Ask the school for the outcomes of each so you can see how students do.
Many companies test the students which is why the school and sometimes major won’t even matter. Yes, non-CS and even non degrees work in programming jobs.
It if you have concerns, ask the department or career center for outcomes by degree.
Choose according to the requirements of the school, and your preferences. It shouldn’t make any difference in future hiring.
Yes, some scholarships would be paid directly to your school, and reduce your need, and hence reduce fin aid. But many small, local scholarships are paid directly to you. I’d imagine that you need to report them as income on your taxes, and so it might affect your fin need/aid two years hence, but it’s still worth it to get as many as you can. The more awards you win, the easier it is to win subsequent ones, and the money you win for junior and senior years won’t affect your fin aid/need, since they look at the tax return from two years prior.
You have to go to each school’s website to see how they handle outside scholarships. Meet full need schools require students to report ALL outside scholarships, whether they were paid out to the school or applicant. Schools that don’t meet full need typically don’t engage in scholarship displacement.
Even though you didn’t apply to Northwestern, they have a good primer on external scholarships with several examples, see here. From NU’s website “Federal regulations require that these scholarships be evaluated and incorporated into a student’s financial aid award, and adjustments may need to be made to existing aid”.
That’s not to say students can’t still benefit from outside scholarships, as one example shows these scholarships are typically used first to eliminate/reduce any work-study and/or student loans (both “self-help” items).
Talk to your HS GC, they should have a list of local scholarships. Good luck.
That depends on how one defines “easier”.
A BA requires more Humanities and Social Sciences courses, which tend to be writing-intensive as courses become advanced. The BS would require fewer of those, and more STEM courses.
So – students who don’t like writing papers might find a BA more taxing than a BS. Or, at least, equally taxing, but in a different way.
Best wishes! I think that you have shown a great deal of common sense and maturity in this thread. I expect that you are going to do very well.
Commonly, a financial aid package will list some or all the following components adding up to cost of attendance:
It is common, but not universal, that outside scholarships will be applied in order of SL, SW, UN, IG, PC. At colleges where this is the case, the effective value of outside scholarships is limited to SL + SW + UN, unless the outside scholarship is so large as to exceed SL + SW + UN + IG, in which case it would reduce PC.
However, colleges vary on their policies, so you may need to ask each college directly if it is not listed on the web site.
Compare the BA and BS majors in CS at Rutgers:
The similarities and differences:
If you are not interested in physics or chemistry, you could choose to do the BA but take extra electives like what BS majors are required to take if you want your CS education to be similar to that of a BS major.
The physics or chemistry may be specifically useful only in niche situations like taking the patent exam or if you go into computing with applications in physics or chemistry. Neither the BA nor BS degree is ABET accredited, but that is not generally a concern with CS from a reasonably well known and respected state flagship like Rutgers, except in niche situations like the patent exam.
I’d suggest you to try BS first and then switch out to BA if you don’t like it. You may do very well and like it.
So they would both be employable? I just don’t want to be at a disadvantage because of a BA.
Will do!
That’s reassuring, thank you!
Thank you so much!
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like the BS. Honors Chemistry was by far the worst class I’ve ever taken (online) and while I’m good with physics I’m really just not interested in continuing with it.
Yes not everyone’s cup of tea- same goes for my DD but she chose the BS. Did you decide to do ED2 and if so what school? So interested in hearing your selection since feel like we have been hearing about your journey and rooting for you.
Hi!! Sorry for the super late reply. I ended up not applying ED2 anywhere just based on the financial factor. I also just got my Rutgers NB acceptance today which is so great to have!!! Whatever happens with the other schools I’ll be satisfied.
Congratulations on the wonderful news! Hope you’ll continue to keep us updated on your college decisions!
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