Asking for my DS…
SAT 1590
SAT subject tests …Bio,Physics and math2 …800
IB diploma student. Has also self studied AP calc AB, AP Bio and AP Comp sci…all 5’s
Decent ECS with some leadership and mentoring.
Thanks in Advance.
There are a LOT of very good choices. MIT and Caltech and Stanford are famous for CS. Depending upon where you live your local in-state flagship is likely quite good (I won’t discuss California in-states, although many are very good). Waterloo is excellent (in Canada). There are other threads on CC which list strong CS programs.
Folks here in CC probably need more information such as where do you live, what can you afford, and where does DS want to go (big or small, east or west, north or south, …).
CS is a field where employers want to know what you can do. Prestige is not very important (thus the t-shirts and blue jeans). On the most part the Ivy League is NOT the first place to look.
What are his goals after BS? It helps with suggesting schools.
Big or small school and/or class sizes? Need $? Any other geographic preference besides not Cali?
we are in PA…Pennstate is the flagshp. He will be applying to that.He would like to stay in the northeast. Georgia tech might be an exception. He doesnt seem to have much opinions about school size.He will certainly be a NMSF and has a good shot at NMF…so full merit aid is very tempting …so UTD even though very far is under consideration. He is not sure about graduate studies. In my personal opinion 50k a year is not worth it for undergraduate studies.
U Rochester used to be good on merit aid for high-scorers, don’t know about now. Ditto Case Western. And maybe RPI? (not sure)
Schools with no merit aid, that aren’t too far , include CMU, Cornell, U Penn.
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Uiuc is a bit farther but has an excellent (top 5) CS program.
But it is super expensive, so…
“In my personal opinion 50k a year is not worth it for undergraduate studies.”
I agree. With your son’s stats, he should have very good choices for CS which cost less than this.
If merit would tempt him further from home (you mentioned UTD), Alabama, UNM and Texas Tech have great NMF packages. Oklahoma used to offer an amazing NMF package but starting fall 2018 it’s being reduced. Still good, but no longer even full tuition for out of state students. My son is also CS and likely NMF and he’s set on UTD. He loves it, but it’s definitely a different vibe from Penn State (I’m a PSU alum)…no football team, very nerdy-and-proud-of-it culture (the bookstore sells “Keep UT Dallas Nerdy” t shirts). In the northeast, WPI and RIT might be of interest and both offer merit scholarships. Lehigh might be a fit, don’t know about merit aid though.
If he wants to stay in NE your best bet for good merit is Case Western in Cleveland.
If he is willing to look further afield, tons of good options. See if the Guidance Counselor has a copy of Rugg’s Guide, then look for Tier I CS programs and see what the options are for Merit schools.
A Midwestern option would be Denison outside of Columbus Ohio. Beautiful campus, Tier I CS program, small class sizes, very generous Merit aid.
Good luck!
Carnegie-Mellon is generally considered the top CS program in the country. RPI, Northeastern, Drexel, Syracuse, University of Rochester, Tufts, Pitt, Purdue, Cornell, Columbia SEAS, and, of course, MIT. Olin is an interesting option, also.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply…will check all these schools out
@traveler98…Did your son Visit UTD? We still haven’t visited Pennstate or UTD…so no idea about the difference. UTD sounds very much like my son’s type of college…he likes the nerdy feel , doesn’t care about the sports or greek life.
@priya2015, yes, we visited during junior year and then he spent several weeks living on campus while taking coding camps at the start of the summer. UTD was already tentatively number one on his list before the coding camps, but it’s firmly number one now. In fact he may not even apply anywhere else. We live in Texas so the location was not a big deal for him as it may be for your son. With your son’s stats, he might also consider applying for UTD’s McDermott scholarship which is full-ride plus, and includes a lot of great extras beyond the normal UTD Honors experience. If you do make it to Texas to tour UTD, be sure to set up your visit through the National Merit office…you will get a much more personalized tour, with one-on-one meetings all day.
@traveler98 Thank you so much for the tip
Top CS schools (not including those in California, like you asked: Georgia Tech, CMU, Michigan, UIUC, UT Austin, Princeton, MIT, and Cornell
Update…son chose University of Maryland.When I started this thread,we did not even think about UMD,but heard good things about UMD College park for CS. Researched and found that it indeed had a good CS program. UMD came into real play when he got admitted into their honors program and their ACES (cyber security )Living learning program.Scholarship,the ACES program and location made him choose UMD over Georgia tech.