Looking for some suggestions for schools for my rising senior to apply to that have a strong cs program and a calmer social scene. We live in NJ and are looking for someplace no more than 4-5 hours driving distance … Also some merit aid. SAT 1400 (720M 680CR). 3.9 gpa uw. Ranked 3/175
Thanks in advance for any help!
Marist immediately came to mind.
Not sure how strict you are with the distances (or where in NJ you are), but possibilities: RPI, UMass Amherst, and RIT (clearly a longer drive).
Northeastern
Cost constraints?
Rutgers is an obvious candidate if you can afford the in state net price.
There are may different types. Are you looking for big research universities or tiny LACs?
Thinking of:
Northeastern University, Boston College, NYU, Vassar, Holy Cross, Connecticut College
Holy Cross’ CS department has rather limited offerings. http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/mathematics-and-computer-science/program-and-advising-information/computer-science-courses shows no courses in databases, networks, graphics, artificial intelligence, and some other common topics, while those courses it does offer in operating systems, compilers, computer vision, data mining, and theory of computation are only offered once every two years.
Some form of merit money is probably likely at UMD CP assuming the rest of the profile/essays are of good quality.
Cornell would be a nice reach (probably the best CS school in the Northeast), and it offers generous financial aid.
Thank you all for your suggestions, definitely going to do some research this weekend looking into these schools!. She has rpi & rit on her list, I’m going to have her add Rutgers, and umd cp (but not sure if it’s just too big for her to navigate). We visited umbc, impressed with the school overall, also on her list. Rowan as a safety.
RIT, Binghamton and Buffalo would suit one or more of her criteria.
We were very impressed with Rowan on our visits. Their engineering and CS programs have a very good reputation. There also seems to be a lot of investment in the campus in the last couple of years. I know several students in engineering there and they are doing well and like the university.
The university of Delaware has good engineering/CS programs, they also give merit to OOS students. The campus is very nice, with a proper small town Main Street with great shops and restaurants running through the middle of it.
@mamag2855
I’ve briefly looked at UD, but didn’t see anything that stood out about the CS program. My resources are the collegeboard and seeing if the program is ABET certified, so it feel off my radar. ABET certification isn’t a deal breaker, just another resource. I just started visiting CC again & finding I can get candid opinions about schools. I originally looked into UD because of I thought it was in a very nice town setting (we’ve eaten at the home grown cafe on our way back from UMBC). What makes you say it’s a good program?
U of Rochester? Don’t know where you are in NJ so Rochester may be too far.
SAT too low for Cornell, or so I think.
U of Rochester and RIT are too far for me & probably wouldn’t get the merit aid but really great schools! She will apply, cause, you never know…my daughter on the other hand is not concerned about the distance, lol 
but she ismore interested in the program, her head is in the right place
For price and merit scholarship information, you might find the Kiplinger listings helpful http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php
UMd-CP and UMass-Amherst seem to be among the stronger state universities in this region for CS. Their OOS sticker prices (~$45K) may be lower than the net price you’d get from a selective private school like Rochester after average merit aid. Of course, Rutgers would be cheaper still (at in-state rates). I’d be a little surprised if you find an alternative to Rutgers that offers clearly equal or better CS quality, at a competitive net price, within a 4-5 hour drive (assuming no need-based aid is in play).
It’s hard to assess the quality of undergraduate CS programs except by hunting-and-pecking your way through course listings, faculty bios, etc., school by school. You might find the USNWR CS rankings helpful, although they are graduate program rankings so they won’t indicate for example whether the undergraduate classes are way over-enrolled. Sometimes you can figure that out from the online course schedules (if the enrollments are shown).
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings
The good news is that most decent research universities are likely to cover all or most of the ACM curricula recommendations (http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations).
Also, CS is a very marketable major. A CS major doesn’t have to be a tip-top graduate of Stanford or MIT to find good career opportunities. The effort your kid puts in, as well as internship experiences, are likely to matter more than the undergraduate program differences among many of these schools (unless maybe your kid is interested in grad school followed by a career in academia.)