<p>Son wants to major in CS, minor in math. Has great GPA, and good AP scores, SAT not up to par with CMU, Cornell, Princeton. He will retake in the fall- and will take the ACT as well to see if that makes a difference. He has never done well on standaradized tests! </p>
<p>We live in MD, so he will apply to UMCP and UMBC. </p>
<p>However, we are trying to identify CS programs that are well respected that may be more of a match for his stats. </p>
<p>GPA- w-4.574 u-3.981
Rank-1 out of 376
SAT- low 1900's
SATII- upper 600's for math and Physics
AP's all 4,5's with a 3 in APUSH and Physics B (terrible teacher, only 3 past students have earned a 3, all the rest that tested earned 1 and 2). Other AP-BC calc, WH, Stats, Lang, CS.
"post AP" courses taken in HS- 2 CS courses, Linear Algebra</p>
<p>Will be attending the local CC this year and taking Calc III, Diff. Equations along with a few other gen ed courses. He is shooting for an AS in Math by the end of this year with the mix of AP credits and college courses. </p>
<p>Any suggestions would be appreciated. He would like to go out of state, but not necessarily across country. </p>
<p>If he can study and bring up his SATs (or take the ACT–he might fare better on that) he would have a serious shot at CMU, which is likely the best. I second USC, but I do believe his SAT would be a little low for a merit scholarship (especially considering one can’t apply, but must be invited by an admissions officer).</p>
<p>UMCP is very good for CS and Math, so that sets a pretty high bar for any other university to compete against if he can get into UMCP.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech, Minnesota, Wisconsin, UIUC, Michigan, Penn State, Purdue, Virginia Tech, and Rutgers may be worth a look as well. Further away, you have Texas, Washington, and a bunch of schools in California.</p>
<p>Thanks ucbalumnus,
I was thinking he should look at Georgia tech and Purdue also. I was not sure about Penn State. I was also wondering how RPI and Case Western are?
Financially, he needs assistance, but will have to be merit, we will not qualify for any need based aid.</p>
<p>UMCP- great school, and yes, he will be able to get in there, and it is in state. The issues there is that he does not really like the campus/location, and many of his HS classmates go there. He is looking for something “different” than everyone else is doing if possible!</p>
<p>For merit scholarships, you generally have to look to low match or safety level schools, since these schools are likely to make merit scholarship offers to high achieving students that they would not otherwise be able to attract. It may be hard to do better cost-wise than UMCP in-state for a comparable school.</p>
<p>Thanks ucbalumnus- we are coming to that conclusion. But it is not a popular one! So I thought I would ask for other ideas just in case we were missing an opportunity.</p>
<p>RPI in general is very strong for engineering and CS. Carnegie Mellon lists the following schools as its peer group:</p>
<p>Caltech
Cornell
Duke
Emory
Georgia Tech
MIT
Northwestern
UPenn
Princeton
RPI
Rice
Stanford
Washington - St. Louis </p>
<p>So RPI is in good company. Anyway a low 1900’s SAT is also a bit low for RPI as mean score for latest classes have been about 2000. Still possible though.</p>
<p>vlines - I’ve got good news and bad news for you. First the good news (and it’s very good):</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine finding a better deal than UMCP at in-state pricing. Their CS/Math programs are great. For a full-pay family, UMCP CS/Math is a bargain even at OOS rates vs. other schools with similar quality programs - and you’re in state!</p>
<p>The second piece of good news is that UMCP CS/Math is super-strong, and I mean on an absolute level - so strong that there actually aren’t many schools with better programs. Nearly all of those would be big reaches unless your son can greatly improve his SAT scores (hundreds of points) - but there would still be no merit. So being in Maryland, your son actually has a chance to get into a much stronger CS program than he could otherwise, and at a bargain rate.</p>
<p>The bad news is that your position is so fortunate, that it’s going to be really hard to find an attractive alternative.</p>
<p>For significant merit, you need to move down the tiers to the point where your son is one of the strongest students. It’s hard to imagine that it would be on the level of UMCP for anything close to in-state cost. Still, absolute strength of the particular program is only one consideration.</p>
<p>Let’s look at two very well-respected schools known for good merit possibilities: Case and RPI (and Case’s merit isn’t all score-based). Both are currently reaches for your son. Assuming he raises his scores significantly and earns solid merit money, UMCP in-state would almost certainly be much cheaper - and UMCP is superior to either. These two schools are stronger in Comp Eng/Arch than CS (a common occurrence), but both of these CS programs are very good. Assuming that all goes very well in the merit dept, these schools could be reasonable alternatives.</p>
<p>A level down: V Tech and RIT are matches, and very respectable schools. Merit would be easier to get. But look at the prices: V Tech $36k COA, RIT $43k - how much merit could you get vs. UMCP in-state? And how good are their CS programs? I’m not sure, but I do know they’re not in the same ballpark as Case and RPI. For schools at this level, you need to examine the CS programs carefully to be sure that they’re actually true CS - not CE, or even I/T. I believe RIT does have true CS, not sure about V Tech - but I wouldn’t even be asking this question if I had UMCP in my pocket!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all responses. And MisterK, thanks for taking so much time to write all of the options. In my heart, I feel that my son will end up at UMCP, for all of the reasons that you outlined so well. For my son, we need to go through the process so he can come to that conclusion on his own, and not pushed there by us. Who knows what he may be offered at the other schools he looks at, maybe there will be a better offer. Likely not. Thanks again for your input. And if anyone else has ideas, please keep them coming. caltanner- Berkeley is a little far, but a great school.</p>
First the good news (and it’s very good):</p>