt carry the city names to distinguish them from the original. Sorry I confused you.

CS is very competitive there, with around a 5% acceptance rate give or take. It’s an algorithm based decision though so you should be competitive.

[eyemgh]

Rankings misses SO many things, but very importantly, the USNWR doesn’t take into account earnings data. Of course fit is important, but by following rank alone, a family could send their student to a Top 10 school with giant lectures where they end up with a lower salary.

According to College Scorecard the salary average two year out for Illinois, GT, UW, and Texas are $118K, $110K, $110K, and $97K respectively. Cal Poly is $143K and HMC is $159K. For a relative comparison, MIT, Stanford and Berkeley are all $160K.

[ucbalumnus]

@PortlandJuniorCS

When you say “cal poly”, which location do you mean? To my knowledge, there are multiple cal poly locations, correct? Sorry, outside of the UC system I am not too familiar with California universities.

There are 9 Universities of California with undergraduate programs and 23 California State Universities (CSUs). Of the CSUs, 3 of them are called “Cal Poly”: San Luis Obispo, Pomona, and Humboldt. The latter two offer WUE tuition discounts, but are less likely to be what your parents are willing to pay for. San Luis Obispo is generally the most selective CSU, although San Jose State University may be similarly selective for the computer science major.

[eyemgh]

@ucbalumnus

3 of them are called “Cal Poly”: San Luis Obispo, Pomona, and Humboldt. The latter two offer WUE tuition discounts, but are less likely to be what your parents are willing to pay for.

Humboldt just became the third Polytechnic school in the CSU system this year. Given the architecture you’re looking for, the connection to the California tech sector, and the gravitas of being a “Poly,” I would think it would be a great second safety if you feel like you need one. You don’t though as OSU is fine if you’d be happy there. You’ll certainly get in.

[DadTwoGirls]

@collegemom3717

You might not have to skip school, if (for example) you have an early enough fall break, or if your classes start after Cornell’s do (August 22).

I agree.

We took advantage of high school breaks whenever possible. We toured some local schools in the late afternoon after high school was over. We toured schools that were 2 or 3 hours away on a day when high school was taking a day off, or on Saturdays. One year we toured schools in Canada during US Thanksgiving holiday. We did some tours over the summer.

One university did not offer tours over the summer. We got a tour over the summer anyway by just asking. I am still a bit surprised that they did it.

I agree that anyone should take a tour before applying ED. ED is a big commitment. Cornell is a bit of a hike from Oregon, but it is worth seeing it. There might be something to say for visiting in the winter given the difference in weather between Oregon versus Ithaca. I used to visit each year over Washington’s Birthday (late February) and it seemed to always snow that weekend.

[AustenNut]

There’s a good chance that you will get more than one acceptance to schools besides Oregon State on your list. As there are no guarantees, however, I’m going to throw out names of universities where I think you are likelier to receive an admittance than some of the ones on your list, and to receive substantial merit aid (don’t have your family judge based on the sticker prices!). Rankings are all per USNWR. As I don’t have a paid USNWR account, I can only indicate if it has a CS ranking, not what it’s ranking is. There are probably other colleges I could have added, but there was an error on USNWR loading results after Texas State, so I don’t know which things after that alphabetically have a CS rating.

I believe USNWR classifies “regional” universities as those that don’t do doctoral programs, or that top out mostly at the Master’s level.

• Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo: Rated #2 among western regional universities, has a CS ranking, and is rated as #3 for best undergraduate teaching.
• U. of Portland (OR): It’s rated #3 among western regional universities and it has some kind of a CS ranking. It’s also #2 for undergraduate teaching.
• Whitworth (WA): it’s rated #4 among western regional universities and it also has some kind of CS ranking. It’s #10 for undergraduate teaching.
• UT-Dallas: Has a very strong CS program, and are you going to be a National Merit Finalist? If so, you’d get a full ride here.
• Case Western & Santa Clara: I’d guess their CS programs are pretty highly rated and both would have much better acceptance odds (and merit aid) than most of the schools on your list.

Some T20 national liberal arts colleges that have a CS ranking (and some of which are seeking more Asian students) include:
• Amherst (MA): #2
• Bowdoin (ME): #6
• Carleton (MN): #9
• Colby (ME): #17
• Colgate (NY): #17
• Grinnell (IA): #13

WUE options with a CS ranking. I’ve bolded the ones classified as residential campuses in the College Board’s listings, but others have said that other universities have a residential feel (like Cal Poly Pomona and Boise State, for instance). If there are particular campuses of interest, I would ask others if it seems like a commuter campus or not (for instance, I believe U. of Utah is also classified as a commuter campus, but most would not consider it one).

• Boise State (ID)
• Cal Poly Pomona
• Cal State Bakersfield
• Cal State Channel Islands
• Cal State Chico-residential campus
• Cal State Dominguez Hills
• Cal State Northridge
• Cal State Sacramento
• Cal State San Bernardino
• Cal State San Marcos
• Cal State Stanislaus
• Colorado State -residential campus
• Idaho State
• Metropolitan State U. of Denver
• Montana Technological U.
• New Mexico State
• Northern Arizona U.-residential campus
• Sonoma State
• South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
• Southern Utah-residential campus

[AustenNut]

@ucbalumnus

There are 9 Universities of California with undergraduate programs and 23 California State Universities (CSUs). Of the CSUs, 3 of them are called “Cal Poly”: San Luis Obispo, Pomona, and Humboldt. The latter two offer WUE tuition discounts

I don’t think Humboldt is still offering WUE discounts, at least not for anything CS related. I selected Computer Science, Computer Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, and another one, and the only Cal Poly coming up was Pomona. Here’s the WUE site.

[ucbalumnus]

https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/wue-savings-finder/school-details/?schoolID=0011H00001Q1eJHQAZ still lists it (with computer science as an eligible major) under its old name Humboldt State University.

[AustenNut]

Thanks for the link. If OP is interested in Humboldt, then I think it would be wise to verify that it will still be applicable for his year. Fingers crossed that it will!

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

@DadTwoGirls

I was not able to find anything for Cornell.

Thanks for trying, if anyone is able to find any information about this, I would heavily appreciate it though

Aside from that, I really appreciate the information about Canadian Unis. Before this, I didn’t really consider them, so this was definitely very informative.

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

@thumper1

Don’t plan to “convince” them later that paying more than they really can afford is a good idea. It’s not.

The issue with the payment is not really the amount. I’ve talked to her since your comment and she said “you don’t need to consider it at all, just get into the best college you can”. It’s more like whether or not she feels as if she is getting enough value for her money. Like her idea is that why 33k/year pay for something like Ohio State, which, although is better than Oregon state, is not notably better in her mind. So when I say I can try to convince her to pay WUE tuition, I was basically trying to say she’ll probably agree to some schools, as the tuition is the same or even less for a comparable if not better school. I hope that this clears up my financial situation a little more.

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

This is a reply to @DadTwoGirls as well

After hearing everyone suggest strongly visiting Cornell, I’ll definitely try to find out more information. I might be able to visit later in my summer vacation, but I’ll have to see. I hear that NY just has bad weather in general, if I visit in late August will I be able to at least get a feel for it to see if I can bear it?

Aside from that, is there anything else in particular that I should note if I visit?

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

I was actually recently talking with my parents about Rice. I already have a lot of extreme reaches but I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

I believe someone else in this thread already suggested it, and I’m definitely considering it.

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

Don’t be sorry, I really appreciate the heads up about these universities because I don’t think my parents or I have really looked into what USNews calls regional universities too thoroughly.

Since there aren’t really any rankings comparing the two, aside from earnings, does anyone know how else I would be able to compare the two in terms of the strength of the CS program?

@eyemgh

It’s an algorithm based decision though so you should be competitive.

By algorithm based, do you mean that they mainly consider statistics?

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

@ucbalumnus

but are less likely to be what your parents are willing to pay for.

I’ve looked at Pomona and Humboldt, and the WUE tuition for both are listed at about 8.6k. Are the other fees like dorms exorbitant there, or are there other hidden fees through WUE?

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

In one of your earlier comments, you mentioned that the acceptance rates are about 5% for CS. Was that for the acceptance rate for SLO, or are stats just that important at the cal poly schools.

Thanks

[PortlandJuniorCS]

Hi, thanks for the reply

I really appreciate you taking all of this time to sift through so much stuff, thanks so much.

I noticed that some of the regional universities you suggested on your list are noted for being religious. I am not religious and I would prefer to not go into some sort of heavily religious environment that I would not really fit in with. So if anyone knows, if I attend a religious university, would the religious aspect of the school take up a large portion of my life, or would it be near unnoticeable?

@AustenNut

some of which are seeking more Asian student

Do you happen to know which ones are looking for Asians?

@AustenNut

I’ve bolded the ones classified as residential campuses

Do non-residential campuses have dorm options? Sorry if this is a naive question because if I am going OOS, I would definitely prefer to not have the stress of finding somewhere to live while getting used to a whole new state and a whole new environment in college.

Thanks

[collegemom3717]

@PortlandJuniorCS

Aside from that, is there anything else in particular that I should note if I visit?

The weather is the headline of what people say what puts them off Cornell, but imo what you are really looking for is more of a temperament thing. Overall, and in particular in the CS / Engineering / Math / Physics end of the world, Cornell students tend to be very intense. It’s not a work hard / play hard culture, it’s a work hard culture. Some of it is the workload (which is heavy), and some of it is the students, who tend to be highly self-motivated. It’s a bit simplistic, but you might say that the campus culture is the introvert to Dartmouth’s extrovert. That could really suit you- or not. The GradSchoolKid (who TAs some of the physics-type classes that the CS & Engineering students take, so has seen the intensity first hand) is really, really happy there- but is also clear that she is really really glad that she didn’t go there for undergrad.

I am truly not trying to put you off Cornell: it is an excellent program! But between the students who have washed up here on CC part-way through their first year, desperate to transfer out and the stories from the frontlines that I am hearing, I think it is very much a ‘fit’ school, and like all ‘fit’ schools, when the fit is good, it’s amazing (and I have met some very happy UG students at Cornell), but when the fit is not good, it’s really not happy.

ps, August in Ithaca is glorious weather.