I’m looking for some good universities for CompSci/Cognitive Sciences with Artificial Intelligence focus. My son has a 32 ACT with a 3.8 GPA. Could you give me some reaches and matches? No public universities or Ivy League levels! Thanks!
Excluding public universities is a ridiculous restriction.
Excluding public universities seems crazy. I can tell you few eally good public school that would match. Why don’t you want to look at public schools? A few suggestions off the top of my head. They aren’t Ivy’s but are top schools. IDK if these would be match your stats.
What about U. of Chicago, NYU, and Carnegie Mellon.
There are a lot of people that don’t consider public universities or public schools in general, it’s reasonable for people that only want private schools, I get that. I think the artificial intelligence parameter is interesting - I would think all CS programs address that, not sure which do to what degree more than other schools however.
I think you are more likely to find an AI focus at a larger university, or possibly a tech focused school like RPI.
“No public universities or Ivy League levels!” Define Ivy League levels! Do you want to exclude or include MIT & Stanford? They’re not in Ivy League.
@4kidsdad Ivy League level, as in top 20 universities.
Excluding public universities and “Ivy League levels” will exclude many universities that are able to cover a field as specialized and advanced as AI. But have a look at the computer science course offerings at large private universities a notch below “Ivy level”. Check out NYU and the University of Southern California, for example … then maybe Boston University or Northeastern. Look for courses in linguistics and engineering departments as well as CS.
Very small colleges probably won’t cover AI beyond 1 or 2 survey courses (if that), although you may be able to work out an independent study arrangement.
Ridiculous parameters! UIUC is a top choice for general purposed CS. RPI does have an AI program. You might want to take this question to the Engineering and Technology Forum. Someone over there always has rankings lists for such things.
You can start with this list of colleges with AI as a focus. I did not follow up to see which ones have this at the undergraduate level rather than graduate only. This list is put together by AI International.
Consider University of Rochester - strong department and strong in natural language processing.
CS with specialization in AI is what I did at Carnegie Mellon via their Logic and Computation degree, which should be easier to get into than their straight CS program since it’s offered out of their philosophy department (at least that was the case when I attended).
As general advice, there’s a different paths you can take depending on your interests. You can go the straight programming route which is fine and good but I think it limits your horizons. The route I went is a balance of programming plus cognitive psych and philosophy (logic, perception, nature of thought, etc), which gives you a broader perspective which I’ve found helps me every day in ways straight programming would not. In short, I think it made me a more well-rounded and interesting person. The tradeoff is swapping those courses for deeper math and science, but that was one I was more than happy to make!
Excluding a school like UC Berkeley for CS seems a bit arbitrary unless you have a specific reason. Although OOS tuition at UCB is as expensive as a private, the CS is entirely as good as Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and MIT.
UMass Amherst has a top rated CS department.
It’s a state school but I would look closely at Georgia Tech. They have some interesting concentrations within CS.
ETA: GT admissions were very competitive this year and the stats you post are not a slam dunk, at least from what I saw this past cycle here on CC.
I should point out that AI is mostly continuous math nowadays. Linear algebra and Calculus are the main requirements along with some statistics. Also, public universities have some of the best CS departments so they should not be overlooked.
To exclude public U’s is to exclude most of the best computer science departments in the country!!!
You need to realize that flagships in the Midwest and west coast can be so much better than most private schools. Your NE location shows a private school bias that reflects your region only.
You are limiting your child to lesser schools by ignoring the top CS schools. Check CS department ratings. Also check math department ratings. Consider both UW’s (Wisconsin and Washington), Illinois and others. No guarantees your son’s stats will get him into some of these programs, btw.
As others have said, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice by not including public universities in your search. All of the top CS programs are either “ivy-level” or public (UIUC, GT, UT, UMich, UW, UCB, etc.)
U wisconsin, UMass Amherst, UWashington, UWaterloo
CMU is as selective as Stanford for CS.
I’m a little puzzled by all the admonishments about excluding public schools, when I see so many threads here where people are very quick to say, don’t bother considering OOS public schools (generally for financial/affordability reasons).
That said, it might be good to know why the OP is excluding public schools, because their rationale might or might not be reasonable. The OP has other threads where they asked about financial aid for a family with an income of $200,000, which suggests that their reasoning might be financially-based.
It would also be good to know which state the OP lives in, because their in-state public school might still be a good option. Generally I’d agree with the suggestions for larger schools and/or technical schools, as they’ll be more likely to have more than the one or two survey courses in AI. It would be good to know some of the other constraints/preferences the students has (size, location, type of school, etc.), in order to recommend more schools.
With a $200,000 a year income…this family is not going to see need based aid at any school.