Hey, I’m located in California, and would like help to select a college (because I don’t really have strict preferences). I applied to a lot of colleges due to the fear that I wouldn’t get in anywhere but it turns out I have a lot of options now. Any help would be much appreciated thanks.
The few priorities I do have:
-Chance to get internships and job opportunities
-graduate in 4 years
-cost wise best return on investment
-faculties and variety of classes to enroll
High School G.P.A. - 2.97
SAT Score - 1490
Major: Computer Science
I got into:
Washington State University
Sac State
SFSU
SSU
HSU
U of Arizona
ASU
NAU
Texas A&M Galveston (Pre engineering)
University of Iowa (Undeclared)
University of Nevada Reno (Engineering Undeclared)
University of Utah (Pre Comp Sci)
Still waiting on:
University of Oregon
Oregon State University
University of Minnesota
SJSU
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly SLO
Chico State
Please give me your thoughts and best advice. Thank you sincerely.
Net price at each? What can you and your parents afford?
For those colleges where you are not directly admitted to the CS major, check how difficult (in terms of college GPA and other admissions requirements/competition) getting into the CS major will be after enrolling.
I’d say UNR. It’s somewhat affordable, amazing education, lovely location. Perfect distance away from home and a bunch of attractions to go to on your free time. It also has an amazing engineering program, so you would be greatly benefited! Good Luck! and Congratulations! 
You’re Correct. UNR send me a letter saying that I have been granted Nevada Advantage reduced tuition ( ~8K in Savings over non-resident tuition ). do you know any details about the intership/job opportunities
Good job! You totally aced you SAT! The western schools (not Texas) are in the Western Undergraduate exchange, which means tuition is going to cost the same as most in-state schools. That’s going to be your best ROI. I would recommend going to a school you’re already admitted into the major you want. CS degrees are very popular and can be very competitive to get into, especially flagship schools like Arizona and ASU. Honestly, Nevada-Reno is your safest and least expensive bet.
Thank you very much for the responses ucbalumnus, musicmeister22, and coolguy40, I really appreciate it.
So today I was rejected from Cal Poly SLO and SJSU and am exploring among the two major contenders: University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Arizona, Tuscon.
So I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me explore between UNR and U of A specifically for the major of Computer Science (faculties, internships, opportunities, as well as the atmosphere of the schools).
I have scheduled a visit to University of Nevada Reno towards the end of the month.
Furthermore, U of A has a scholarship portal where I can earn scholarships called Scholarship Universe.
Apply to the scholarships through the portal.
At both UA and UNR, is the cs major competitive (ie., You need to get a certain grades in specific classes and/or a specific GPA) or selective (you need to get the grades and the GPA AND THEN they select from those students)?
that is a lot of applications to keep track of… Assuming you applied CS across the board, my guess is Chico is the only remaining school likely to accept you. They have a good CS program and are worth serious consideration.
Based on your criteria, I’d rank your top acceptances/likely acceptances as follows:
Chico
UNR
SF
Sac
If you have the time and money, a quick trip to UofU and Wash would be worth while. But, as the parent of a kid at an OOS WUE school, I’d tell you holiday travel via airplane is a PITA and, you the airfares ad up.to more than you think they will.
I think you will find the main ASU campus and most of the popular majors at UofA are not included in WUE so won’t meet your ‘cost effective’ objective. I left Sonoma and Humboldt off because both are small and - though I like them both a lot, they probably won’t stack up against the others when it comes to the varied programs.
Visit the campuses, attend the admitted student days and pick your favorite. You have an exciting couple of months ahead, enjoy them!
@NCalRent Thank you for your detailed response, I am also heavily considering ASU,Tempe and they have given a dean’s scholarship of $14.5K a year (so OOS costs should come around $30K a year). Furthermore I heard that the technology industry is strong in Phoenix and that students will be able to get internships there easily; how would you compare ASU with Chico and UNR?
@MYOS1634 Thank you for your help, I’m not sure whether UA or UNR is competitive or selective, but I will find out during the visit to UNR towards the end of the month. And as for Arizona, I chose ASU over UA.
chico is a pretty small city - around 100k people. It is a great college town but, many people go to Sac or the Bay Area for summer internships. Big Bay Area tech firms do recruit on campus though. There are some local internships but, it doesn’t have nearly the employment base of Phoenix. Of course, the weather is pretty awful in Phoenix and the city is pretty vast, as is the main campus. I’d hate the anonymity of it all but, many people thrive. Reno is between both in size and internship optys - of course, it does snow sometimes …
You have to visit the schools and see what YOU think.
@NCalRent Thank you, I will be sure to make an informed decision.
Hello, I got admitted into Chico for Computer Science BS today.
Congratulations! That’s awesome. Chico is a nice college and it has a cool college town. Lots of good choices.
Hey,
I visited UNR and really enjoyed it, it seems like a nice university to spend all four years at (the Student Union, Learning Center, and the Gym were really something).
I still have yet to visit ASU, I might do that this Spring Break.
I also have been considering Community College and transferring over to a UC.
What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks.