Help with College List for Computer Science

College Search & Selection
1

Hello, my son is a HS junior who is putting a college list together. He does not want to stay in state, due to family issues, and we support this. We are expecting to pay somewhere between $20k-40k/yr. Our first son went to a private college with similar stats, and received both need-based and merit aid-- we ended up paying 20k/yr. So we are focusing on private schools (we have run the net price calculators) and OOS public schools with lower costs/possibility of merit aid.

Son prefers excellent CS program, small class sizes, individual attention, nerdy environment, down-to-earth (not preppy) welcoming people, no party cultures. Bonuses: location somewhere warm/sunny, west coast/western U.S., ability to participate in theater, ability to participate in music, good D&D scene, college has many opportunities for “good, clean fun.” May want to double major in economics, and also interested in entrepreneurship-- he has multiple academic interests, but is 100% certain about his major.

1390 (700 Math, 690 Verbal) SAT, 4.0 Unweighted GPA. Has taken most rigorous course selection possible at his school. Will graduate with both a high school diploma and a A.A degree. 5’s on AP tests. Involved in a number of clubs/activities, especially drama and band. Has some leadership roles. Hispanic, first generation student from a rural/low income area.

Would love feedback on his current list and any other ideas you might have for additional schools, especially good choices in the west.

Reach
U Rochester
Brandeis
RIT
Santa Clara U
St. Olaf (very different kind school, I know! but he is Christian and loves the vibe of this school, but doesn’t think he wants to go to a LAC in general)

Match
WPI
Chapman U
Cal Poly SLO (we ran the MCA calculator and it looks like he would have gotten in last year-- surprising to me because of his SAT score, but SAT is only weighted 25%)

Safety
Oregon State Honors College
Arizona State Honors College (Barrett not necessarily a safety, but ASU is)
University of Portland

Thank you!

2

Yet another Massachusetts school…

Tufts would appear to be a very good fit.
Very strong CS, Econ, Entrepreneurial Studies
Artsy/creative/non-conformist culture with strong and inclusive music and theatre, as well as D&D.

SAT’s are on the low side, but admissions is very holistic and they recognize that the SAT has a cultural/economic bias.

3

Are you in-state for CA? SLO COA is around $40K and gives little to no merit aid and no need based aid for OOS applicants. An SAT of 1390 is below the average of 1481 for the College of Engineering and you can be sure that CS majors will require a higher than the average. It should be considered a Reach and not a Match.

4

U of Maine at orono offers ABET accredited CS; a beautiful campus; an airport nearby; and in-state matching tuition.

5

Thanks, @Mastadon . We had Tufts on an earlier iteration of the list, and then took it off-- I was afraid it might be too intellectual/too intimidating for him, given his background. (And also I thought he had little chance of admission.) But you’ve given me reason to re-think it-- and I do think he’d like the culture there better than Brandeis, which is on his current list. So, yes, I’ll think we’ll add Tufts back on. Thank you!

6

@Gumbymom not instate for CA, but 40K is in our range, and not expecting aid. We have used the MCA calculator

https://mca.netlify.com/

and, because the SAT is only weighted 25%, and because he gets max points for pretty much everything else, his MCA score is quite high (5,243)-- it looks like he would be well within CS acceptance range based on college confidential self-reported data. So, I’m quite surprised, too, but I do think Cal Poly is a match for him!

7

@Dustyfeathers Thanks, never heard of it-- will look into it!

8

We do not have warm, sunny beaches most of the year, but do have some good skiing in the Northeast! A Maine newspaper carried a picture of a young man surfing off the coast of Maine a few weeks ago. He was in his bathing suit!.

At many NE Universities, Hispanic first generation is a bonus.

One quality comparison methodology used today are graduation rates, particularly as reported in Carnegie “peer and aspirant institution” comparison groups. Tufts is also in the WPI “benchmarking” group. Their first year retention rates are in line with Caltech, CMU, and MIT. Tufts also hangs in with Cal Tech and MIT in their six year graduation rates where CMU and WPI fade a bit. See https://public.tableau.com/profile/wpi.institutional.research#!/vizhome/PeerAspirantSchoolsRetentionGraduationRates_0/BenchmarkSchools

My point, WPI and Tufts perform well by way of their students. Add Tufts to your list for consideration. Tufts would be the most competitive in your current listing.

Application targets have been moving. The entering first year students in 2018 at WPI had 3.89/4 average, unweighted GPAs. CS may be a little tighter. They really do take an holistic approach to admissions. They want students who can interact well with their study groups and think creatively. There are a minimal of three different project undertakings prior to graduation.

From an academic perspective, your son’s test scores are fine. The balance on his SAT scores may indicate more of a need for a “balanced” activity level.

Go to https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/data-science and read up on data science.

Go to https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/social-science-policy-studies for economics related studies

For Entrepreneurship Minor see https://www.wpi.edu/academics/study/entrepreneurship-minor

As a WPI alumnus, I will push both our Drama and Music minors for that STEM major who wants to get involved seriously in these areas. As a minor, you could complete the capstone equivalent of 18 semester hours in Drama or Music. You don’t have to minor in them to take part in them, but the performance groups are known for their high standards. These are not you HS pep bands.

For a Music discussion, see http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/worcester-polytechnic-institute/2129774-musical-kids-at-wpi.html#latest One of the students in this discussion is graduating with a 4.0 this year and minored in music. When she graduates this spring she is headed for a PhD in BME at Johns Hopkins University which is widely regarded as one of the finest in that field.

For Drama see https://users.wpi.edu/~theatre/.

9

@retiredfarmer

In Boston, we don’t need warm sunny weather to go for a swim! :smile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CD_JPajM8I

10

Because of the increasing popularity of CS in recent years, do not be surprised if CS class sizes are on the larger side for the school. You may want to look at on-line class schedules to see if they list class sizes.

11

Graduation rates mostly track admission selectivity, since stronger incoming students are more likely to graduate. Student financial aid need is probably another significant selection effect; how good the school’s financial aid is is probably the largest treatment effect (students who run out of money are less likely to graduate).

12

Did he take the PSAT and do you think he has a chance at being a National Hispanic Scholar?

13

@Dolemite Looking at cutoff scores from last year, I don’t think he has a chance at National Hispanic Scholar. Good thought, though!

14

Thanks, @retiredfarmer , for all the good info about WPI! Great to hear especially about their drama and music programs, which I didn’t know anything about.

15

Not sure if wanting to be west means you could leverage WUE or not but I could consider that.

I would change a few of your categories

Cal Poly SLO - reach. For the major and in general. Even if the calculator puts him range, admission to the major is sitll quite low % wise. By all means apply but I’d not count it as a match.
WPI - high match/low reach (based on major)
RIT - high match/low reach (based on major)

I would consider adding / looking at:

Safeties:
Seattle University
Colorado State (if you are WUE at his stats, this is a solid option for CS and has a nice honors college)
Redlands University

Match:
Gonazga

And finding 1-2 more true matches as the ones you have are on the high match/low reach based on test score. If he can bump the SAT or ACT up, that will help him quite a bit. Oregon State is a great CS safety option with honors but is not super generous merit wise (but it is stats based and published).

I can speak to Seattle U, RIT and Colorado State on the music side. All offer nice options, RIT and CSU offer scholarship opportunities. RIT’s specifically is for performance arts (new this year, it is not on the website yet but admitted students and applicants whose qualifications lined up, were invited to apply) so it not limited to music alone.

16

The University of Utah is another good safety and is extremely affordable because you can get in-state tuition rates after the first year.

17

Colorado School of Mines in small town Golden, on the light rail, offers very good OOS merit, and his math SAT of 700 should be enough to get in. Actually if you are OOS Cal Poly gets a lot easier to get admitted even in CS, which will drive CA people crazy, but all Colorado kids with your stats get in easily to Cal Poly even in CS. CS though is very crowded at Cal Poly and its a big party school, but a great deal for Colorado and other OOS students. Mines is usually considered better than Cal Poly, although more narrow, its also a hands on school, but students are much more studious at Mines overall, there is no large business program at Mines, but an economic major. Mines is more similar to a private school compared to much larger Colorado State in Fort Collins,

I have seen Mines turn out less expensive than Colorado State for some students from OOS.

Look at Montana State in Bozeman.

18

Also look at U of Nevada Reno. Its probably a safety. Beautiful mountainous campus, near skiing, at Tahoe, very good individual attention, merit is fantastic. Its close to CA state border, very sunny there compared to Oregon State Corvallis.

19

@Coloradomama Thanks so much for the suggestions. We had looked into Colorado School of Mines, but son thought it might be too much of a pressure-cooker-type school. What is like, really?

U Nevada sounds like a good, new, possibility; we’ll research it-- thanks!

20

Look at UT Dallas. It would likely come in under budget for you.