My son has been admitted into IIT - CS and also into the Leadership Academy with full tuition scholarship. Any feedback about IIT, CS and Leadership Academy program. Is this a good combination. He is very interesting to do robotics. Currently he is a leader for his high school programming robotics team and he enjoys doing this. Is the Leadership Academy going to give him advantage for future career? How good is the CS undergrad academically?
What are you comparing it to with your other options?
My sons school 4 years ago was the top school in Illinois and his school sends like 12 kids every year there for full tuition. Free school is hard to beat. They have made a big push to advance their campus. As you know it’s a small campus. The students get jobs, No question about that. It has a good reputation in Chicago. There was a parent here but forgot who, whose student think just graduated from there and raved about the school and opportunities.
My daughter attended IIT (engineering) and had a great experience. It’s an excellent school. She had internships every summer and no trouble finding a job. She was not in leadership academy but knew people who were and said it’s a good program. Her boyfriend did CS at IIT and had no trouble finding internships. He’s in grad school now. She thought there would be ample opportunity for robotics at IIT.
Check the terms of the full tuition scholarship. It’s been a few years since my D was admitted, but her scholarship (Camras) also covered a co-terminal masters degree which made it an even better value than the usual four year scholarship. She graduated in four years and a summer with two degrees, all covered by that scholarship.
Thank you for your responses!
So far he has been accepted in UIC (CS honor program), Purdue (Physics with $10K scholarship). We are still waiting for other collages to respond by end of March 2021. I would like to get more opinions as possible.
With undergrad CS from IIT how hard is to go for a master in more selective collages?
How is the neighborhood immediately around the campus? Not just safety but in general. What’s the area like?
My kid graduated five years ago so my information is a bit out of date. There were green line and red line stops adjacent to campus so it was a quick trip to the Loop. There was a cafe my kid really liked, a Starbucks, some other things.
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It depends a little on the direction.
Armour Square and Bridgeport are to the west and fairly safe. Most students that live off campus live in one of these areas. These areas have been developed in the past 10-15 years to have more restaurants, bars, etc. to support Chicago White Sox fans. I would consider these as areas that you should use typical “Urban Area” diligence.
There is not really much need to go east or directly north, though the route to 31st Street Beach is safe with a small group.
There is a nice development on the block on the west of the south side of campus that has a Starbucks, sandwich shop, and some type of ice ream shop. My daughter goes there occasionally.
China Town is the to the northwest. It is a fun area. My daughter and her friends go there many Friday nights for tea and dinner.
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Many thanks for this and also to @Parentof2014grad it’s definitely helpful.