I am in 11th grade and working to narrow down my college list. My intended major is computer science, but I also like the idea of applying to a few schools that offer a liberal arts education. I have a 3.9 gpa and take additional classes from both a community college and a state university. My ECs are very strong and cost will not be a huge factor in my decision. At this point, I am waiting on my SAT scores and they should be reported by next week.
My list of 20 schools:
Harvey Mudd
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Santa Clara University
Washington University
Northeastern
Rice
Drexel
University of Washington (In state option)
Lehigh
George Washington
University of Rochester
Case Western Reserve University
Trinity University
Macalester
Brandeis
Willamette University
University of Denver
Villanova
St. Louis University
I like the idea of a small to medium sized school with small class sizes and communication between students and professors. Also, I want to be in or near a big city with plenty of internship or co-op opportunities. I hope to be hired by a top tech company as a programmer after college. Any tips on narrowing down this list? Do you see any schools that I should eliminate right away? I’d like to cut this list down to around 10 and I will likely throw in a couple of in state safety schools.
Thanks in advance for your input!
I don’t know what your SAT is so it’s hard to deduct a match at this point. However I’ll try my best. You’re all over the map, location-wise. You’re from Washington State so your in-state option is a good choice. However, do you have a particular location in mind?
That’s one way to narrow things down. Another way is to identify what you like. You’ve done that to an extent which is good. But extend that deeper. So far I only omitted a few schools and left ones that I thought would be a good fit. Northwestern, University of Denver, and George Washington are really big; you said you wanted small-medium size schools with that close class feel. You’d be a number at those places; Northeastern borders that too but their co-op program and location in Boston is amazing. A couple other places border that too but I left them on the list. You have to identify if you want the big school with the super academics and connections in the city or the smaller school in the suburbs.
Reach:
Harvey Mudd
Carnegie Mellon
Northeastern
Rice
Macalester
WUSTL
Lehigh
Match:
Santa Clara
Drexel
University of Rochester
Case Western
Safety:
Villanova
University of Washington
Willamette
University of Washington is not a safety for an intended CS major. Only a few frosh are directly admitted to the CS major; for others, getting into the CS major is highly competitive, depending on how well one does in prerequisite courses.
I agree with @TheDidactic for the most part, but I think Lehigh and Macalester might be matches for the OP as well. It will be easier to tell when you get your SAT scores.
Everything you said points to Harvey Mudd. It’s a very small school with small classes, but at the same time you have the medium-sized Claremont colleges community. You can study high level liberal arts at the other schools if you chose. And LA is only a half hour away! Obviously it’s a reach school, but I think it might be the best fit for you of any of the other schools on this list.
Without SAT scores this is all pie in the sky, what was your psat?
@TheDidactic @lalalemma @BrownParent thank you all for your input. For the sake of discussion let’s assume that based off of my PSAT and practice test scores my SAT score will be somewhere between 2000 and 2200 by the time I have taken it twice. At this point I am most interested in which of these schools you think might be a good fit for me. After that I will definitely take the time to separate them into reach, match, and safety schools in order to pick a variety from all three categories.
Are you male or female? It’s a lot easier for a female to get into computer science at Harvey Mudd or Carnegie Mellon than it is for a male.
I am a white Jewish male the comes from an upper-middle class family.
Harvey Mudd and Carnegie Mellon will be definite reaches then, no matter your SAT scores.
Many of the California state schools have very good programs in computer science, as does USC. Silicon Valley draws a lot of their employees from the CA state system.
For locations other than the west coast, have a look at Rose Hulman or Olin College.