If your S likes Macalester, he might also like Colorado College. My youngest was accepted to both and chose CC.
Colorado College likewise does not call out CS separately from Math, and seems to have only about 5 named CS faculty (depending on how you count them). They claim 73% of classes have < 20 students; virtually no classes are supposed to have > 25 unless they are team-taught. S:F ratio is 10:1 (per USNWR).
CC is a liberal college in a conservative city (pop. ~500K), about a 90 min. drive south of Denver.
Two of its most distinctive features are its Rocky Mountain location and its one-course-at-a-time Block Plan. Students tend to be very outdoorsy (that is, skiing, hiking, camping, etc. are quite popular) but also serious about academics. Admission and aid standards seem to be similar to Macalester’s.
For less selective alternatives, check out the Colleges That Change Lives. https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/
You might want to start with Hampshire College, just because it is part of a 5 college consortium, which greatly expands the breadth/depth of course offerings you’d otherwise find at most LACs. UMass Amherst is one of the 5 and it has a well-regarded CS department. Hampshire itself has an unusual curriculum structure which may or may not work well for your son.
Unfortunately, it does sound like net price might be an obstacle at many private LACs. Run the online Net Price Calculators to see if you aren’t eligible for more need-based aid than you’d expect. Mac, Colorado College, and some of the CTCLs do offer merit money, but not necessarily boatloads of it.
A public LAC that you might like is New College of Florida. Apparently they offer merit scholarships ($15K or above) for all/most incoming OOS freshmen. Beautiful location, good academic rep, probably less selective than Mac (although I’m not sure about OOS standards).
@thumper1 If I can avoid dealing with profile, it simply makes my life much easier. I am willing to do it for the right school, but not just an extra one to add for the sake of having more. We’d need the NCP waiver if the school requires the NCP profile, and the reality is the chances for any aid goes down at a profile school, versus FAFSA only. If Mac had a chance at being affordable I’d do it, but I just can’t see it coming down where we need it to.
All of the schools on his list are direct admit to the major, with the exception of UW Seattle. Which does have direct admit but does not offer it to all. It does change for his year and increases his chances but those chances were slim to start with. I’d like him to add WPI but he doesn’t feel he knows enough (or wants to learn) to apply as he didn’t visit.
@tk21769 thank you for the suggestions, some interesting ones. I am very familiar with CTCL schools, my S17 applied to 4. He ended up deciding he wanted a larger school but we are huge fans.
S19 really would like a decent sized CS department with lots of options and it’s just not something we are finding at LAC’s. CC is a fabulous school, although the block schedule I don’t think, would suit him. Hard to say on that one (and I did try to get him to look at Kalamazoo but he wouldn’t bite). I also don’t think he’d get in and it would not be affordable lol. Similarly Hampshire is a bit too out there for him, both in terms of campus feel and in terms of curriculum. I’d always thought Reed would be a good fit, but the reality is it would be affordable to two years and not at all for two. I also think the students may be more intense than would be best for him.
He did really find his tribe at RIT, we were there for 3 days and he had pretty deep exposure to current students, future students and various faculty. It would be nice if he had one more school that fit as well as RIT or Seattle U as the rest are, just ok fits and in our minds he really has a list of two. Which is a tad nerve wracking.
Have you looked at Clarkson University (Potsdam, NY)?
It’s relatively small but bigger than most LACs at 4300 students.
For 2016-17, it awarded merit grants to 135 of 797 freshmen, averaging $23,918
(which should get the net price close to your $40K target especially after also subtracting “self help”).
They claim to meet 89% of demonstrated financial need on average.
68% acceptance rate (so, much less selective than Macalester or Reed).
13 faculty members are listed for the CS staff.
@tk21769 we did, I don’t recall now why it fell off but likely both location and the lack of music. He would like to keep playing (jazz trumpet) if at all possible and there are no options for that at Clarkson. It is an outstanding school.
Thought I would post a quick update. S19 opted for ED1 at RIT and was accepted today into CS, his first choice major.
He also has an EA acceptance at Colorado State, also direct admit for CS and we expect one from Seattle U (direct admit CS )before the new year. We now wait for finanicals to confirm that it will pencil at RIT.
His GPA did go up before submission, thanks to bringing up some middle school math and an AP phsyics score that bumped up that grade for the entire year so he applied with a 3.42 UW (guesstimated at a 3.75-ish W).
Assuming the financials work, he will withdraw his application from UW without knowing the result (as well as the others) and will not apply at all to UW Bothell. If the financials do not work (and it is borderline but we knew that going into it) he should have Seattle U as a fall back plan.
Colorado State has way less job connections compared to RIT. At RIT, your student will be required to work some semesters in a co op assignment. See this program between RIT and the NSA in Maryland. RIT is an academic center of excellence in cyber security.
I would wait and see about the UW Seattle application, as its the best school for computer science by far on his list
and also a beautiful campus, unless there is some competing reason to not attend UW.
Colorado State offers no where near the qualify of education he can get at UW Seattle. Colorado State has a substantial drinking
problems on campus, and somewhat isolated away from the main high tech job centers in Colorado which are Colorado Springs and Broomfield/Boulder/Longmont area. Fort Collins does offer some jobs, but its super competitive to get into the very small design centers for Intel, AMD, Hewlett Packard or Broadcom up in Fort Collins. Most
jobs at these top companies require masters degrees in electrical engineering and circuit design, but
there are some software jobs in Fort Collins. I think many out of state graduates snap up those jobs
and not Colorado State graduates, unfortunately. Colorado State has a low bar to get a bachelors in computer science, and considered weaker than U of Colorado Boulder or Colorado School of Mines, in computer science, which attracts, the very top Colorado students.
I am not as familiar with the other schools in Washington State, but Western Washington has a good reputation, and often good merit awards.
@Coloradomama thank you for your input. Colorado State was on his list as a back up safety that was affordable due to WUE (and Fort Collins is great and we have a ton of family in the overall area) nothing more (and no offense to anyone).
I am a UW alum and very familiar with the school. It is massive. It is impacted. It is extremely competitive for admission locally (we are in state). If you aren’t direct admit to the program, don’t bother. My S is a high functioning aspergers student with executive funcitonting issues. While yes, it is by far the highest ranked school on his list for his major, admission is a reach at best. More importantly it truly isn’t the best fit for him. For a HFA/EF kid, Co Ops are a very very very good thing. The right social situation is important. Solid disability services as well. RIT offers him all of that AND the school spirit/community that a D1 school should have.
Not to mention, the student population at RIT is his tribe, in a way UW would never ever be. Self selection is an important component here.
It would be nice to see if he got in to UW, but after visiting RIT, seeing the interaction he’s had there, having had a lot of direct faculty interaction himself (as did I separately) and knowing the realities of my alma mater I have to say regardless of ranking, it’s a better fit. By a landslide. IF the financials work out. If they do not we will wait and see what the UW results are (though we expect a waitlist). Would he be ok at UW? Maybe. Could he get swallowed alive by the size of the 1st and 2nd year weed out classes…the sheer size alone, and shut down? Yes.
Mines, while an amazing school for the right kid, would absolutely crush him as a human being ( I work with a LOT of mines grads and have solid insight into the culture there) and Boulder (IMO) is overpriced for what it it is and absolutely is not what my son wants, he was very turned off by Boulder in general and we know several kids there. Happy kids mind you, the right fit for them, but not for my son.
Western WA would be a very good deal, we are very familiar with it. Solid in CS but not more or less so than CSU and very similar reputation/issues, none of which are a concern for this kid. He has zero interst in WWU, would take UW Bothell over that for CS, live at home and save $$ for grad school or other. Seattle U is his backup plan and a fine, local choice.
Drexel is a good match but they are very chaotic right now, in my experience with them. They’ve expanded very rapidly and taken on many projects in the community. They’ve gotten harder to get into because of an onslaught of apps, it seems, and no one knows what they are doing. The students are not super engaged but that might suit him well if he likes to fly under the radar.
It is (or was) a CTCL school. Urban area, said to be a kind, caring place. CS department has 5 faculty members. There is merit but I don’t know the details about how much or how much your son would get (range for automatic consideration is 10-20K/yr; plus there is a full ride competitive scholarship by separate application) Room, board, tuition is about $56K before merit so the starting point is less than many small privates.
@twoinanddone as noted in my post, if the financials work, yes he will withdraw all apps and enroll at his ED. That is our hope. We will not know on that until maybe mid December.
I perhaps was unclear as I only mentioned UW. He will know the results at all other schools at the time he withdraws apps, just not UW.
He has applied ED and been accepted. If the money works he will attend. If it does not he is quite happy with his second choice which we also expect acceptance at. He has zero interest in adding other schools. I was posting an update not looking for suggestions.
Thanks!
For the record though Drexel was on the list and came off after visiting. Clark never made it on the list but was looked at.
Congrats, sounds like a well thought out “plan of attack” and cheers to the successful outcome! Sounds like a kid who can make decisions, also, and that is always a very good thing.
@eandesmom I have a 9th grade son who is just getting started. But I could see some similarities to your son and have followed these posts. Great seeing the RIT outcome. Congrats to him.