momreads
is UAH Univ of Alabama Huntsville? They have great scholarships. How are the dorms, campus life, etc?
Do they have great Computer Science? Thanks
A friend’s son went to UAH (yes, Huntsville) and was very happy. Very connected to the tech community there.
@BNovel : How is it going?
Does your son already have some EA/Rilking admissions acceptances to take the sting off?
I pray your son gets into his choices: Northeastern, Lehigh,Wash U, or Princeton.
Fortunately, some state colleges have Rolling Admission… so still have a little bit of time left to check out more options…
Bad idea. If CS is more competitive for frosh admission, it is because the major is full, so changing into it later, or taking CS courses as a non major, will be difficult.
@2sunny
UAH’s dorms are great. Suite style, with private bedrooms. Very nice! My son is there double majoring in CS and math.
The rejections are disappointing but are in no way a personal comment on your son’s achievement or prospects. Three stories that might help put it in perspective. A few years ago, we visited a top-ranked LAC. In info session, rep said that 70% of applicants were fully qualified to attend, and that admissions would view them as a potentially wonderful members of the community. At the time, it accepted 14% of applicants (lower now). So 80% of students who were fully qualified and desirable were not accepted. Just not enough space.
A few years ago, an education writer asserted, quite correctly I think, that Harvard admissions could go through the selection process, select a class, then throw all those applications in the trash, select a new class from the rejected applications, and there would be no discernible difference between the two.
CMU CS is ridiculously competitive. A family remember was rejected a few years ago and instead went to a large state science/engineering schools. They’ve had great internships, etc. and will graduate this coming spring. They accepted an offer last summer with a six-figure salary and great benefits, in the city where they want to live. (Really talented in math and comp sci, with great business sense.)
Texas and Ga. Tech are also incredibly competitive OOS, really hardly different from some of the Ivies.
I hope your son finds a great school and embraces it and the people there. He’ll be fine. Good luck!
Ugh. So sorry…college admissions are getting tougher and tougher every year. These examples are also good reminders that certain majors are highly impacted even at big state schools. A CS seat at GT or UT (or UW or any of the top UC’s for that matter) is as tough as an ivy.
Just and example of the world out there - from an article on admissions at USC (Univ. Southern California)
Forget the myth that admission is all about the numbers. Says Timothy Brunold ’92, USC’s dean of admission: “This year, we turned away 3,000 people with 99th percentile test scores. We just don’t have enough room.”
https://tfm.usc.edu/a-guide-to-uscs-college-admissions-process/
It can be assumed those 3,000 had pretty decent essays and ECs as well, it’s just so tough these days, hang in there. Everything happens for a reason, you just won’t know that reason till some point in the future. But it will come!
@Bnovel I agree with @Lindagaf , if the only other schools he applied to are Northeastern, Lehigh,Wash U, Princeton, I’d guess there’s around a 25% probability that he won’t be admitted anywhere. In your shoes, I’d look for a couple of schools that are still taking apps…we were considering univ of pitt as a safety for my D, i think they still may be taking apps. also, u might try to contact RPI, they have a strong csi porgram and I think they’re still(!) sending my D emails. $100 in app fees and 4-8 hours of time seems like good insurance.
@Bnovel Did he show any interest in Lehigh? If so, I think he would have a strong chance there with his GPA and ACT score. I also think that while Princeton is a reach for everyone, he is going to at least get a good look there because of his being a sibling. NE is tough because of the sheer number of applicants, but he is definitely in the mix.
Good luck
Did he already get deferred from NEU? Why would NEU be such a stretch? (outside of the obvious financials, but I don’t know if OP is applying for FA).
If you livenear Lehigh, they like to know you visited.
I too have been confused by calling NEU being a stretch, seems like a clear safety with him in top 25% and a close to 30% acceptance rate.
I think the odds are good that he gets into NEU.or lehigh but as others have noted, computer science is a hot major right now. for example, I think cmu has about a 5% admission rate for cs applicants. if neu’s overall acceptance rate is 28%, it’s not unreasonable to assume cs is 14%. I don’t really know, but I’d guess lehigh is the tougher admit. Back when I interviewed candidates for a big tech firm, we preferred lehigh students…
Right, he would have high stats for NEU and should garner merit, applying OOS for UT and GT would assume no expectation of FA or merit. Why no UCs? The UCs want OOS $$ more than the oil states (for now).
Way back when we didn’t apply to any UCs for comp sci because OOS they didn’t seem worth the price. My son did have RPI as a safety and in fact they informed him he was in before Thanksgiving which was nice, because he got a bunch of EA deferrals.
I thought NEU was moving way from merit aid, and more in the direction of need based aid.
I hope he gets accepted nonetheless.
CMU’s School of CS is as competitive as MIT. My son got waitlisted there. He did get into the Humanities school, though, so he could have potentially taken some CS courses and transferred into the CS school. That seemed really risky so he ended up somewhere else.
I do wonder about your son’s other choices. Most are very competitive. I think out of the 4 of them, NEU is probably the easiest to get into.
@megan12
Yes, CMU - CS has 5% admit rate.
Where did son go for CS? My son finds out in March about more choices for CS