I’m trying to help my son select a college for the fall 2015. He is our oldest child so we are a bit overwhelmed with this process! We live in western New York State. He is trying to decide between University of Maryland College Park, Purdue, and possibly Vanderbilt, or Georgia Tech. He is hoping to double major in computer science and mechanical engineering. (I’m not sure if that is good idea?) He worked at a local university on a research project during his junior year in high school and hopes to pursue further research/internship opportunities throughout college. He was heavily involved in the FIRST Robotics program at his high school and would love to continue on a college team. He is a serious student with an unweighted GPA of 95 and ACT of 34 and SAT 2150 and is a National Merit Scholar Finalist. He has completed 6 AP classes so far and will complete 6 more in May. We visited UMD last week and he is visiting Purdue next week. Unfortunately we won’t be able to visit Georgia Tech or Vanderbilt. Do any of these schools stand out as better than the others for his interest areas? Thanks and any insight would be appreciated!
Purdue has a really unique club/program for supporting FIRST in the community. I’ve approached the local Uni’s engineering program and they were reluctant to even mention FIRST volunteering opportunities to their kids. I don’t know about the other Unis you mentioned, but it’s something to ask about and compare since it’s something your child is specifically interested in. I’ve read input in this subject from college students and the consensus seems to be to make sure involvement is balanced. BUT Purdue’s CS program is in liberal arts and sciences. You would want to compare the strength of that program vs other schools’ programs if it’s an interest. Fwiw my dh has two degrees in ME but works as a software engineer because he had to learn programming along the way (he did robotics for NASA after grad school). Best wishes!
Thanks so much! - that is helpful info about Purdue.
You might want to talk about the double major thing. Engineering is a tough major and he’ll have to maintain his GPA, which can be difficult. He probably should choose one or the other, or see if there is a concentration or a minor in CS he can focus on. Purdue and UMD are great schools for what your son wants to go into, if you guys can afford it.
You have mostly out of state public universities on your list. These are usually not the best values, neither financially nor socially. I encourage you to rethink your list and focus on your in-state public options and on suitable private universities.
What about cost? I’ve heard Vanderbilt is also good for CS.
I don’t think this is even remotely realistic. Maybe if he plans on being an undergrad for 5-6 years. But don’t take the word of some anonymous poster on the internet, me or anyone else. Have your son (not you, he needs to own the search here IMHO and if he can’t/won’t than that’s telling you something right there) contact the undergrad CS advisor or undergrad ME advisor at a couple of the schools on his list. This is his idea, these are his schools, let him do the investigation of his plan. Have him ask if this is advisable or even possible.