<p>I am in a local county college right now looking to transfer, I really screwed myself through late high school and a few years after so I am getting a late start. However from what I have gathered it seems transfer students are judged more on their current academic work than anything before that. With that, I want to go for Computer Science, specifically computer programming. I have been programming for almost 8 years now in C/C++, Moderate assembly, Visual Basic, Some C#, PHP, etc. I have a pretty good portfolio of projects I have done (projects as big as gaming clients and graphical control libraries), I am passing all my programming/computer classes with A's seeing as I already know all of it..</p>
<p>Basically what I am asking is, do I have a chance of getting into Rensselaer or V.Tech for CS/Programming based on my current knowledge/experience? I have a 3.3 gpa right now and my only weak point really is that I am only in precalc.. I really didn't do the work in H.S., not that I can't, I just wasn't focused on school (Really regret that now too). So it is taking a bit to catch up.</p>
<p>If not - Would I fair better with any other good tech. schools? (possibly get some recommendations). I'd say I have graduate level experience in computer systems/programming and have done various jobs with software dev. businesses. I am hoping that my software development experience will get me through the door..</p>
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<li> I guess the question I was really asking was, do they go purely off the numbers or do they make exceptions ever? Maybe in my case?</li>
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<p>Numbers will always be important, but after 2 years many colleges won’t look at SATs or high school grades. The higher you can get your CC grades, the better off you’ll be.</p>
<p>What state do you live in and do you have a budget for college?</p>
<p>I live in New Jersey and with student aid and such I can afford up to Rensselaer, and since RPI seems to cost more than Stanford even, I can pay for that. I’m not rich, but I can make it work without a problem.</p>
<p>I’ve always had a thing for those two schools but I am sure there are lots of other good technical schools geared towards CS out there… I just cut out every major player in that field (MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech., etc) because there is no way I can get in there, and I don’t even know if I would want to go anyway.</p>
<p>What do you mean by student aid and such? I don’t think VTech gives any to OOS students and RIT doesn’t guarantee transfers any. The only given would be Pell Grants and loans, but typically those qualifying for Pells can’t afford the rest of private college tuition and loans have low caps.</p>
<p>Well, Stanford is a school that will still look at SATs and they’ll want minimum 2200 plus. So let’s look at what you can afford and where you think you can get your GPA and then name schools.</p>
<p>Either way I can still safely say money doesn’t really concern me nearly as much as actually being able to attend one of the upper-echelon schools.</p>
<p>OK but college searches need to start with affordability. Student loans for juniors, the latest point you can start at most colleges, are capped at $7500 per year, and you’re talking about $55,000 schools. No point in putting schools on a list you won’t be able to pay for. And most folks can’t pay $55K per year!</p>
<p>But assuming money is no object, I think you need to look at some schools a bit more realistic if say you raise your GPA to a 3.5. Two I would look at are Santa Clara, which is in Silicon Valley and offers wonderful internships and UCSC, which is near the valley and offers the same. Purdue could also be a good choice.</p>
<p>Right. The reason it isn’t an object is because I am going to be a transfer student anywhere I go and that means instead of the 4 years that money was saved around, it will most likely only be 2 years. That means I can afford about a maximum of 65,000 dollars a year.</p>
<p>Would it be difficult to get into University of Washington with my grades? The GPA isn’t quite set in stone either, so I can always improve that. UW was 3rd on my list.</p>
<p>If you are a community college in New Jersey, state universities there (e.g. Rutgers, which is a perfectly respectable school for computer science) are likely to be more friendly to your application than other schools. Your home state public universities will also be more generous with financial aid than the out of state public universities (although Virginia Tech does have a relatively low list price for out of state students).</p>
<p>If you really want to go to Silicon Valley, don’t overlook San Jose State University. For [fall</a> 2011](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1211.html]fall”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1211.html), transfer students needed a 3.0 GPA for admission to computer science and a 2.0 GPA (2.4 GPA for out of state) for admission to software engineering. It is significantly less expensive than UCSC or SCU, though you should not expect much (if any) financial aid there as an out of state student.</p>
<p>" I’ve always had a thing for those two schools but I am sure there are lots of other good technical schools geared towards CS out there… I just cut out every major player in that field (MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech., etc) because there is no way I can get in there, and I don’t even know if I would want to go anyway. "</p>
<p>Thebobo266, just for the record, the admission standards at RPI are just as stringent as GaTech so if you don’t think you can get in there, RPI will also be difficult. Vatech I think is more likely but I would still give both a try since you getting good grades in your programming classes. Perhaps that can turn the tide in your favor.</p>