Hi all, I am looking for help searching for possible undergraduate fits. My current interest is Computer Science and that would be my intended major, if available. I am a white male from public high school in Michigan. Currently a senior in HS.
I have a 4.89 weighted GPA (4.00 unweighted on 4.00 scale), and a 34 on the ACT. I have taken a few AP classes but my school is mostly IB (it’s weird). I got a 5 on AP US Gov/Politics and AP CS. I’m taking AP Psych and Calc AB this year, as well as IB English and Spanish II HL. I have a variety of CS-related extracurricular activites and have taken CS classes 3 out of 4 years in high school (honors CS, AP CS, discretemath/advanced CS). I also did gardening club, research team, tennis, etc etc.
Given that extremely limited summary of myself: here’s where I’m currently applying/applied:
Kalamazoo College (already applied; applying for Heyl scholarship in December)
UMich Ann Arbor (College of Engineering) (my sister is currently a undergraduate junior here)
MSU (already applied; College of Engineering)
My parents want me to apply to a few places out of state as well. So, if you would be so kind, what are some schools you think I should apply to? I looked at MIT and Stanford, but it honestly looks impossible to get in. Would it even be worth my time? Beyond those two, I don’t even know. Probably can’t afford Berkeley tuition. Georgia Tech? Cornell? Help!
It is hard to beat UMichigan for engineering, so you are very fortunate that you have that as a safety.
There is absolutely ZERO point to applying to OOS publics… the financial aid will be stingy and your own in-state options are fantastic.
If you want to apply to a few super-competitive private options, consider applying to 4-6 of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Brown, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Washington U, Rice, Carnegie Melon.
Thank you for the reply. I think I will apply to Stanford, fully expecting to get rejected. I can still apply REA to Stanford and EA to UMichigan because its public, correct?
Not sure why you are applying to Kalamazoo, since it does not have engineering (except as a 3+2 program), and its CS course offerings are quite limited.
If you want a smaller school for engineering or CS, consider Michigan Tech, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, or New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for easier admissions and lower cost, schools like Caltech and Harvey Mudd among highly selective schools, and various other schools in between like Rensselaer Polytechnic, Rose - Hulman, Kettering, Illinois Tech, Worchester Polytechnic, etc.
You are fortunate to have Michigan as your match school and pay in-state rates. I’d only apply to schools that are equal to or better and have good FA available … Caltech, Rice, Cornell, Harvey Mudd and Stanford and MIT. USe the NPC at each school to see if they are affordable for you.
GT has some aid available, but still more than Michigan unless you get one of the premium scholarships.
I’d strongly recommend that you talk with some of the admissions people visiting your school or hosting a regional event to get a better idea if the schools are a good fit. A visit would be even better. My son (with similar stats + interests, also MI resident) disliked CMU but loved Rice, thought Stanford was the best of all, didn’t like MIT that much. Take the Michigan engineering tour for a comparison if you haven’t already.
Sounds like MSU is your safety. You might want to also apply to schools with guaranteed merit aid like Alabama, with your stat’s you’d get free tuition for 8 semesters.
Very few universities are worth attending over Michigan for Engineering, regardless of tuition. It is an elite university with a top 10 Engineering programs. Of course, having in-state status makes Michigan all the more desirable. If you are going to apply to other schools, they should as good overall and not just in Engineering (CMU, Cornell, Northwestern and Rice), or better (MIT, Princeton and Stanford).
Of course, you should apply to safeties as well. I would look into Purdue-West Lafayette and Wisconsin-Madison.
Lewis & Clark College
Beloit College
Willamette University
Ohio Wesleyan University
U of Portland
U of Tulsa
None of these schools can match the assets of U of Michigan, but they are nevertheless very fine colleges and their students are happy to be there. All have CS departments. Only Portland and Tulsa have engineering schools. The likelihood of you being admitted to all of them is very high. U Portland seems to have a good relationship with technology firms and potential employer of alumni such as Intel (in nearby Hillsboro OR). A while ago I read about a U of Portland student whom interned at the famous Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Willamette offers a major (and minor) in Computer Science, and there are 22 hours of required coursework for the major. Incidentally, Willamette alumni have access to internship opportunities with Intel Corporation in nearby Hillsboro, Oregon. A list of recruiters for an upcoming career fair include Amazon and AXA, two firms where information technology is one of pillars of the companies’ business.
Surely, there are plenty of other schools that Intel and Amazon recruit at which have more complete CS course offerings than Willamette does.
Willamette’s CS course listing does not have any advanced courses on operating systems, networking, databases, security/cryptography, or theory of computation (languages, automata, etc.), and it combines computer architecture and compilers into one course.
The point is, if Amazon, Intel and AXA felt that there were slim pickins’ in the CS department at Willamette, they wouldn’t send any recruiters to the school.
That a few large companies (which recruit widely), some of which are in the region (i.e. convenience) consider the CS major at least minimally adequate does not necessarily mean that it is one of the better schools for CS that the OP can choose among. Other schools (including other small ones) may offer more in both pre-professional aspects (i.e. the same companies, plus more, coming to recruit) and in non-pre-professional aspects (i.e. more CS course offerings to allow a student passionate about CS to learn more about CS and in greater depth).
That it also lacks the student’s other academic interest (engineering) is another drawback.