I’m a junior and I plan to major in Computer Science/Engineering but I don’t know what makes a program good/bad so I would appreciate feedback!
I strongly prefer a large city campus and a medium/large school population. I’m also looking for internships.
My College List: (I’m trying to break it down to 2 safeties, 2 targets, 2 reach)
Barnard, Binghamton, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, RPI, Stony Brook, UW
Stats:
GPA: 3.7 UW
ACT: 30
SAT: 1900 (610 CR, 620 W, 660 Math)
SAT II: Chem - 690, Math 2 - 710
Course Rigor: Sophomore - 1 AP, Junior - 2 APs, Senior - 4 APs and 1 Honors
Extracurriculars:
Red Cross (President - 4 years)
Robotics (President of Marketing - 4 years)
Museum (Paid internship - 3 years)
Hackathon (Chair of committee - 3 years)
Tutor (Paid - summer)
Musical (Manager - 3 years)
State: New York
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: <25k
Other: I don’t know if being first gen immigrant helps.
UW (any of them) is unlikely to be affordable as an out-of-state student from a low income family. NYU has a reputation of giving poor need-based financial aid. Have you run the net price calculator on all of the schools on your list?
You may want to look for big merit scholarships if you cannot find enough affordable choices on need-based aid.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
(But check the actual school web sites, since some listings may be out of date.)
Boston seems oddly missing from the list - there are some private schools that may give good aid. That said, admissions are very competitive. Northeastern and BU stand out as possible reach schools to think about - as a female in CS, they may be within reach.
Check out WPI as a good match school near Boston. Great CS/CE, close enough to utilize the city, and lots of good practical integration into the program.
RIT is another great school to check out, though it doesn’t fit your criteria perfectly.
With your stats, CMU will be a really high reach. So will NYU even before the financial considerations that ucbalumnus mentioned. Eliminating one makes sense IMO.
You may need to broaden your search geographically to get merit aid into the mix. Generally, that tends to run through the middle of the country. Less available in New England area.
Emory & Tulane for reaches.
Lehigh would be a perfect high match, although it’s not in a large city.
Smith would be a match.
Are any of the CUNYs known for CS?
I don’t really know how to determine if a CUNY has a good CS program, but I will look into it on CC.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions!
Ny state offers stem scholarships for qualified students attending SUNY schools. Check it out. Stony Brook is excellent for STEM. SUNY Albany, Bing also have good CS programs. Brooklyn college , part of CUNY, has a respected program. The other schools you have listed are academic and/or financial reaches.