<p>Class of 2011. My parents & I are cautiously looking into colleges, but aside from the big names or US News rankings, I don't know where to start. I was hoping someone here could help me out? The two things I care about most:</p>
<ul>
<li>Must have excellent CS program.</li>
<li>Must allow me to explore my interests in writing or perhaps art and design.</li>
</ul>
<p>(I'm not quite sure what this would entail...allowing me to choose a minor in these areas? Simply being known for engineering and writing? Allowing majors in the CS department to enroll into artsy classes? Writing has been a huge and integral part of my life, and I would hate to give up an opportunity to explore it further. Isn't that what college is for?)</p>
<p>And then there's some other stuff ranked in importance:</p>
<ul>
<li>Good merit aid because it would be very difficult for my parents to qualify for financial aid, but I'm hoping we can avoid refinancing or huge student loans. If at all possible.</li>
<li>Approachable professors. I like feeling that I have a personal relationship with my teachers outside of the classroom.</li>
<li>Would prefer somewhere away from the West Coast. New experiences are liberating for the mind.</li>
<li>Would prefer urban to rural. Have never lived near a city and anxious to try it out.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here's what I have been looking at (if anyone can offer opinions?): Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, tons of UCs (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, Irvine, not in any particular order), USC. It's a pretty intimidating list (would like to discover some relative 'safeties' that I would still lovelovelove attending). Don't care about the whole Ivy thing so much.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar situation in that I want to continue my interests in writing but I’m not sure I’d want to major in it. CMU and UCB both seem like good fits, but I’m not sure you could create that ‘relationship’ with your professors at UCB.</p>
<p>If you are interested in smaller schools, I would look at LACs with computer science programs. All the medium sized unis/LACs have legitimate programs (bucknell, lehigh, lafayette,U of Rochester). Another good option would be swarthmore. </p>
<p>IK kalamazoo offers computer science and is good in english and offers a massive amount of merit aid so it could be a safety.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. & yeah…writing is so important to me a lot of people wonder why I like CS at all (I’m definitely a typical liberal-artsy personality) but I figured out early that my ideal future is to get a full-time job where I get to build cool stuff, and spend my free time writing novels. Maybe you and I can try double-majoring or something. ;)</p>
<p>I’ll definitely take a closer look some of the colleges you pulled up. I have to say I’m surprised at some of the names…I dismissed a lot of names because I never thought to investigate if they had CS programs. Kalamazoo sounds promising.</p>
<p>You mentioned wanting merit aid, but Cornell does not have any; CMU has a bit, but not much.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt University’s cs program is in its School of Engineering, but the degree is a BS in cs, not a BE, so the program is somewhat more flexible than most other engineering majors. That means it is not unusual to have a double major or a minor in a field in Arts and Science. How much a given student is able to take advantage of that depends on the hs record.</p>
<p>The campus is in the city of Nashville, about a mile and a half from the downtown. Urban but not overwhelmingly so.</p>
<p>VU does offer very lucrative merit scholarships, but they are highly competitive. Check the website for more info. on the merit awards if you are interested.</p>
<p>Greekfire: I know you said you’d prefer to leave the West Coast, but take a look at University of Washington. The CSE program is one of the top ten in the country, and the university itself is considered a Public Ivy. [University</a> of Washington Computer Science & Engineering](<a href=“http://www.cs.washington.edu%5DUniversity”>http://www.cs.washington.edu)</p>
<p>The Johns Hopkins course offerings are dizzying when it comes to fiction. Thanks. I probably wouldn’t have found it on my own. & they emphasize their strengths in graphics and natural language processing in CS…both areas I’m fairly interested in.</p>
<p>@midmo: I should clarify on the merit aid thing. Colleges are kind of falling into two categories for me right now…the ones that we would find a way to pay for (almost) no matter what, for the excellent faculty, postgrad opportunities, and people I will meet there. And then the ones that are also very good, but that I would choose over the first category of colleges only if merit aid was significant. Does that make sense, somewhat? I really need to talk to The Parents more concerning finances, but I get the impression that they want to pay for either a top-tier college or a very good one with generous aid (or a state school).</p>
<p>We agree on CMU, at least. It’s good to know that so many people are supporting its writing program.</p>
<p>The West Coast thing is pretty fluid, honestly. There are a ton of good colleges on the West Coast and I’d be crazy to dismiss them entirely. It’s not a huge consideration so much as a ‘nice-to-have’ (e.g. how it’s nice to have a salad fork and a main course fork or whatever other forks you use for place settings, but entirely unnecessary, especially when you’re the one doing the dishes). So I’ll check out Washington.</p>
<p>This is definitely cheering to know I have a lot of options out there.</p>
<p>Another thing Hopkins has going for it is research, including computer science research. Hopkins spends more money on research than any other institution in the country. By far. And it isn’t even a very large university (< 5K undergrads).</p>
<p>Well, I am not convinced you actually have so many options–sorry. Most engineering schools, and I believe Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, do not make it very easy to double major in a totally unrelated field. You should definitely check out CMU’s position on this. One of the reasons (in addition to 40K per year merit $) my son chose VU over Carnegie Mellon and a bunch of other top-ranked cs programs is because it awarded AP credit and advanced standing for courses taken during hs, allowing him room in his schedule to double major and tack on a humanities minor as well.</p>
<p>You will need to do your homework if you remain serious about wanting to combine cs with humanities.</p>
<p>JHU runs a large government research center. It is not doing its own competitive funded research there–mostly work for the military/defense industry–it’s like Los Alamos and the rest. JHU’s actual research funding is high but not the highest.</p>
<p>Wisconsin Madison offers a Top 10 CS major and the option to double major with art or English-creative writing. All within an active attractive environment.</p>
<p>JHU operates numerous research programs in medicine and other fields. Sounds like barrons is referring to the Applied Physics Lab (APL). That is one of the Defense Department’s University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs).</p>
<p>According to Washington Monthly figures, JHU spends approximately $1.5 billion per year on research, nearly double the spending of the number 2 university (Wisconsin). </p>
<p>That 1.5 Billion includes APL. They always mention that in the NSF reports. APL is over half of the $1.5 Billion Without APL JHU was around $700 Million</p>
<p>O.K., so let’s assume for the sake of argument that we don’t back off any federal funding from Wisconsin or the other biggies. So in that case, at $700K/year JHU is still no less than 6th. And it’s a much smaller school than the 5 in front of it.</p>
<p>I like WI-Madison. I am an alum. I don’t know if they are giving merit awards to OOS students, though. Also, as good as many of my classes were, and despite the fact that I was a very good student, I don’t have memories of getting to know faculty so well that I had “a personal relationship”. It is a big school, lots of big classes. Maybe it is different in c.s.</p>
<p>It is a nice campus and a very nice college town. Not sure I’d call it urban, but it isn’t a small town, either.</p>
<p>@midmo Honestly that wasn’t what I was hoping to hear, but it does help. Thank you. </p>
<p>This actually brings to mind another topic that is far greater than the scope of this topic, but I’ve always wondered what is the difference, quantitatively, between going to a more prestigious school (but paying more) or a less prestigious school (but paying far less?) Does being able to say “I went to HYP” make a greater impression on employers? Does it affect opportunities immediately after graduation, when all a company really has to judge you on is your college? I have the impression it’s beneficial for CS kids to go to a college where employers actively pursue the graduates from there (as many do). Career opportunities and the ability to network with talented people. But is the difference much less than a lesser-known school, especially if the lesser-known school can cut my college costs in half?</p>
<p>May have to investigate this. Reputation of a college and how it affects job opportunities for its graduates.</p>
<p>According to one website (I don’t know how accurate it is) there is a bit of merit aid for WI-Madison for OOS students, but I imagine it would be a long shot.</p>