<p>I'm writing this message on behalf of a friend of mine, who cannot post at the moment. He is a junior in high school where he is concentrating on mathematics and computer science, and he is interested in pursuing a degree in computer science in college. He has had numerous awards from math and informatics competitions; he is currently at a team which prepares high school students for informatics olympiads and contests. A computer science and a math professor will write recommendations for him. Also, he has been seriously involved in football, and his coach also agreed to recommend him. He has designed web sites, and has some accomplishments in the area of programming.
His family can contribute approximately $6,000 towards his education, so he needs substantial financial aid. Can you recommend some colleges that are not from the Ivy-range, but which can accept him and offer him some money?
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Here are some:
Univ. of Maryland (College Park)
Lehigh
Tulane
Carnegie Mellon (little less competitive than ives)
Penn State
Univ. of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I cannot give stats for him because he hasn't taken the TOEFL and SAT tests yet. But on TOEFL practice tests he scores in the 270-290 range, and I believe he will do fine on the exam. As for the SATs, he is definitely scoring above 750 on math, and for SAT IIs he is taking Math IIC and Physics. My math teacher (who is also tutorign him) said that he cannot score less than 750 on any math test. However, this is only preliminary information.
At school, his gpa is around 5.70 out of 6.00. I advised him to raise his gpa as much as he can, because most Bulgarian who apply have higher gpas.
As for extracurriculars, he is volunteering at a Youth Organization, student government, and he is designing the school's web site.</p>
<p>Just my experience - Penn State offered $0 merit age to my S who applied to several other top publics, all of which offered merit aid. UMD was very generous with aid, I agree with above poster who suggested it.</p>
<p>CMU is very difficult to get into Computer Science or Computer Engineering.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! Do you think I should recommend some private LACs to my friend? Does he stand a chance of being admitted to a rather selective college?</p>
<p>Your friend might look at Williams and Dartmouth in the private LAC-type group. Williams has superb math,physics, and the option to major or double-major in CS; Dartmouth has one of the oldest computer science departments in the country. But, from what I read, Carnegie-Mellon is really the cutting-edge computer Mecca right now.</p>
<p>CMU also has a smaller endowment and can be much less generous than other schools with merit aid. You might want to include the Unviersity of Texas on your list. UT's a huge school, but their CS program is kept small and ranks well. You might have a chance at the Turing Scholars, an honors program within the CS department, too.</p>
<p>While it can be hard to get into from out of state, I wouldn't expect that problem with what you describe of your friend's stats. </p>
<p>On the upside, UT often waives out-of-state tuition for well qualified students and NMS finalists automatically get what amounts to a 1/2 tuition scholarship in addition to the waiver, if that applies. Even with recent tuition increases, they're a bargain for a top 10 CS school.</p>