<p>I'm just trying to decide on what universities to apply to next year in my local area, I have some ideas but I wanted to see what others think. I live in southern Massachusetts and I'm thinking a 5 hour drive radius is appropriate. I understand I live near MIT but I can't get into there. For reference I have a 3.9 (94 UW) GPA and my SAT is 1910, but I'm taking that again and it'll probably go up. Either way, I'm probably out of the range of MIT/Ivies but I can probably get into schools a tad bit less selective than them... Any suggestions? I appreciate any help you have to offer!</p>
<p>Are you interested in private only or public and private? Is cost an issue? Are you looking to go into industry or grad school when you are done? Are there particular areas of CS that you are interested in? Do you prefer a city or suburban setting? Do you want a large school or something smaller?</p>
<p>Use the college search engine here on CC with your stats,major and other requirements. Be sure to expand the number of results at the top, and when choosing option say “very important or must have” or whatever the term is. Otherwise the matches are not as accurate. A 300 mile radius of southern MA will give you lots of options including UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell, UMass Amherst.
[College</a> Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential - College Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/index.htm]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/index.htm)
Honestly, what you can afford to pay is often the limiting factor for most students. So find out what your family’s EFC is, and what your family can really afford to pay, which is often less than the EFC.</p>
<p>I posted this to see what people thought of NE schools in computer science from an academic standpoint… Trying to ignore money or size or city/town. Its easy for me to find which school(like MIT) are way at the top, but what schools are still great even if not in the top 10? This is all from an academic standpoint what i want is a solid education… And i am planing on getting a masters after undergrad.</p>
<p>Northeastern, WPI, and RPI (might be too far away),</p>
<p>What kind of cost constraints? You cannot ignore that, unless your parents have assured you that they will pay $60,000 per year comfortably.</p>
<p>Other than the super-selectives, some schools to consider, if affordable:</p>
<p>University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Stony Brook University
Rutgers - New Brunswick</p>
<p>Umass-Amherst has a good comp sci program.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with UMass-Amherst and WPI grads and both are very good schools. WPI is slightly more (ehem) geeky. Save your money for grad school.</p>
<p>It sounds like you want a school that is a little more theory-oriented with research opportunities. If you are strictly looking at New England, and cost isn’t an issue, then I would put WPI at the top of the list, mostly based on who we hire from (outside of MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale).</p>
<p>I think that UMass Amherst is a good choice too - it’s a big place with very nice CS facilities, a ton of research and therefore research opportunities and they’re still theory-oriented the last time I checked. Note that UMass is going through the problems that a lot of state university systems are going through with reduced state funding and a lot of demand from in-state students to reduce college costs. You also have access to courses at other colleges in the area which you might find useful.</p>
<p>UMass, Binghamton, Stony Brook, Rutgers.</p>
<p>Ditto the votes for WPI (my son is a CS major there), but don’t overlook UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell as low-cost but highly regarded programs. We actually asked a CS prof at UMass Lowell about whether state budget cuts over the past several (many?) years have had an affect on the CS department and they said “No”. They have been very successful at getting lots of grants/donations etc. from area high tech firms and private donors. They are doing very well! Actually that applies overall at UMass Lowell that has been on a construction/expansion kick over the past ten years or so. More details are here - [Transformation</a> of UMass Lowell - Lowell Sun Online](<a href=“http://www.lowellsun.com/umasstransformation]Transformation”>http://www.lowellsun.com/umasstransformation)
Most kids (including mine) just don’t like the campus and its location :(</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is the “geek factor” of the student body as gently alluded to by turbo93. WPI and RPI are much geekier than Northeastern, BU, Tufts, UMass etc. since the everyone there is a STEM-oriented kid. Since you are considering CS and not CE you even have the option of going to a good liberal arts school.
There are lots of good options in this area. It depends on what you are looking for.</p>
<p>RPI should be well within your radius.</p>
<p>The complete list is 79 colleges with CS within 250 of Boston -
[College</a> Navigator - Search Results](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - Search Results)</p>
<p>Use additional search criteria in that tool to narrow it down based on size or urban/rural or average test scores and use your own zip code. Or you can select certain states or regions.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I’d consider umass but it seems to much of a party school for me… Stony Brook doesn’t look too bad I don’t know why I’ve never taken a good look at it before. My family has a personal problem with WPI…don’t ask… so that isn’t an option. I like RPI too. Or at least I would but they require me to live on campus for two years which does not appeal to me… I don’t want to live on campus at all really but I could handle one year since most schools require freshmen. But two is stretching my tolerance… I don’t agree with not being allowed to have a choice (same goes for Northeastern). Anyways, is Stony Brook looked upon well by grad schools? I was also wondering what anyone here thinks of BU for computer Science? I always assumed it was up there but nobody ever mentions it…</p>
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<p>The recent news on UMass has been a bit disturbing but you don’t have to participate in the partying. It’s huge enough so that there are non-party people there too.</p>
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<p>Great school for research which is good as you’re planning on grad school. They can be decent at providing aid for students from MA. I have a coworker with a son that started this past fall and he is doing unpaid research right now and considering a paid position for the summer.</p>
<p>BU is good (there are lots of good schools in the area for it) but it’s one of those schools where you pay your money, do your time and get your degree. They are full-price and not great with merit aid. It’s a good, solid school though. If you have a lot of interest, you could try a summer course there.</p>