Help me with my search for CS schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello. I would appreciate it if you would comment on this preliminary list of colleges I am thinking about applying to this upcoming fall. I plan to major in computer science and I am a resident of Massachusetts. I have a 4.0 GPA unweighted and a 2250 on the SATs (760 M, 750 W, 740 CR). I have a projected strength of schedule of 10/10.</p>

<p>Reaches:
MIT
Carnegie-Mellon University
Cornell University
Notre Dame (I know it is not strong in CS but I like Catholic atmosphere and everything else about it. If anyone could comment on its CS program that would be appreciated)</p>

<p>Matches:
University of Michigan
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Northeastern University
Villanova (Same as Notre Dame. If someone could comment on its Comp. Sci. program that would be great. I’m not sure if it is very strong or not.)</p>

<p>Safeties:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Legacy)
UMass Amherst</p>

<p>I’m not so much asking for chances as I am asking for suggestions. I’m not really sure if I would like the size of schools such as Michigan and Illinois. Ideally, I would like a small or medium sized school (< 10,000 or so) with a strong CS program. MIT and CMU would fit the bill, but I do not think I will be accepted at either of those schools. I can go as far as the Mid-West. I come from a middle class family so schools that I could get some scholarship money from would help, but it's not necessary.
Any suggestions of schools like that would be greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Have you and your parents run the net price calculators on each school to see what the costs are? Have your parents said that they are all within their ability to contribute?</p>

3

<p>

This actually suggests you come from a well off family or are totally unaware of the cost of college. UMich and UIUC will cost $50K/year. If you are in-state for UMass and willing to go there then great, everything else is gravy.</p>

4

<p>@Erin’s Dad I am fully aware of how expensive colleges are. My family is middle class, but my grandparents/great-grandparents set up a college fund for me, which my parents will supplement. I understand that cost is extremely important, but I didn’t want people not to suggest schools because of their cost. (sorry for the double negative, I hope that makes some sense) That way, I could look at the suggested school and run the net-price calculator to see if it is economically feasible. If it is, then great. If not, then it would give me a better idea of what I am looking for and I could look for similar, yet affordable schools.
@ucbalumnus I will be sure to run the net-price calculator with my parents for the schools, thank you for the suggestion.</p>

5

<p>Rice University
Northwestern
UChicago
Case Western
Lehigh</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the suggestions, barrk123! I’ll be sure to look into those schools.</p>

7

<p>bump /10char</p>

8

<p>If you’re willing to come to California, Santa Clara University could be generous with merit aid. It’s Jesuit, about 6,000 students, and has a well regarded engineering department offering CS and CE. Being in Silicon Valley, internship and job opportunities are plentiful.</p>

9

<p>@sheepster Thanks for the suggestion. It seems like a school that I would like, but the location might be a deal-breaker.</p>

10

<p>Last bump.</p>

11

<p>I think that your list is terrific. I assume that you will be taking SAT IIs in June and will obtain competitive scores. </p>

<p>You are a competitive applicant. I might consider more reaches like Penn, Duke, Columbia and Rice. Penn and Columbia are ivies but admission through engineering is not as brutal as arts and science. Rochester has great CS and should be a safety if you visit and interview while you are there. </p>

<p>Northeastern is a safety with a trivial early action application especially if you are applying to Michigan anyway. Basically, if you’re filling out the common app anyway, then adding UMASS and Northeastern by November 1, will provide you two safeties by mid December without any additional essays. WPI is a safety also. I’m not sure if they have extra essays. </p>

<p>Illinois is also a safety that has rolling admissions. You will also be admitted before Christmas. </p>

<p>I think that you can do MIT, Michigan, UMASS, Northeastern, WPI and UIUC before 11/1. You will hear from all of them before Christmas. Don’t do any more applications until you hear about MIT other than interview and have transcripts and recommendations sent. Then you can see if you need to file more applications depending on the results.</p>

12

<p>Apply to caltech too, especially if you’ve done some sort of research in high school. Their cs grads do really well!</p>