Help a top-heavy junior make a more balanced college list

Chance Me / Match Me!
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As you can see from the heading, my list is really top heavy. What I’m looking for is discovery of less selective colleges that fit my criteria. So, this means that I would like all the schools that are recommended to have a 30%+ acceptance rate for my major.

My major is either going to be math and/or CS, and I plan to pursue a graduate degree in a mix of the two.

Here are my preferences:

-I don’t want the school to be particularly small or big, the middle is my sweet spot.

-I really appreciate smaller, more intimate classes, but I’m not completely opposed to big lecture halls. Schools with more of the former than the latter would be nice.

-If the school has an honors college that I could also be considered for, that would be nice.

-The more open the curriculum the better. I don’t like it when schools have a lot of gen ed requirements.

-As you can guess, a really strong STEM department (especially math and CS) is preferred, but I’m also interested in sociology and poli sci, so I don’t want the liberal arts department to be completely underfunded.

-I prefer schools that are more open minded and less conservative, and I don’t want to go to any school with a religious affiliation.

-Location wise, I’m pretty open minded, but I prefer snow and more dynamic weather (so a place that’s always above 60 degrees isn’t the best, but I can let it slide). I don’t want the school to be in the middle of nowhere, but I also don’t want it to be almost one with the city (like NYU, for instance). The sweet spot is just outside of a busy city.

-I love school pride! A high attendance at sports events and a general sense of school connectedness is appreciated.

-Nice dorms and an overall scenic campus never hurt.

-And finally, MERIT SCHOLARSHIPS! Scholarships based on GPA and SAT/ACT are amazing (preferably without a separate required essay and supplemental materials). For context: GPA: 3.97, SAT:1550, ACT: 35

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Comp Sci can be the most selective major these days. Math is not. You need to assess how difficult it is at the school to get accepted as a math major, but wind up also majoring in Comp Sci after you’re already in. Many schools would allow you to take the intro Comp Sci classes, and if you do well in them, get into the major. Some schools allow you to major in Comp Sci in the school of engineering, and Math in the school of liberal arts, thus graduating with two degrees. So the >30% acceptance rate for Comp Sci may be too limiting for you, if you could get into the more selective school as a math major, but be able to take Comp Sci classes and get into the major after you start.

How much can you and your family pay a year for college? Do your parents’ finances qualify you for financial aid, or would you be full pay, and you’re looking for merit to limit the amount that your family would have to pay?

Where does that 3.97 put you for class rank or percentile? In some schools, that’s barely top quarter; in others, that’s the valedictorian. How rigorous and competitive is your high school?

Did you make National Merit? That opens up some automatic full tuition or even full ride scholarships at certain flagship state U’s in the south/southwest.

Where is your home state, and how far are you willing to go? Anywhere in the US?

Virtually none of the top schools award merit money, so if your family is full pay, and you don’t want to pay 350K for college, then the Ivies are out, and also the top LACs. The UCs are out unless you’re in-state for CA, and probably the premier flagships like UNC and U Mich.

Are you an underrepresented minority? Are you female? Either of these would open up more options for you, both in acceptances and merit money.

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CWRU and U Rochester are two schools you might consider for the 30-40% admit rate tier.

Both are mid sized, snowy location in/near a city, flexible curriculum, strong STEM but also strong in a wide range of other areas, and offer merit. You would want to demonstrate plenty of interest.

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Trinity University in San Antonio, TX is amazing and offers great merit to top students.

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Seconding the U. of Rochester. I don’t know about athletic life there, but it seems to hit all your other wishlist items. There’s an open curriculum and majors aren’t restricted (at least not for CS or math…music).

What’s your budget? We can get better answers with that information. You’ll be a strong candidate at a lot of schools.

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Price limit? This affects how big a merit scholarship you need at each school.

State of residency?

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However, the more selective the CS major is for frosh admission, the more likely it is to be highly selective to change into later after enrolling. Colleges that do direct admission of frosh to the CS major often fill up the major (or overenroll so that, after expected attrition, the target number of CS majors advance to the upper level courses) so there is little space for those who want to change into the major later.

Also, where the CS major is filled to capacity, it may be difficult for non-CS majors to enroll in upper level CS courses, although the theory courses that are like upper level math courses (and which may be attractive to students who are math majors) may be somewhat less popular than other courses.

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It is not really open curriculum, since a University of Rochester student needs a major, minor, or cluster (3 courses with some relation to each other) in each of humanities, social studies, and science / engineering.

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Without knowing the budget, some schools you might want to consider include:

For schools in your size sweet-spot:

  • Christopher Newport (VA)
  • Lehigh (PA )
  • U. of Denver (CO)
  • William & Mary (VA)…though admittedly, if you’re out-of-state here, the admissions percentage is likely to be below 30%…but with your stats, I have a good feeling. There’s not much merit aid either, but depending on the budget…

A little bit smaller than your ideal, is Union (NY).

If going a bit bigger, then look at:

  • Binghamton (NY)
  • Stony Brook (NY)
  • Towson (MD)
  • U. of Delaware
  • U. of Kansas
  • U. of Nebraska

@ucbalumnus, duly noted. Thank you for the correction.

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Several things jump into my mind reading your post.

The first thing is that we really need more information. Is your stated GPA weighted or unweighted? How do you rank in your high school? What is your home state? What is your budget? What is your budget without taking on any debt at all?

U.Mass Amherst is very good for CS and might be worth looking at. However, the same could be said of quite a few other universities as well. You are likely to have one or more good choices among your in-state public universities.

I doubt that you will get everything on your list in one university, but you might get most of it.

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Merit matters in context of price. Why does admit rate matter?

UAH could be a good fit - except for weather as could WVU and U Maine. Obviously UAH won’t be cold.

U Denver is another and Brandeis. Or Michigan Tech and MIssouri Science & Tech and even Colorado and South Dakota School of Mines.

If you want money, then go for money - which will be an entirely different tranche of schools. Don’t confuse admit rate, pedigree with outcomes - especially in CS.

Can’t say all the political desires you are sharing will be met but I also don’t think schools are as political as many make them out to be - unless you seek them out. Also, in regards to curriculum, you’ll find in CS type programs, the curriculum will dictate what you need to do vs. an open curriculum per se.

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I think because OP already has some schools on their list that are low admit rate, so they want additional options with admit rate >30%.

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The University of Utah would fit many of your criteria. Relatively low cost, especially after getting residency, a good math department and interesting honors options, easy to get into, great football spirit and the skiing can’t be beaten.

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My point was more so - focus on preferences and not admit rate.

One has to be at school for four years, day after day after day. Whether the rate is 25% or 65% is not relevant IMHO.

If he wants to say top 50, then go ahead I suppose.

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OP did give a lot of info about preferences as well. But the reason for the admit rate is that they specifically want to add some less rejective schools to their list. We can assume that they already have a list of highly rejective colleges (not listed in the original post), presumably with <30% admit rate. They want to balance this list by adding some schools more likely to admit them.

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Hi, @kache1 Welcome to College Confidential! As others have posted, we need more info about how much you can afford per year for college. “Merit” is not specific enough. There are some top 50 schools that may give $10k a year in merit, but your family’s total out-of-pocket costs could still be over $70k yearly. Would that be doable, or do you need to find a place that would cost $30k or $40k all-in?

Which state are you from? Do you live in a rural area? Don’t forget that geographical diversity can help influence acceptances.

I suggest you check out two schools in Worcester, Mass - Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic. They both give merit. Ursinus and Susquehanna, both in PA, are known for exceptional merit that could get your out of pocket costs down to @ $30k. Lehigh University, also in PA, makes it very easy to take classes in the College of Arts & Sciences or the Colleges of Engineering, Business, and Health. It is also easy to double major or to create your own interdisciplinary major.

Finally, if you are looking for true safeties, I think you need to look at schools with more than a 50% acceptance rate. For more ideas, check out “Colleges That Change Lives” and “The Princeton Review Guide to the Top 387 Colleges.”

Good luck!

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Got it. My recs had that.

I think I was reading wrong. I was thinking they wanted about 30% so a 70% was too high ie the school not a good enough school. Thx for clarifying. I gave the 40-70% :slight_smile:

Ps the other issue with acceptance rate is CS often doesn’t track the school’s rate.

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I second CWRU. My son is a freshman there for MechE and he loves it. The school facilitates and encourages double majors and minors (our tour guide was a MechE major and Econ minor), and students are not locked into a major until the end of sophomore year.

Case is also very generous with financial aid, and there are many CC postings about automatic merit awards equal to 50% of tuition for strong students. The risk for you is that CWRU practices yield management, and your stats are strong enough that they may defer you because they think you are using them as a safety. If you apply, be sure to demonstrate interest with site visits, zoom presentations, essays, etc.

Sure, it’s in Cleveland, but the surrounding neighborhood is nice.

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Some general thoughts and questions:

Focus on honor colleges within larger state schools. They often feel like a campus within a campus and might provide the more middle ground feel you seem to want. They also often come with scholarship money, first dibs for classes and access to research that the regular students don’t enjoy. Since you would be at a larger university, there would be a wide range of academic programs available. These schools would also satisfy your desire for school spirit and sports programs.

Along these lines, where are you and what is your flagship state school?

You might want to look at University of Pittsburgh as a safety. It is a small state school (~20,000 students), but it feels much smaller. They have honors programs for all colleges, but you would have to apply separately with additional essays, etc. It is in a nice neighborhood in Pittsburgh, right next to CMU. In fact, Pitt and CMU have a cross-registration program where Pitt students can take classes at CMU, and visa/versa. Something to think about since CMU is #1 in CompSci. With your stats they might throw a pile of financial aid your way. Sports, especially football, are big at Pitt. During our tour, we did not get into dorm rooms, but we saw common areas and they looked pretty nice.

Don’t worry about colleges being conservative. Except for a few outliers like BYU and Liberty, US colleges trend left. The real problem will be finding a school where all viewpoints - including conservative or even moderate - are accepted.

As noted elsewhere in this thread, CompSci is the most competitive college major these days. There are, however, similar courses of study that are related but not as cut-throat. Have you considered subjects like data analytics, management information systems, etc.?

You have an impressive resume, and you will excel wherever you land. Good luck.

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Michigan Tech may not fit the OP’s criteria. It is not known for CompSci or math, though it ranks pretty highly for MechE. It is out in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from a major city (we live in SE MI and Tech is eight hours away in the UP). Outside of hockey, I don’t think it is any great shakes in sports and it’s alumni in MI don’t seem to have the same school loyalty as Spartans and Wolverines.

On the plus side, Tech is generous with financial aid. From my conversations with alumni, that seemed to be what attracted them to Houghton over MSU of UofM.