<p>I have applied to the QuestBridge College Match program. I am applying for Computer Science and need to finalize my ranked list of colleges by Monday. Here are my choices:</p>
<p>MIT
Princeton
Stanford
CalTech
Brown
Penn
Columbia
Yale
UChicago
Northwestern</p>
<p>I have to pick a maximum of 10; however, since this decision is binding, I only want to rank really top programs that I would want to attend. There are some schools that I would want to apply to in regular decisionsuch as Carnegie Mellon, Olin and Harvardthat are not QuestBridge choices. So, I only want to apply to places through QuestBridge that I 100% want to go to if I get in. MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and CalTech I am certain I will rank (probably in that order), however, I am unsure of the other options. Do you know anything about the Computer Science programs at Brown, Penn, Columbia, Yale, UChicago or Northwestern? I hear that Brown's is quite good. How would you rank those? Which ones do you think I should rank?</p>
<p>Do you have a safety (not necessarily in QuestBridge) for your application list?</p>
<p>Take a look at the CS course listings in the catalogs and schedules (note the schedules to see how frequently each course is offered). Look for upper division CS courses covering these topics as a sign of a relatively complete CS department:</p>
<p>algorithms and complexity
theory of computation
operating systems
compilers
networks
databases
security and cryptography
software engineering or projects incorporated in other courses
electives like artificial intelligence and graphics
hardware courses like digital systems and computer architecture</p>
<p>I do have some safety schools, however, obviously, I am not applying to my safeties through QuestBridge because QuestBridge is binding.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice, I have actually checked all of the schools’ course listings and they all seem to be decent—some of them better than others of course. But which have the best program? What I mean is, in what order would you rank them?</p>
<p>Stanford and MIT have an edge in visibility in CS. Stanford is also local to Silicon Valley, an advantage for recruiting by smaller companies looking for CS majors (unlike GAFAM, smaller companies don’t have the resource to recruit everywhere).</p>
<p>However, you need to consider your personal fit, academic and otherwise, at each school. For example, MIT, Caltech, Chicago, and Columbia have fairly heavy core or general education requirements (not the same, of course), while Brown has no general education requirements beyond two courses designed as writing intensive courses.</p>
<p>Non-academic factors include the social scene. Are fraternities and sororities, or similar organizations like Princeton eating clubs or Harvard final clubs, of interest to you, or something you would rather want to be small enough a presence that you can easily ignore them?</p>
<p>Do you prefer an urban, suburban, or rural environment? Stanford is in a suburban environment on the edge of a rural area (with hills and nice places to hike and bicycle), but some of the other schools are in big cities (with the usual big city life).</p>
<p>You can search on the Brown forum and see some discussion about Brown CS. It is a very good program, my daughter graduated from there and was accepted directly into a top 10 funded PhD program. Many student intern and then go to work at GAFAM. There are abundant research opportunities. Some students take grad classes as an undergrad.</p>
<p>Take a little time and look at the culture of the various colleges to see what suits you best. They all have differing undergrad requirements. Going to any of the schools on your list will be very worthy, so you might as well pick in the order that appeals to you for the college as a whole.</p>
<p>Brown CS may be good, but none of the things that you describe is unique to Brown, or even that unusual among research universities with decent CS departments.</p>
<p>One other thing: while the schools seem to have good reputations for financial aid, have you run the net price calculator on each school? They may come up with significantly different net prices. If so, you may want to consider the differences in your ranking (or drop any which are completely unaffordable).</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, if I become a QuestBridge finalist and am admitted to one of the colleges on my list, I will receive a full scholarship—that’s how the program works. So financial aid is not really an issue here.</p>
<p>I think I will rank Brown. Do you know anything about Yale’s CS program? I am trying to decide whether to rank Yale on my list.</p>
<p>^^ucbalumnus has been helpful…and to be frank, your list of schools for computer science seems to make no sense whatsoever…if you want the BEST computer science degree without worrying about which “athletic league” it is part of…the four schools on that list should at least include Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Berkeley…you have two of them, but you are missing the other two…</p>
<p>…I would eliminate at least half the schools on your list…unless you really don’t care about the quality of CS degree…and the opportunities you are seeking after graduation…</p>
<p>gravitas2, I am sorry for any confusion here. As I said above, I am applying early through the QuestBridge College Match program. The way the program works is like this: QuestBridge it partnered with 35 top schools. If I am selected as a finalist on October 22, the colleges I rank on my list will receive my application. If any of them admit me, I will be legally obligated to attend the one I ranked highest on my list. However, the ones that admit me are obligated to provide a full scholarship.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon and Berkeley are not in the QuestBridge program. If I don’t get into any schools via QuestBridge, I will certainly apply regular decision to Carnegie Mellonprobably not to Berkeley as they are highly expensive for non-California residents.</p>
<p>So, in the mean time, I have to complete my list of schools for the QuestBridge program by October 14 (Monday). Here are my choices (11 of the 35 the ones that have decent Computer Science):
MIT
Princeton
Stanford
CalTech
Brown
Penn
Columbia
Yale
UChicago
Northwestern
Rice</p>
<p>gravitas2, you said you would eliminate half the schools on the list, which ones? I really need to narrow my list down.</p>
<p>warblersrule, thanks for your input! QuestBridge ranking is kind of a balancing act. While the quality of the CS department is of the utmost importance in the decision making, getting a full ride—which would happen if I am admitted to any of them via QuestBridge—to any of those schools would be amazing. So, with that in mind, which ones do you think are worth including in the list? What order would you rank them in?</p>
<p>Hello mom2collegekids, thanks for the response! :)</p>
<p>My safety schools are in my state (NY): RPI and RIT. I am quite sure I will get enough aid to these schools. I will also apply to Olin College of Engineering, however that is not exactly a safety school.</p>
<p>However, this post is about my QuestBridge list. mom2collegekids, which CS QuestBridge schools would you include?</p>
<p>I don’t have “Assurance.” However, judging by there admission statistics (average SAT score, etc.) I am quite certain I would get admitted—probably with enough financial aid to attend.</p>
<p>Of course I am aware that nothing is certain, but they are my “safeties.”</p>
<p>I am quite sure of CS. I have a passion for programming and have taken a number of advanced CS classes at a local college.</p>
<p>Would Stony Brook be affordable? If it is, that may be another good school for CS.</p>
<p>I would not consider RPI and RIT to be safeties; both consider “level of applicant’s interest”. Schools that do so are more likely to reject or waitlist high stats applicants who appear to be using them as safeties. Oddly for a state university, Stony Brook also considers “level of applicant’s interest”.</p>
<p>So the safety search might be harder than you anticipate.</p>
<p>*I don’t have “Assurance.” However, judging by there admission statistics (average SAT score, etc.) I am quite certain I would get admitted—probably with enough financial aid to attend.</p>
<p>Of course I am aware that nothing is certain, but they are my “safeties.”*</p>
<p>Those aren’t safeties. Admittance is only half of the issue. for a school to be a safety, you have to also know that you’ll have the funding to attend. If those schools were the only schools to accept you and both gave you a twenty thousand dollar gap in aid, you’d have NO school to attend…right?</p>
<p>What is your home state? If it’s NY, then apply to a couple of SUNY’s that have good CS. With fed aid, state aid, maybe some merit, student loan, and work study, they’re more likely affordable at least with smaller gaps in funding.</p>
<p>You really can’t go wrong with any of these schools. Not for academics anyway. They are all prestigious schools with robust CS departments. However, the OP says he needs to finalize his QB list by tomorrow (Oct 14). So let’s take his question at face value and help him narrow down the list. He can (and should) re-visit his safety school strategy another time. One way to narrow down is to go by the US News department rankings (which are driven by peer assessment surveys sent to academics in the field). For CS, US News ranks the 6 schools below his “definitely will apply” cut line like so:</p>
<p>Columbia
Penn
Brown
Yale
Northwestern
Chicago</p>
<p>One could make a case that Chicago offers at least as good an overall undergraduate education as any of the others (which to me is more important than marginal differences in the CS department quality) … but the OP asked specifically about CS. So drop Chicago. Department quality aside, one issue that may not work in its favor is internship opportunities. Hyde Park is not ideally located for that (although, hey, location needn’t be a barrier to computing). Just because it’s so darn selective, without a compelling reason to pick it, I’d also drop Yale.</p>
<p>For the 4 remainders, it gets harder to say with a straight face that you should make the decision based on the US News department ranking. Do you like the Open Curriculum concept? If so, apply to Brown. If you prefer the Core Curriculum approach, go with Columbia. Penn and Northwestern are pretty similar schools in some respects, so if you feel a need to pick only one of these (and have no principled basis to choose), flip a coin.</p>
<p>UA, it seems all the schools are strong in CS, so use another set of criteria to finalize your list - location, size, urban versus suburban, just what you feel when you hear the name, climate. At this point, it’s about where you want to be for the next four years when you’re not in the classroom.</p>
<p>Good luck with your ranking and your applications</p>
QuestBridge ranking is kind of a balancing act. While the quality of the CS department is of the utmost importance in the decision making, getting a full ride—which would happen if I am admitted to any of them via QuestBridge—to any of those schools would be amazing. So, with that in mind, which ones do you think are worth including in the list? What order would you rank them in?</p>