@ucbalumnus ok… so if even those are “extreme” what colleges should I be looking at ?
I don’t think “better than Rutgers” is the right wording. Rutgers is a well-known, highly-ranked flagship. We’re not talking about a local commuter school.
“if there is nothing in the top 25 of CSRankings that I can get into, then the best choice would be going to Rutgers.”
I think that this is very likely the situation. Computer science is generally difficult for admissions. Your GPA is going to be the main issue limiting where you can get in. Your SAT of course is excellent.
Rutgers is a very good university. If you get into Rutgers (which I think is likely), then you have a very good option in-state. NJIT would also be well worth an application.
UMD, NCSU, UTD-full ride for NMF.
Will you be full pay at private schools and parents are willing to foot the bill ?
Then, you could try ED to a reach- Cornell? There’s nothing to lose, and Rutgers is a great fall back for CS.
Thanks for the responses. I was thinking of EDing to Cornell as well, but it seems super unlikely. I guess it’s worth a shot though.
Also, I was not planning to apply financial aid as I am pretty sure we will not be getting much, if anything, but many of my teachers said that everybody should apply for financial aid regardless of income. Does it actually hurt chances if I apply for financial aid ?
I don’t want to take any loans and my parents say they are fine with full pay, but I really do not want to make them do so. $70k+/yr is a huge amount of money for us and I would feel guilty if I had to make them pay all of it. In CS, the college doesn’t have a huge impact anyway, so I’m not sure if the price results in an equally high return on investment.
How about your NJ publics?
Regarding National Merit, there are scholarships for NMF at various colleges. But going from NMSF to NMF is not 100%; high school grades apparently play a role.
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“if there is nothing in the top 25 of CSRankings that I can get into, then the best choice would be going to Rutgers.”
I also think this would be the case. You may want to try Stony Brook. A more compact campus than the sprawling Rutgers. They offered my kid a “scholarship” which brought their OOS tuition down to instate NJ tuition (which is still >> instate NY tuition). With your SAT scores, you may get additional money, but who knows. Of courses there’s NJIT Honors college - you’ll want to submit an app for that for sure. That too has been getting competitive of late.
RPI maybe?
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Have you checked SUNY Stony Brook?
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The one thing you didn’t mention is whether your other Bs that you got were in 9th grade, or whether they are spread all over. If most of them are concentrated in 9th grade, then some more schools may come into play, as 9th grade grades are ignored at a few schools.
I would say though that if you look at my original post for schools, add a couple of reaches, and then throw in a reach for an ED/EA in the next week or so, that should be your admissions plan. If your low bar is set for Rutgers, there aren’t going to be many schools popping up that will be better than Rutgers from a CS perspective, other than the ones already mentioned.
@ProfessorPlum168 I have B’s all over with more Bs than As on my transcript overall. I even got a C+ in Calc BC junior year so it looks more like a downward trend. So with my 3.4 UW GPA I can pretty much forget all Ivy Leagues + the elite CS schools (CMU, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT). So for now my reach list is UIUC, Purdue and Northeastern, all of which are Early Action.
I am considering UWash, UMich and UT-Austin. What do you think about these ? I don’t think I have much of a chance at these, but not sure if it is worth adding them because I feel that they are quite similar to UIUC & Purdue in size and CS prestige.
All of this being said, Rutgers has been and still is my top choice, as it is in-state and close by, while still having an excellent CS program (#24 on CSRankings now). Sometimes I feel like there is no point in applying to all of these colleges when I am pretty sure about going to Rutgers. I went on a campus tour recently and loved it and felt I would fit in there. If I could just get a merit scholarship, I would absolutely go to Rutgers without thinking twice. It’s an amazing value for us in-state.
I am applying to the ones with NMF money later just so I have more options. UCF, UF, UTD, ASU, and Texas A&M are some of the best ones, but honestly, I would take Rutgers over these any day.
I think UT/UM/UW will all be very high reaches, as all 3 have elite CS programs that are hard to get into even for in-state people.
I think you have a decent plan with Rutgers, the “NFM” schools plus the EA/ED schools you mentioned, and throw in UMD, Penn State, Stony Brook and UMass-Amherst if those places interests you. You probably should also throw in NJIT as a local safety just in case.
I don’t think you can count on NMF with a C on your transcript. Is Rutgers generous with AP credit?