Thanks to all! This is a well-informed group of parents, so I greatly appreciate your input! The Arizonas would be a good option too, and they have rolling admissions. I think I’m just at that nervous parent part since this is our oldest, and our first rodeo…well, since we went to college. There is no perfect match, but hoping to get as close as possible. Northern Arizona in Flagstaff is sending him a ton of recruiting stuff…thoughts about that program? A couple more to run by you…Valpo? South Dakota School of Mines?
As I understand it, Rose-Hulman is a terrific school in the STEM world. Is it in the running for him to attend?
Valpo is excellent for CS and has merit. 
2 Likes
They’ve accepted him, but…he hasn’t taken Chemistry, which is a requirement. They’ve told him if he picked that up thru a local college, everything will be finalized. As a parent, I know it’s an amazing school. Since he can’t visit, he’s putting that one on the backburner since he’s carrying such a heavy AP/Honors load right now.
1 Like
Just curious, I was checking out the website, but didn’t discover for sure. Are religious classes required? I figure so, since it’s a Lutheran based program.
Yes, there’s one course, “The Christian Tradition”, that is mandatory for all freshmen, plus one more class (of the student’s choice from Ethics, Biblical Studies, or World Religions) taken at any point during the next 3 years.
1 Like
Weed out has more than one meaning, definitely the case where you have to get in to the major, but there are weed out courses (maybe not process) even in direct admit majors or colleges. Even in a direct admit program at Purdue or Berkeley EECS, if the students get a bunch of Cs and Ds, since the class is curved that way, that’s a de facto weed out. It also happens in private colleges, I went to private undergrad, direct admit to major, about 20% weed out after sophomore year.
The first three CS courses in UCB (61A, 61B, 70) are not graded on a curve. There are not a lot of grades below C, according to Berkeleytime . EECS students just need to maintain a 2.0 GPA and C grades, but L&S students who want to declare the L&S CS major need a 3.3 GPA in these three CS courses. So aspiring L&S CS majors, but not EECS majors, may consider these courses to be “weed out”.
Those are comp sci classes, I took those in soph and jr and the curve was similar, mostly As and Bs. Math 1A, Calc has 25% C or below, same with Chem 1A and also a B- is not a great grade either for pre-med but for CS/engr, that’s not so bad, as typically companies that hire usually only require a 3.0.
1 Like
Looks like many introductory level courses like ECON 1, MATH 1A, CHEM 1A and 4A, and PHYSICS 7A have slightly below B averages (2.9xx). However, some other introductory level courses like COMPSCI 61A, ENGLISH R1A, PSYCH 1, UGBA 10, HISTORY 7A and 7B, SOCIOL 1 have higher averages in the B+ range. BIOLOGY 1A and 1B have lower averages in the B- range.
Of course, B or B- grades are not good for pre-meds, but this thread is about CS majors.
1 Like