<p>Hi! My oldest child will be a senior this fall. He's an absolute computer genius,but has Asperger's Syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder). He's not severe, but due to immaturity and lack of good time management,his grades freshman and sophomore years were not good (Mostly B's and C's,some A's,one D in graphic design). His grades this past year went WAY up. One B the rest A's. So because his GPA isn't great, neither is his class rank. Would this automatically rule out an ivy league or other highest level school? His ACT score is 32. He placed 8th in the nation at Business Professionals of America in Web development,and scored 2nd place in state for IT Concepts and 3rd in state for Java programming. He already is doing freelance web design and programming for a paying client. I know he'll get awesome teacher recommendations. For extra curricular activities he's in Business Professionals of America, Knowledge Bowl, and does computer stuff for our church.
He already knows he wants to major in computer science, but with his GPA should he even bother with applying to a super selective school? If so, which ones have good computer science programs? What other schools that aren't quite so selective still have a good reputation in computer science?
Also, we are a low income family (under $50 K per year with 2 adults and 5 kids). Is there good financial assistance at the expensive schools?
How do you decide how many and which colleges to apply to? This is my first kid,so it's all new to us.
Thanks!
Annette</p>
<p>Get a copy of “Colleges that Change Lives” by Loren Pope. Read the chapter about learning differences and colleges. Then start reading the various chapters on the different colleges and see which one jump out at you.</p>
<p>There is a right college for him; you just have to find it. But time is short; application season is only six months away. You are probably going to really need to take a leadership role in this to stay on top of all of the complexities and issues.</p>
<p>I would not focus on the Ivies. They are a reach at best for everyone and actually not the best for computer science. Go to your local library and look at the college guide books to find good CS schools.
Lots of very good schools do provide a lot of financial aid. Go to [FAFSA</a> - Free Application for Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov%5DFAFSA”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov) to find out how to fill out the most commonly accept form . (NOT [Professional</a> help filing the FAFSA - Federal Student Financial Aid Application](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.com%5DProfessional”>http://www.fafsa.com) )
Quite a few large state universities have great CS programs - look at UMDCollege Park, UWash, UWisc Madison, UIllnois Urbana , UMichigan as a start.
Colleges that Change LIves is good, but not too many are excellent for CS.</p>
<p>What state are you in and does he have a preferred area of the country he wants to go? A state U in your state with a good CS program may be one of the better choices. It may be worth applying to some of the privates as well since some might give good financial aid. There are a number of privates known for CS with CMU, Harvey Mudd, and some others being among them.</p>
<p>With his grades I wouldn’t think he should count on admission to the ivies but then no one should count on the ivies.</p>
<p>On the ‘how many’ question, it’s often good to apply to a couple of safeties, a few matches, and maybe a few reaches. By this I mean colleges where your son’s stats are toward the higher side (safeties), solidly around the mid to upper (matches) or towards the lower side (reaches). You can usually find this info on the websites of the colleges. </p>
<p>He has a lot going for him and an excellent ACT score so he should be in the ballpark for most places depending on how the particular college balances his ACT vs GPA. Some colleges only factor the grades from 10th and 11th grades into the GPA so that may help him. If he’s taking some AP classes those may give him a GPA boost as well.</p>
<p>No, he doesn’t sound competitive for ivies or similar schools but, honestly, computer science isn’t their strength. To be honest, your best option may be your state flagship. Big state universities can be good at cs but they are often hard on the pocketbook for out-of-state applicants. For better financial aid, look at your instate public and privates (maybe some techy schools?) that give good aid, even if they are reaches. If money is an important factor (and it sounds like it is), that may be a very important part of the equation. First, go to an online calculator and see whether you’re likely to qualify for Pell Grant. Also, find out if he’ll qualify for any state grants; these would usually require him to attend a college in your state. If there is $ for him to state instate, you may want to make sure you have some instate options.</p>
<p>I agree with the posters who recommend state flagship/state U’s. They generally have good CS programs and if one is close to where you live there is the added bonus of being near familiar surroundings should he need a break from campus life. Apply to the schools in your area that have CS programs and apply for all need based scholarship programs at these schools.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Be sure to make affordability one of your top priorities. I thought I would be fine financially with a family providing 10k a year and solid “stats”, but only 2 of the 12 schools I applied to were options considering money when all the dust cleared. Please please please do some research to pick out colleges that are monetarily realistic. Here’s a link I googled, it has very good lists of “no loan” and “capped loan” colleges. One of my two “true” options was Pomona College, a “no loan” college, and if I applied to college again I would study those lists.</p>
<p>[Student</a> financial aid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid]Student”>Student financial aid - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>the schools listed are tough but your kid definitely has more of a shot than I did for some. state schools can be affordable too.</p>
<p>With a 2 income family with 5 children, he would be eligible for Questbridge. It is a program to help and match lower income kids with top schools. The very extensive application allows the student to talk more about their circumstances, whether they be family issues, economic, or other.It allows low income kids to attend top schools basically for free, with some work study and summer work…With a 32 ACT he would most definatley looked at, and at most, Questbridge will allow him free applications to many elite schools. Take a look at questbridge.org</p>
<p>My D was a recipient of this program 2 years ago, and she is now attending her dream school.
PM me if you would like more information on this.</p>
<p>I meant to link you to the QB forum here on CC, but for some reason, my computer is acting up. It is under the financial aid forum. There is a link to QB, but the other forums are mostly students needing info.</p>
<p>Does he need services in high school due to his disability? If so, you need to visit the disabilities board on this site. Some colleges and universities handle disabilities well and some don’t. It is a much less straightforward than public k-12 school.</p>
<p>I second the QuestBridge recommendation. Also, in my experience, the schools that meet full need (which are also selective) were much better for financial aid than the state schools.</p>
<p>I agree with others, don’t focus on an Ivy because 1) his grades just aren’t there, even though he sounds quite bright, they won’t take him with that transcript 2) they aren’t the best for computer science as others have said, and 3) I doubt they will offer much in terms of Asperger’s support. </p>
<p>There’s a thread on good schools for Asperger’s students somewhere around this board that you might want to check out, i’m sure computer science comes up there more than once.</p>
<p>Maybe he would be interested in a school like Digipen.</p>
<p>Maybe Georgia Institute of Technology. I dont know about their FA, but its a great science/math/engineering school!</p>
<p>What state do you live in? maybe there are good instate options that are more affordable?</p>
<p>Out of state publics do not seem like good bets here given the financial need. His bet bet would be to focus on schools that meet 100% of need. This will not be simple given his stats and his area of interest, but combing the list should yield some possibilities.</p>
<p>Other than that the focus should be on in state publics.</p>
<p>The first thing I would do is to estimate your Estimated Family Contribution. To do that, you can go to FAFSA.gov, and print out/download the FAFSA on the Web worksheet. To complete it, you should use your tax return, and also, add up all of your assets. Schools like Amherst and Princeton also have online calculators to tell you how much financial aid they would provide if they selected him (should be similar numbers). Then you would have a solid idea of what kind of aid you could expect. I think you’d have a better chance at a lower tier school that might find him very attractive–maybe somewhere like Drew or Denison. They might add merit aid to the mix, which Ivies wouldn’t.</p>
<p>If your child has Aspergers, you might want to have him go to school not TOO far away–within a couple of hours, maybe, so that you can help him if you need to. It’s just one piece of the equation to consider.</p>
<p>If this were my child the first issue I would think about is the Aspergers. How much support will my son need? Will a smaller school feel like a family or be too confining? Will a big school give him space when he needs some or is he likely to get lost in the crowd? Does he thrive in smaller more dynamic classes or does he do better in bigger classes where he is not called out as much? How far from home do you think is preferable? Running through these questions will help your son focus on appropriate LACs or Universities. </p>
<p>(PS - I wouldn’t cut any schools as reaches … your son is bright and there is a story for his not great 9th and 10th grade grades … the odds of getting in are 0% if he doesn’t apply)</p>
<p>Another strong semester in the fall will help him. If he is doing weighted classes, it will help ranking too.</p>
<p>Those essays are there for a reason…you have a personal story to share and you child sounds like a true success story…go for it… when you find thoe matches on paper/websites.</p>