<p>I am looking for colleges that are strong in computer science or computer engineering. I prefer mid-size colleges which are located in urban or suburban cities, but am open to all suggestions. Also, I need a lot of financial aid, so colleges that meet full-need would be great. My stats are 3.95/4.48 GPA, top 1% of class, 2290 SAT, 800 Math II, 800 U.S. History, and 770 Physics.
Here are the colleges I am considering:
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon (seems to be one of the best in CS)
Cornell (one of my favorites)
Harvey Mudd (not sure if this is good in CS)
MIT
Princeton (might be too much of a reach)
Rice
Stanford (dream school, but unlikely to get in)
University of Michigan (how's the financial aid for OOS students)
USC (I expect to be a National Merit Finalist, so I should get half-tuition :)
UC Berkeley (EECS), UCLA, UCSD, UCI (instate, ELC)</p>
<p>You have great stats and you have a good shot at Berkeley, which is one of the very best in the areas you’re interested in. However, Berkeley does not give FA to OOS.</p>
<p>RML, what do you mean by OOS? the OP is in california by indicating (instate, ELC)</p>
<p>OP, all your selections are good schools for CS, you should apply to all and see what FA package do they provide. When it comes April 2nd, you can post again here and we will have a more clearer idea. </p>
<p>I wish you all the best.</p>
<p>BTW, Cal do give good FA to needed ELC’s, but I am not sure if it is good enough for you. A wealthy friend’s D who is a Sal, went to UCLA with a good merit, in your case it would be a free ride.</p>
<p>Merit aid at UCs these days is based on income. If you have high need, top schools with no loan policies may well be cheaper for you than a UC. Michigan aid is not good for OOS. Mudd is a great choice here.</p>
<p>Look into schools outside your “comfort zone”. Right now you have a lot of really big schools (and Caltech and Mudd), and all are good potential choices, but you may want to apply to a variety of different types of schools. For example, Brown CS is excellent (We push HARD in our required sequences, and I know a bunch of freshman who got legitimate research, but they were pretty good at programming already), and has a lot of interesting tie-ins to CogSci, Bio, etc. Plus, you don’t get the social scene where you’re only hanging out with techy people. True, you don’t have to get this at a big school, but if you’re applying specifically to the college of engineering, and it’s somewhat removed from the rest of campus, it’s harder to get out of your bubble.</p>
<p>How many colleges should I ideally apply to? Right now, I have 11 + the UC’s, so that’s 12 applications to fill out. And do I have any chance of receiving merit aid at Michigan? If not, I might drop it.</p>
<p>You don;t mention which state you’re from but I’ll assume Michigan is OOS.</p>
<p>There is a fair amount of Merit aid given to OOS students, but some of the bigger awards seem to be department based. I know of a Southern applicant (Honors Physics??) who was awarded somewhere in the low 30K range yearly from College of Lit, Sciences, and Arts – 10K from the General University and 20K from LSA plus another small merit award from the school and the 1.5K Byrd. His overall stats sound suspiciously similar to yours - #1, 3.98/4.6 GPA, 2230 SAT1, 5’s in 3 or 4 AP, 800 Math and/or Physics SAT2 with an OK amount of EC,</p>
<p>I’m told that the merit thorough Engineering department is tougher to get.</p>
<p>CE is part of the Engineering Department
CS is offered through both College of Eng and LSA though I’m not sure if there is much of a curriculum difference other than on the Non CS courses.</p>
<p>I was a former staff member in the CMU Comp Sci Dept. Way back in those days, they only had a grad school, so my recommendations there would be too old and not relevant. But based on reputation, there are many good schools today. I also endorse looking at Brown, but lots of good engineering schools can provide a good CS education as well. If you are open to looking outside the box, University of Waterloo has a VERY highly respected program and is known world-wide for their CS department.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’m not so sure it matters at the undergrad level what school you go to. You can get a great education at many places, and find a place the will cost you less that lots of the prestige schools. Now for grad school, prestige might mean a little more…</p>
<p>He’s in California (UCI eligibility in local context).</p>
<p>Mudd is a top engineering school with excellent computer science. It also meets full demonstrated need and has some merit aid as well. However it’s very different from the other schools on your list in that it’s very small, albeit part of the Claremont consortium. Since you’re ELC for Irvine, you probably don’t live far from Mudd - take a tour before you decide whether or not to apply there.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd has FANTASTIC Computer Science program, better than the ivies and about the same as Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and CalTech. Harvey Mudd doesn’t have a graduate school so it doesn’t produce as much headline research as the other programs but program and teaching quality is really, really good. Of course, not having a graduate program means that there are tons of oppurtunities for undergraduates to do research.</p>
<p>Oh ok, if you’re in NorCal then you might add a visit to Santa Clara U to your list as suggested above. They offer need-based aid and merit scholarships. SCU grads are pretty well-connected in Silicon Valley if you want to stay in the area after you graduate.</p>
<p>Good thing for you because they happen to be the best schools for CS (aside from MIT and CMU). I suggest you focus your application to those two schools because I think you really have a good shot at either school.</p>