<p>To be honest, I don't think I have a good chance at the top CS schools but however, I'm going to give them a shot.
So far, my list had these universities -</p>
<p>1) Carnegie Mellon University
2) UC Berkley, California & San Diego
3) University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
4) University of Austin at Texas
5) Cornell University
6) University of MarylandCollege Park </p>
<p>However, I've been trying to find more schools which have a very good quality CS program but may not be very selective. </p>
<p>So, I've got these few. I need to know what you guys think - are there any more you guys can suggest or are the ones I listed below not good or are they? </p>
<ul>
<li>University of Massachusetts Amherst </li>
<li>Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey</li>
<li>University of Wisconsin Madison </li>
</ul>
<p>Those schools are all over the map! Are you rich? I’m a product of the UC system, but I wouldn’t recommend a UC school to an out-of-state prospective undergrad – the out-of-state tuition is exorbitant.</p>
<p>@International95 - I was considering that option too but then you are not guaranteed admission into the Computer Science program if I’m not wrong? </p>
<p>@Mokonon - Well, yeah I guess I can pay for it. I’ve talked to my dad and I think he’s okay with it. I mean yes, cheaper is obviously better but that comes second. First priority is to get accepted by a good college which seems impossible with my terrible SAT scores and everything. So that’s why I’m looking for a college with a quality CS program which has a higher acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Purdue, Ohio State, and University of Minnesota. These schools all have good CS programs with a very reasonable acceptance rate. Granted, these are OOS, but they are not the most expensive. For example, the tuition rate for U of Minnesota is 20k. and Ohio State is 25k Both on the less expensive end. Also, U of Minnesota and Purdue give decent aid for being OOS</p>
<p>If these are difficult to get into, you could do what I am doing now, using Iowa State as a back up.</p>
<p>Are there any notable private universities? I am rather surprised that the public universities literally dominate all CS rankings. Unfortunately, for an internation student like me, those schools may be out of reach. My family can contribute only $20,000 at most. </p>
<p>If there is a decent ~2100 SAT college with nice CS undergrad program please let me know. Thanks.</p>
<p>Texas A&M, dirt cheap, great education quality. University of Wisconsin-Madison is good, too. Undergraduate isn’t too heavily stressed as opposed to graduate school, though…</p>
<p>It’d be a shame to burn through your wallet to get a good undergraduate school, make it to an M.S., realize you have no money and have to take loans (or take more loans if you did that for undergrad). Good thing most PhD’s are free though if you’re good enough…</p>
<p>You don’t have to go to a “top” CS school. What you learn as an undergrad at UC Berkeley or Carnegie Mellon isn’t going to be much different than what you learn at Sacramento State or Kent State.</p>
<p>For computer-related jobs, it’s not where you went to school that matters - it’s what you know.</p>
<p>^ This, mostly. Most people would get no added benefit from going to MIT for CS over, say, any ABET-CAC accredited program, including most state flagships and regionally recognized colleges. The only thing I’d be careful of is a college that (a) isn’t very well known, (b) offers a CS program in association with its engineering program, and (c) isn’t accredited or seeking accreditation.</p>
<p>…says the software engineer on career year 24 who was Math/CS major (not totally a CS major) from the 50-something ranked Michigan State University and graduated with a C+ average.</p>
<p>If you choose U-Maryland, make sure you take Operating Systems anyway. For some reason, U-Maryland allows you to sneak out with a CS degree without Operating Systems.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about accreditation. I got my CS degree over 30 years ago, and until earlier this year when the subject of accreditation came up on College Confidential, didn’t even know CS programs could be accredited. I’ve never, ever heard CS accreditation discussed at work.</p>
<p>A few months ago I went through the ARWU top 100 CS programs, and not even half were accredited. I tried to find the thread, but gave up after about 30 seconds.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation in CS can be helpful in niche areas like patent law.</p>
<p>It also appears to be used by some less well known schools as a way of indicating meeting a minimum standard of curricular quality.</p>
<p>For practical purposes in most software jobs, ABET accreditation per se does not matter, although the quality of the CS major does matter. Note that a generally prestigious school does not necessarily have a good CS department and major, since there are some rather limited CS departments at otherwise prestigious schools.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks a lot for your inputs guys. My brother suggested me the same thing. He said, undergrad programs are kind of similar in most universities so it doesn’t really matter? Maybe I should think about saving money, in that case.</p>
<p>I agree. You can find good CS programs at all kinds of schools.</p>
<p>My brother got his CS degree at Michigan Technological University. It’s pretty remote, but they have some good scholarships for OOS based on GPA/test scores. They’re a very strong school for engineering and computer science, and they have a lot of top companies recruit there.</p>
<p>This is untrue. I am a developer who has had multiple apps reach the top 10 on both Android and Apple phones, and I believe that going to a good school is key to launching a good career in CS. </p>
<p>By the way, you need good scores on both the SAT and the ACT. I got a 2400 on the SAT and a 36 on the ACT.</p>