i had an epiphany, hopefully you can too!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>so, yes, it's me again. after some soul searching, and a long talk with mother, i have narrowed my list of 20 schools to 12, which will most likely be reduced to 8. now, some criteria i used to eliminate schools, although some still on the list have elimination-worthy criteria: location (not too far in a parents POV), climate (reynauds+cold=disaster), and whether they had what program i was looking for. this last one is tough, because i am flexible with what i want. i want to major in comp. sci/systems engineering. some schools have elec. eng/comp. sci. which is also fine with me. here's a list of the 12 schools that made it past the first elimination round into semi finals, their cost (someone correct me if i'm wrong), being known for good FA (answered as YES or NO someone correct if im wrong), my intended path of study, and their location. i'm doing this as a help to everyone, and i hope someone could get something out of this.</p>

<p>(the numbering is in no particular order)</p>

<ol>
<li>MIT. $53,210. YES. elec. eng/comp. sci. cambridge, ma.</li>
<li>Yale. $49,800. YES. comp sci/psychology. new haven, ct.</li>
<li>RPI. $44,756. YES. comp. sci/comp. eng. troy, ny.</li>
<li>Lehigh. $52,520. NO. comp sci/cognitive sci. bethlehem, pa.</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon. $55,286. YES. comp. sci/sys. eng. pittsburgh, pa.</li>
<li>Howard. $38,169. NO. sys(?)/comp. sci. washington, DC.</li>
<li>U Penn. $55,250. NO(?). sys. sci/eng. philadelphia, pa.</li>
<li>Rutgers. $35,222. NO. comp. sci. new brunswick campus hopefully, nj.</li>
<li>Northeastern. $49,492. NO. comp. sci. boston, ma.</li>
<li>Columbia. $57,192. YES. comp. sci. nyc, ny.</li>
<li>UMass at Amherst. out of state- $32,442. New england discount (if you live in a state where your program isnt offered, but i'm still going to look into it)- $23,669. NO(?). elec/comp. eng. amherst, ma.</li>
<li>BU. $37,910. NO(?). elec/comp. eng. boston, ma.</li>
</ol>

<p>i visited 1-3, will visit 4,5,7 in april (not sure about 7, might take off the list). 3 is an example of bad weather conditions but still on my list. for some reason, i feel like i'm going to LOVE rutgers, so that's next, hopefully in the summer.</p>

<p>fab five, in order- 8, 2, 9, 11, 1.</p>

<p>potential schools that will not make it to application time-6,7,10, and tie between 3 and 12. i really can't live in a cold climate like that.</p>

<p>what do you all think? any questions, just ask ^_^
i'm actually proud of myself!</p>

2

<p>You should be. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I’m glad to see that you are looking at both cost, and potential for financial aid. So many students set their hearts on a school, only to discover that it’s out of reach.</p>

<p>For your next round of cuts: If FA is a necessity, then it’s a no-brainer. Dump the schools with insufficient FA.</p>

<p>And don’t forget the most important school on every student’s list: the safety.</p>

3

<p>Penn should be a “YES” for financial aid.</p>

4

<p>CPU, I’m afraid your SAT scores may be a show-stopper for the Ivies, MIT, and possibly CMU.</p>

<p>According to another post, you best M score is 620. Right? Understand that 1 in 4 enrolled MIT students have scored a perfect 800 on the SAT M. Many of them probably could score a perfect 900 if the scale went that high. I’m acquainted with an MIT student who missed one math question, then sent the CollegeBoard a proof that his answer was correct. His error was reversed. That’s the caliber of student you’d be up against at MIT. The science/CS geeks at the other Ivies or CMU are not far behind. </p>

<p>I don’t mean to be a wet blanket but if you want to get your list down to a well-chosen 8, you need to limit the number of Hail Mary passes you throw. You may get a bigger bump at Yale if you are a New Haven resident … so maybe make that your super reach, then focus on more realistic choices that give you the “fit” features you want. There are many schools with solid CS programs. </p>

<p>Have you considered any of the women’s colleges? Smith is less selective than the Ivies but is an excellent school that would give you access to courses at 4 other consortium colleges (including UMass, which has very good CS). Unfortunately it’s in a cold location. If you like Columbia, consider Barnard instead (less selective, but you still get Columbia courses and a Columbia degree).</p>

<p>Good luck. You sound ambitious, which ultimately will matter more than your test scores.</p>

5

<p>CPUscientist3000,According to previous posts I think it looks like Rutgers, Howard and Spelman are a good fit. The others on your list seem like a stretch according to sat scores, Which seems to be the first thing colleges look at, then maybe rank, which seems to be pretty good in your case. On the other hand if an IVY or MIT are your dream then go for it, but you would not want to over extend your self as far as academics are concerned and end up struggling for grades. You seem very focused but don’t bite off more that you can chew. </p>

<p>By the way these schools on your list are all cold climate.</p>

6

<p>Rutgers could be a good school for you, but beware since you say you need to stay away from cold weather, it’s been a pretty darn cold winter with lots of snow/ice in the New Brunswick area. It is not much different temperature-wise than the New England states.</p>

7

<p>Thanks everyone. And don’t worry, I am DEFINITELY retaking the SAT. I’m taking the ACT in April, I’ll see how that goes to see if I can use that instead of my SAT scores, I have to look up the policy for each school. </p>

<p>And yes, I know about the climate, but since I live in new England, these schools are in radius of the Mom-Radar - close enough to reach me within 4 hours if there was an emergency.</p>

8

<p>I did look at women’s colleges, and I used to have Wellesley, smith, and MHC. but only MHC gives good FA, but it’s not in an ideal location. when I went there it was way too quiet, I like the city-type</p>

9

<p>And a safety?</p>

10

<p>NEU/UMass-Amherst would be safeties for me.</p>

11

<p>I don’t really think Northeastern is a safety with your Math score at the 25% level and racial/ethnic info only considered, but you certainly have a very good chance with your grades and ranking. UMASS should be a safety for admission, but is it for cost as well? Can your family handle the cost of attendance minus a Stafford loan of $5.5K and whatever you can get from a summer job? You’ve stated UCONN would be virtually free. If that’s true then you should have it down, at least as a last choice. Ask yourself this - if I couldn’t afford ANY of the schools I got into, would I rather go to UCONN, a local CC, or take a gap year?</p>

12

<p>MHC is in a very similar location to UMass/Amherst, although of course it is a much smaller school.</p>

<p>If you are female (and black? I see Howard on your list), you won’t need perfect 800s to get into MIT. You have balance on your list. There’s nothing wrong with shooting for the higher reaches as long as you’re happy with your other options.</p>

13

<p>I have to say, you would be a great candidate for Barnard. I know Columbia is on your list, so you would love Barnard, and would have a great chance. Barnard looks at the “whole applicant” and isn’t as focused on test scores as Columbia. Since you want to go into computer science, however, I think that major is actually housed at Columbia, so you would truly get the best of both worlds. I’m applying next year, it would be great if you did too!</p>

14

<p>Erin’s Dad. My standardized scores can’t be valid in determining my chances since they are from oct 2010 and I will be taking SATs, ACT, and SAT IIs in april/June and again in September. As for the cost of UMass, it’s the cheapest at $32000 a year. However, with the new England discount it would be $23000 BEFORE scholarships (the above prices include books, housing, etc). UCONN is on my list… Just waaaayyyyyyyyyy down there at the bottom. </p>

<p>Seattle_mom. Yes, I am. I do have “reaches” on my list, but I’m not going to rule them about because people say I can’t get in (they really do say that to me). also getting into one of these schools would also give me great FA. in my option, from reach - safety my schools are MIT, RPI, Yale, Columbia (I’ll look into Barnard), upenn, Carnegie, lehigh, BU, northeastern, UMass, Rutgers. </p>

<p>I might be totally wrong, but that’s IMO.</p>

15

<p>Hannahbanana94- I’m considering Barnard over Columbia… Do we apply for both or just one??? If I go to Barnard, technically I’ll be in Columbia too?</p>

16

<p>Out**** not about.</p>

17

<p>^ No, you don’t need perfect 800s to get into MIT, but I think you do need significantly better than 620M to be admitted (or to thrive if you are admitted). There is a limit to the bump you get from ECs and hooks. </p>

<p>Only 1 in 4 enrolled MIT freshmen had SAT M scores below 720 (for 2009-2010). Only 1 in 8 had SAT M scores below 700. As an applicant’s M score goes down from 700 to 600, the chance of admission approaches zero. In this bracket, we’re talking about small fractions of the already small fraction who are admitted.</p>

<p>There is nothing wrong with shooting for 1 or 2 super high reaches. The problem is when too many long reaches crowd out more realistic possibilities.</p>

18

<p>^^
Yes I am aware that my scores are low, everyone keeps saying that. Those are OLD scores and I will be retaking them soon.</p>

19

<p>This is one of the better school lists I have seen. Well done. If you don’t get an Ivy or MIT, make sure to take a look at Tufts and Northeaster, which are two of the top cs/engineering programs in Boston outside of the Harvard and MIT. Good luck on the tests.</p>

20

<p>Thank you informative! I do want to be in the boston area, but I’ll go to anyone of those schools if accepted. I’m really considering swapping Columbia for Barnard. This is my favorite list, and i think I’ll eliminate four more schools (upenn, Howard, BU, and RPI) thank you, I’m nervous about the ACT & subject tests, mainly the subjects. I’ll feel better once those are over and I do well (September is retake month)</p>