Help my son make a college list

College Search & Selection
21

@UWfromCA Yes, UW is in-state, so we kinda “turn the table” – he should have priority compare to other OOS applicants.

@artloversplus Great suggestion. We’ll replace MIT with Caltech. U Chicago seems to become more and more selective; now maybe even more selective than the Ivies. Chicago sent the most advertisement posters, booklets, and emails.

@mamaedefamilia We’ll take a look into ASU. How’s Case Western’s reputation in the CS/CE world?

22

Caltech academics are probably much more intense than standard options at MIT. For example, the standard Caltech calculus course is heavily theory based, students are expected to have seen calculus before, and there is no advanced placement for AP credit. The standard MIT calculus course is accelerated, but AP credit is accepted for advanced placement (a more theoretical version is optional).

Caltech is also a significantly smaller school.

23

Yes, Chicago is known for its relentless advertising and email promotions. But thanks to those ads, my D would never thought of the school and will never put it into her #1 Choice. The good thing about its CS department is that there is no barrier of entry to the department, except it is highly selective in admission.

24

“UC Berkeley, MIT, CMU, Stanford, Cornell (the big 5 for Computer Science)”

Cornell is good but it’s not with those four for CS, the fifth is very debatable - Harvard, Michigan, Princeton, Illinois.

Also, I’d put USC as a match, and they do have a lot of merit scholarships available.

So the decision on computer science vs. computer engineering is a crucial one, not just for admissions but for the courses taken and potential jobs upon graduation.

25

@mamaedefamilia makes a good suggestion re: the western undergraduate exchange. There might be some reasonable safeties there–Colorado state, Montana state, Utah state, u of Utah??–in case direct admit to UW CS does not happen. Can’t speak to quality of CS at those schools, but others surely can.

Presumably Paul Allen’s recent gift and the elevation of the program to a school of CS will expand access to CS for UW undergrads.

26

24, that seems to be one of the main goals of these recent actions. Another is to maintain UW's place among the top programs (e.g.,

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings).


27

Just a note re. Cal Poly SLO’s location … I believe there are now daily direct flights between Seattle and San Luis Obispo and there is also the overnight train between SLO and State of Washington (Coast Starlight).

28

I can’t really recall any merit offer by UT Austin (I don’t think so). Our son’s top five list matched yours if you replace Cornell with Harvard. I’d suggest the following:

  1. Refine your list. This is where your preferences come in: STEM, geography, size, etc. Just about all the schools discussed on this thread are good options; however, you need to figure out which good options match you. Research each schools common data set to see how you fit academically.
  2. Visit some campuses for fit. For instance, if you and son took a summer road trip and hit Harvey Mudd, USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Berkeley you would see some of the top CS/Engineering schools in CA (the world actually). You would also see 5 dramatically different campuses and I’d be surprised if they all matched what your son is looking for. My son axed two schools that were originally high on his list (and mine) after visiting the campuses. Your goal is to have a final list (reach, match, safety) that your son can look at and say, “I’d be happy and challenged at any one of these”
  3. Key to your applications will be supplemental essays. Without a big hook, your supplemental essays will be key. The sooner you can start working on them the better. Invest time here over the summer. Make sure it captures the essence of what makes you, you. If you look though CC threads, you’ll see many people ask how someone with high academics and ECs didn’t get accepted, or how others with maybe not as great stats did. The answer is (IMO) supplemental essays that differentiated the student.
29

Minnesota twin cities, Purdue may be worth a look if you want to consider Midwest schools with direct flights reasonably near. Both appear to give (competitive) merit that could make costs comparable to UW.

30

Well, just went to UW’s web site and saw this:

"About “Direct to College” admission changes beginning Autumn 2018:
Direct To College (DTC) is a new admission process that assures incoming freshmen who are admitted into the College of Engineering that they can pursue an engineering degree at the UW. The changes take effect for the incoming freshman class of 2018. It will apply to students who request Computer Engineering as their major (there is no change for Computer Science students). "

Looks like they are splitting the CS and CE programs and each has its own “Direct Admission” now. Not sure how it will impact the number of students direct admitted to CS. If the number is not changing, it’s actually good news, since CE applicants are no longer in the pool.

BTW, anyone can explain the difference between CS and CE? Don’t they take most of the classes together? As a post explained earlier, UCB also has separate admission for CS and CE majors.

31

University of Rochester?

32

Re: #29

(UW = University of Washington here)

UW DTC means that pre-engineering students are admitted to the engineering division, rather than the general undeclared pool. It is unclear whether subsequent entry to an engineering major is open, or still selective for more popular majors, though if it is still selective for more popular majors, it will probably be much less selective than it currently is when every undeclared student could theoretically apply (but it will be more selective for general undeclared students not in the engineering division). It appears that it will be similar to how engineering admissions is done at Michigan (all engineering majors are open for pre-engineering students), Minnesota (some engineering majors are selective), Purdue (some engineering majors are selective), and some other well known public schools.

For UW, you can compare the curricula for computer science and computer engineering here:
https://www.cs.washington.edu/students/ugrad/degree_requirements/
There is considerable overlap, but there are are also some different requirements.

33

“BTW, anyone can explain the difference between CS and CE? Don’t they take most of the classes together? As a post explained earlier, UCB also has separate admission for CS and CE majors.”

Computer engineering will focus on digital hardware design, architecture, circuits, electronics while computer science will focus on programming languages, operating systems. Both will cover things like data structures, algorithms but CS will go more in depth on them. CE will also have a couple of general engineering courses - engineering models, labs, while CS may have science courses in the curriculum.

One note to this - computer science from the school of arts and science or a BA in CS could have a humanities core you need to fill.

34

Do any of the CA publics offer merit? If not seems they should be off the list if OP can’t pay the full OOS cost.

Most LACs offer CS now. Willamette could be a good nearby option with great merit (at least up to full tuition) possibilities. http://willamette.edu/cla/cs/index.html

Maybe Gonzaga and Whitman (just going to offer CS major, from minor, this year)

Lewis and Clark: https://college.lclark.edu/departments/mathematical_sciences/majors/computer_science_major/

No merit aid at Reed. Harvey Mudd has some so that’s worth a shot, so does Claremont McKenna.

35

It’s in the midwest but Grinnell offers much of what he seems to want: excellent CS program; merit aid; and being Asian, male, and from the west coast will help rather than hurt his chances for merit awards.

36

@otterma Grinnell sounds intriguing. Any more good colleges that Asian Male can be a bonus?

37

UC’s offer Regent scholarships and Alumni Scholarships to the top applicants but still a small amount in comparison to the cost of attendance for the UC’s and Cal states offer no merit aid.

38

Large merit scholarships (e.g. Stamps, Drake) at UCs should be treated as high reaches.

39

Yes, most state flagships are not friendly to OOS applicants.

However, I remember reading somewhere that Georgia Tech may be different. Since all in-state students already attend for free due to state scholarships, their merit aids are mostly for OOS students. Is this true?

40

GT’s big merit scholarships should be treated as high reaches.