Good Safeties for Compsci?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm currently a junior in high school and I'm trying to make my college list. I want to do compsci, and I live in NJ. I already have rutgers as one safety, but i need one more. i'd prefer something within a days driving distance from mid-NJ. i currently attend a preengineering vocational academy (high technology high school) from monmouth county vocational school district. we're ranked 7th high school in the nation. i have a 4.0 gpa for all 3 years cumulative and my sat scores are as follows:</p>

<p>SAT1:
Math: 790
Crit Read: 750
Writing: 660 (but retook in june, waiting for scores, probably 700+)</p>

<p>SAT2:
Math 2: 800
Chemistry: 790
Physics: 760
Literature: 650</p>

<p>Does anyone have any suggestions for GOOD compsci safeties that I might be able to apply to? Thanks.</p>

2

<p>bump.</p>

<p>i could really use some advice. is nyu any good for compsci or would that not really be considered a safety? idk ive gotten mixed replies from people i’ve asked.</p>

3

<p>I don’t know about NYU, but BU, Maryland and Case Western are supposed to have good programs. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Forgot to add University of Rochester.</p>

5

<p>Stevens Institute of Tech? RPI, since your stats are really great in math.</p>

6

<p>Stevens, RIT, WPI, Clarkson</p>

7

<p>First, what are your Non-safeties? Matches, reaches?
I imagine you are considering CMU?
RPI would be a safety I would say.</p>

8

<p>My list so far is:</p>

<p>MIT
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Princeton
Stanford
Berkeley
CalTech</p>

<p>They all seem to be reach… I already have a partial scholarship to drexel from a science fair so i might apply there too but i dont know anything about drexel… i have rutgers as a safety.</p>

9

<p>Why wouldn’t CMU be considered a safety for you?</p>

10

<p>I would add Case western, Wisconsin, University of Rochester, Lehigh, and Michigan as your safety/match.</p>

<p>Hope this will help. :)</p>

11

<p>

Because highly selective private colleges should never be considered a safety. When you have to reject 75% of all applicants, the admission process will have some element of randomness.</p>

12

<p>A few suggestions (although, they tend to be easier to get into versus other private institutions with engineering programs):</p>

<p>Union College
Trinity College
Smith College
Bucknell University</p>

<p>Also consider schools like Brown, which is always looking for more female engineering applicants.</p>

13

<p>I’d also recommend RPI as a safety. It’s a pretty nice school, and I know a couple of people other than myself that had there as a fallback if we didn’t get into CMU.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>you can’t be serious? CMU has arguably the top cs program in the country. IIRC it is also by far cmu’s most selective major. It isn’t a safety for anyone.</p>

15

<p>Hm, well, I misspoke, then.
It may not be a safety, but it seems to me like a low, low reach for someone with stats like those of the OP.</p>

<p>I looked at its SAT ranges and acceptance rates, and I wasn’t impressed, given, as you say, CMU’s reputation for excellence in many fields of comp sci, engineering, social science, etc. Perhaps those stats are averages for all its schools, like what Cornell and UPenn do for their schools?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/facts2008/2_Fact%20Book_2007_08_Students_AdmissionsFYEnroll_Web%20Version.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/facts2008/2_Fact%20Book_2007_08_Students_AdmissionsFYEnroll_Web%20Version.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Page 3 has information on admissions statistics. I don’t know if 19% can be considered a safety for anyone. The SAT information isn’t broken up by school, there, but I was able to find it in the 2005 report.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ira/facts2005/2005%20Fact%20Book%20Revised%20Version.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/ira/facts2005/2005%20Fact%20Book%20Revised%20Version.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Page 30 has SAT statistics for each of the colleges individually. Since then, the average SAT score has gone up by about 20 points from ~1380 to ~1400. I think some of it was from the selectivity in H&SS increasing, as well as Tepper, but I’m also sure that the other schools had to keep pace.</p>

<p>While CMU’s CS isn’t a safety for anyone (considering it’s one of the top programs in the country) I think you stand a pretty good chance of getting in. CMU’s started caring a lot more about EC activities and “holistic” admissions, though, so hopefully you have something outside of the classroom to bolster your application. Finally, CMU isn’t known for having that great of financial aid, so if budgeting might be a concern, I wouldn’t put CMU as your #1 choice.</p>

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<p>kwu, cmu probably would be a safety for him in any other field, its their comp sci school that he would be applying to though, which according to the figures above had a 19% admit rate in 2007. With his stats it would certainly be a match and he would most likely get in, it is not a safety though since anything 20% and under and there is a bit of luck involved.</p>