I’m looking for schools that have a solid CS program, are matches/safeties for my stats, and won’t break the bank. My parents have indicated that the maximum they’ll contribute is 30k a year, but they’d be willing to pay more if I were to go to a top university in the nation. I have no preferences in regards to location, size, and religious affiliation. I would prefer schools that are in a urban or suburban setting and more reserved on the party/greek life scene. I’m interested in studying computer science with a focus on AI and data science.
My list so far:
Reach-
Rice
UT Austin (I’ve heard the CS program is very selective for those outside of the top 6%)
Match-
Lehigh (I know its expensive and large party scene, but I’m interested in their CSB program which is pretty unique)
Safety-
UT Dallas
Texas A&M
Stats:
1540 SAT
800 Math 2 subject test
740 Chemistry subject test
3.94 uw GPA 4.59 w GPA
9 AP courses by the end of senior year
honors and AP whenever possible
Rank 61 out of 858
Have you toured both TAMU and UTD? Their campus cultures are as different as day and night! Both have solid CS programs and both will give you merit money but UTD will likely give you more. You might take a look at UT San Antonio if you feel you need another safety.
Just fyi, my high stats DS (top 1%, 1590 SAT) opted for UTD over UT for thier CS program. Not only did they give him amazing merit money but their program offered more options for undergrads in CS. He also felt that UTD offered a more collaborative environment instead of a more competitive environment. He is in UTD’s honor program and their CS2 comp sci honors program and participated in their Clark summer research program. UTD was also just named an official tier one research university opening the way for tons of extra state funding.
@3scoutsmom I’m looking for an opportunity to visit both campuses and should be doing so soon. I prefer UTD over A&M due to the size and culture difference and am very interested in UTD. I think I’d also prefer UTD over UTA but I’ll wait to make my decision after I visit. Do you think I’d be admitted to the honors program and compsci honors program>
@Greymeer After looking to GA Tech, I think I’ll add it to my list. At first I thought that they took major into account when reviewing applications and believed CS admissions to be highly selective. I was doubtful of my chances but after learning that this isn’t the case I will be applying to GA Tech. Thank you for the response!
How about a school on the West Coast? There are obviously a lot of great CS schools there, but there are two problems:
You would have good odds of acceptance at top state schools (e.g. UCs, UW, Cal Poly) -- but as an out-of-stater, you wouldn't get any financial aid.
You would be eligible for financial aid at top private schools (e.g. Stanford, Caltech, USC, Harvey Mudd) -- but the odds of acceptance would be low (i.e. these schools are reaches for practically everyone).
For a possible West Coast match, how about Santa Clara University?
located in the heart of Silicon Valley, great location for CS
highly regarded for CS and engineering
popular alternative to UCs with out-of-staters, because it offers financial aid
690 - 770 Math SAT in engineering school, competitive with most UCs
generous 55% acceptance rate to engineering school
small classes, high 4-year graduation rate
Religious (Catholic) school, Greek life is banned, reserved party scene
But also Jesuit, so non-Catholics are welcome, and about 50% of enrollment
Out-of-staters often overlook SCU, because it is listed as a “Regional University”, rather than as a “National University”, in the US News ranking. The “regional/national” distinction is actually based on the size of doctoral programs, which have historically been small at SCU. Ironically, SCU is much more “national” than any UC in terms of its undergraduate enrollment – the UCs cap out-of-state enrollment at around 20%, while SCU is about 50%.
Main downside to SCU is that it is not as wealthy as the other CA privates listed above. So while you would be eligible for financial aid, it might still not meet your criteria for affordability.
@asiantexan101 if you apply early you’ll likely get into the regular honors program, for the CS2 comp sci honors program you need to test into the program, they only accept a max of 30 students a year. You can read more about it here: https://www.utdallas.edu/~ivor/ComputingScholars/
From what I’ve heard, students in the CS2 program have been offered some amazing internships.
FYI, UTA is UT Arlington but I think you meant UT Austin? If you are serious about going to a Texas state school you might want to think about getting some of the core/gen ed requirements out of the way while you are still in high school. Every TX state school requires Texas Government and most CC’s offer this as an on line course. It’s usually cheaper and easier to take it a CC to get it out of the way.
Another California option would be San Jose State. They are known as somewhat of a feeder school to Silicon Valley. If that interests you, you might consider it. Run NPC – i know they wouldn’t be as expensive as the UCs, but it might be a bit high. SJSU would be a low match generally – check to see if they admit by major and (if info is available) what the CS admit rate is.
She would be a couple of deviations above the norm of a typical Santa Clara and SJSU student in terms of grades and test scores. Sounds like she has much cheaper safety options already.
The OP is interested in the Lehigh CSB program specifically. This is a very unusual 4-year program, since it is both AACSB-accredited in business and ABET-accredited in CS. Along with the IBE (Integrated Business & Engineering program), it has a reputation for attracting students with significantly higher stats than the school as a whole. So the OP’s stats may not necessarily seem “too good” in the CSB application context.
Another way to avoid this issue would be to apply ED. That is the ultimate “demonstration of interest”. Lehigh now fills more than 50% of the class by ED.
That’s true, but the non-resident cost of attendance at SJSU is going be around $40k, with no financial aid. SCU (which is only about five miles away) would be the higher-ranked school by most metrics, and is likely to be less expensive for a non-resident.
SCU’s stats have been rising steadily in recently years. For Fall 2017, the SCU engineering school had a 25%-75% SAT range of 1340 - 1490. The OP’s reported SAT of 1540 is obviously above the SCU 75th percentile of 1490, but probably not a “couple of deviations” above. http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/7791/screen/19
The numbers for the SJSU engineering school are probably significantly lower, but they are not available in the asee.org profiles.
An upper middle class family that can pay $30K a year will unlikely get any need based aid, they will need strong merit aid. SCU does offer merit aid but I don’t know how competitive it is.
^SCU’s NPC includes a merit estimate though I’m not sure how accurate it is; my understanding is that small merit discounts are common. OP should run the NPC.
I shouldn’t say negative things about my alma mater, but with the OP’s stats if she’s willing to have TAMU as a safety, there’s no need to be considering SCU, especially given the cost. At my kid’s school here in Silicon Valley, one of the NMF students is going to TAMU and another NMSF is going there, and we have a grand total of only 3 going to SCU even though it’s what a 15-20 minute drive from the HS.
If the OP were looking more at match schools in/very near an urban area with a great CS program that is affordable, I would be looking at schools like Northeastern, WUSTL, UMD, maybe U Minnesota.
The US Dept. of Education’s official “College Scorecard” site puts the “average annual cost” for SCU at $34,425. That seemed close enough to the OP’s $30k budget to make it worth mentioning, especially given the OP’s high stats, which seem like they could possibly qualify for merit aid. https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/search/?name=clara&sort=advantage:desc
Of course. College Scorecard is only a rough first approximation, the NPC would be a better guide. And after running the NPC, SCU may or may not be affordable. As I previously acknowledged, it is not as wealthy as other CA privates, and is not known for amazing financial aid. But it seemed like a potential option.
OP is asking about matches and safeties – SJSU is probably a low match and maybe even a safety. (though probably not the latter, considering the choice of major).
@Corbett College Scorecard gives “The average annual net price for federal financial aid recipients, after aid from the school, state, or federal government.”
It is very unlikely that the OP will qualify for any need based aid let alone federal aid.
Case Western Reserve and U of Rochester could both be good choices for your interest and could offer significant merit. Not sure if you could get the price tag down to $30K, though. WPI could also be a great school for your interests and could offer merit.
U of Utah has an excellent CS program and an innovative Honors College. They offer a path to residency after the first year, so paying $43K for one year could be followed by paying $24K (plus the inevitable upward creep) for years 2-3… coming in under your target of $30Kx4 even before merit aid, of which there’s quite a bit available https://financialaid.utah.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/freshman/ It meets your criteria for suburban/urban, with both the resources of a major city and terrific outdoor recreation extremely close by. (Half an hour to skiing, for example.) This could be a solid safety for you. As different at UTD and TAMU are from each other, UofU is vastly different from either, so that gives you a nice range of alternatives.