<p>We need help finding a computer science school. My child has a lowish gpa, 3.3 from a hard high school. His ACT score is a 30. We are looking for a good computer science program at a small to medium sized school.</p>
<p>Cost constraint and state of residency?</p>
<p>any particular part of the country? 30 is not bad! I think with that score the 3.3 will be OK, especially if it’s a tough high school and that fact is well known to the admissions offices.</p>
<p>We live in CA, hoping to spend no more than 40 after financial aid. Any part of the country will be fine.</p>
<p>If you can pay $40k per year, it’s very likely that you won’t qualify for financial aid. Frequently, when a family says it can pay a high amount like that, it means that your income is too high for aid. And, schools don’t let families decide what they can pay…schools decide based on income and assets. </p>
<p>Have you tried any of the Net Price Calculators? If not, try some. Since you’re in Calif, you could try the NPCs on schools’ websites like LMU, Santa Clara, etc and see what the results are.</p>
<p>Your “family contribution” will likely be about 33%+ of your gross income. It could be more than that if you have assets.</p>
<p>Is that his weighted GPA from all of his classes? </p>
<p>Or is that his UC GPA? </p>
<p>Will he be applying to the UCs and CSUs or Cal Polys? </p>
<p>An ACT 30 is very good, but his options for merit scholarships may be limited by his GPA. Many schools require at least a 3.5 GPA and the test score for merit consideration. However, if his weighted GPA is higher, then that may help at some schools.</p>
<p>Since you live in CA, you may want to calculate UC/CSU admissions GPA.
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - GPA Calculator<a href=“UC%20does%20not%20consider%20available%2012th%20grade%20course%20grades,%20unlike%20CSU.”>/url</a></p>
<p>For CSU, you can calculate an eligibility index:
[url=<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU]CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - Calculate Your Eligibility Index](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)</p>
<p>For fall 2012 freshmen admissions, here were SJSU’s thresholds by major. Note that the computer science major was significantly more selective than the similar software engineering major and the more hardware oriented computer engineering and electrical engineering majors.
[SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1012.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1012.html)</p>
<p>However, there are some schools (mostly in the south) that will give him large merit scholarships for his GPA and ACT score.</p>