Hi, I’m a junior with a 1500+ SAT and 4.0+ GPA that’s looking to major in computer science or some type of engineering. I am also hoping to apply through the Questbridge College Match program. My list is as follows:
High Reach/Dream:
Princeton (Questbridge)
Stanford (QB)
Yale (QB)
MIT (QB)
Columbia (QB)
UPenn (QB)
Harvard
I know that a lot of these schools aren’t like very STEM-focused like RPI, WPI or Carnegie Mellon. The reason being is that I want a very well- rounded education and I am interested in a lot of fields besides computer science and I would like that option to take high-quality humanities classes as well as high-quality STEM classes. I am also looking for schools that are close to major cities but have their own campuses and have a very strong sense of community. Any suggestions for more match schools or schools that I should take off. I might take Cornell off because the campus seemed a little isolated when I visited and I’ll probably leave most of the Ivies on because I really liked the campuses that I visited, but I’m really open to any suggestions here. Thanks
Congrats on your hard work and success! Good list. You seem qualified for any of these schools. The difficulty is that they get far more applications from qualified applicants than spots available. I have to think Cornell, Rice, and JHU are just flat-out reaches for anyone applying RD. So you might want to stick another match on there. It’s good you have some more affordable safeties.
Maybe University of Washington in Seattle. It has a definite campus with an adjacent college-type area but is just a few stops on light rail from downtown Seattle. It is very strong in CS. I believe some students are admitted directly into the program, and those not admitted directly can apply once at UW. It is an extremely competitive program–lots of strong WA students and lots of CA applicants.
A good safety-match might be Santa Clara University. It’s right in Silicon Valley, which might provide a few CS internship opportunities (read sarcastically). Beautiful campus and unbelievable weather. It is in more of a suburban than urban area, and SF is a ways away. You can run the NPC to see what it estimates for you. Good luck!
Congratulations on your outstanding academic achievements!
There is a big drop off between your “matches” (which are still pretty hard to get into) and your safeties. In the middle there, based on the colleges you like, maybe you would want to consider these colleges:
University of Rochester
Lehigh
George Washington
Tulane
Brandeis does not have engineering except through joint programs, but matches your other criteria.
Smaller colleges that meet your criteria and would be matches:
Union
Lafayette
You probably have a good shot at getting into one or more of your reaches, especially through Questbridge, but you might want a couple of colleges that are a little more selective than your safety schools but still a little easier to get into than BC or USC.
Also-check out these urban “reaches” that are part of Questbridge but maybe less reachy than the Ivies: Emory or Washington U. in St. Louis.
Case Western should be added to the list of matches in @TheGreyKing’s list. Northeastern is also a great option, though its humanities offerings are not as good.
Since OP wants an urban school, Trinity (TX) is worth a look among LACs/LAC-like universities.
OK, someone has to speak up for the historical STEM schools, so here goes:
CMU is a very serious all around university in many fields, particularly The Performing arts and Engineering (particularly CS). They are generally considered top of the pile in CS.
I also believe you may be underestimating the perspectives and background of WPI students. The unique interdisciplinary design of their program attracts STEM students with a wider perspective than are found in many of the historical polytechnics. For historical reasons we often get listed with RPI which has a more traditional course distribution requirement. In RPI’s defense, the student course selection, RIC and GPA indicate students of more than one dimension. MIT is cut from the same historical cloth as these schools. The quality of their non engineering courses is very high.
BC is an excellent school, but cannot match the related major/course offerings of CMU, RPI and WPI in the areas you have listed for majors… If you are having difficulty selecting between English and CS I would encourage BC. If you are looking to partake of a quality minor across a range of flexible options where your classmates are as interested as you in the subject at hand, MIT, CMU, WPI and RPI offer some fine options.
WPI’s approaches are unique. Pursue your passion for the Humanities, see: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/humanities-arts-requirement. “IQP’s” are the project vehicle used to integrate disciplines in the solution of real problems. These approaches often require perspectives taken from the social sciences to actually design a solution to real problems. The process does not stop at the classroom door. This is a “well rounded” education as it is designed to connect your learning passions with personal experiences that stick with you long after you graduate. See IQP story @ https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/interactive-qualifying-project
Northeastern, RPI, WPI are probably more of a “match.” CMU is a reach for anyone.
My undergraduate studies were at WPI. My graduate studies were at BC. Both were a long time ago.
I would definitely second adding U Rochester. Reading what you are looking for had that school screaming out to me. Case Western could also appeal as suggested above.
I would replace Kean with Rowan as a safely - much better school and they give a lot of merit to high stats kids. It’s only about 20 minutes from Philly and has a great campus.
What about Stevens as a match? It’s in Hoboken, right across the river from Manhattan, also gives pretty good merit.
In my opinion 10 reaches is way too many. I think a good rule is that your reaches should compromise about 1/4 to 1/3 of your list. At 14 schools this would give you about 4 or 5 reaches. 2 safeties should be fine. Some people prefer 3 but 2 is fine. The rest of your list (so around 1/2) should be made up of matches.
If I’m being honest, I’m not seeing any pattern in your list. No one should be interested in both Yale and USC; they are very, very different schools. I think you really need to take some time and do a lot of research by reading what students say about all the schools on your list. The Princeton Review and Niche are good places to start. You could also watch ‘week in my life’ videos of youtubers who go to these schools - USC has a LOT.
As a QuestBridge applicant with presumably low financial resources, have you run the net price calculators on your safeties to make sure that they are affordable?
Washington direct admission to CS should be considered a reach for all. Entry to CS after enrolling at Washington as undeclared is highly competitive. In addition, a low income out-of-state student must consider Washington a reach to earn the sufficient merit scholarships to be able to afford it.
You should add Rice to your Questbridge match list. This year Rice admitted 51 students through Questbridge. You might get a full ride to Rice though QB if you match. Rice checks off a lot of things on your wish list such as an urban setting but with its own campus, STEM and good humanities offerings, and a strong sense of community.
@TTG Thank you for your suggestion. I had thought about University of Washington previously but I am a bit wary of out-of-state public schools because I don’t think they prioritize students like me during the financial aid evaluation process. Also, I do understand that Cornell and Johns Hopkins are reaches for ANY student really, just based on terms of acceptance rates, they were a little bit higher than some of the other schools on my list.
@TheGreyKing I have looked into Lehigh and based off of student reviews of student life and campus vibe, it doesn’t seem to be a great fit for me. I had also started doing some research into GWU but stopped for some unknown reason lol. But I will definetly take a bigger look at GWU and University of Rochester.
@retiredfarmer I apologize if I offended you because I know that many ‘STEM-focused’ schools have great humanities programs. My only issue was that based on the reviews that I had seen from students through Niche, Reddit and Quora, there seemed to be almost a stigma against humanities majors and that it was sort of looked down upon and I just want a school where it is very well-rounded in terms of an education. But I will take a better look at WPI because it had been on my list but I had crossed it off because of the afforementioned reason. CMU had been on my list for the longest time but when I visited the campus, I didn’t reallly like the vibe that I got from the campus. Not neccessarily that the students were bad or the campus was ugly, just that it might not be a school suited for me that’s all.
@TheGr8Gatsby Most of the schools that I’ve put on my list I’ve done extensive research if not visited the campuses if I could. When I visited Yale, I absolutely fell in love with the campus and their small and tighknit engineering program and even though it might not be next to a MAJOR city such as Boston or DC or Philly, I still loved the vibe that I got from campus. USC, on the other hand, is based off of reviews and youtube videos (there are so many USC youtubers lol). USC has a really great engineering and computer science program, is centered in a major city full of opportunities, and from what I can tell (again based on youtube videos and images) has a beautiful and chill campus. I know it probably seems like I just chose schools based of the US News Ranking or something like that lol, but I actually did look into most of these schools student life and what each of their campuses was like.
One thing I am actually interested in discussiong is my reach/match school ratio. I know that I have a LOT of reach schools and only a few match schools but I am worried that by the end of the process, I would start feeling what-ifs over some of the schools. My parents have said that I can’t have more than 15 schools and I just feel like if I just fill it with matches, I might regret not applying to more reach schools. Even more so, I have no idea what reach schools I could take off besides Johns Hopkins because I really like all the schools that I have. I really need any advice here (I’m a mess:) )
Thanks for reaching out to CC to ask questions and look for support, @cmakontrack. I know that for many kids, it’s hard to cut down the list. Both my kids dropped schools at the 11th hour, for a variety of reasons. You’ll go thru your own process and journey and may or may not drop a few. And, as you’ve flagged, you need more true matches. Here are some things to think about (I’m doing my mom hat):
Each school has a distinct feeling and subculture. As another poster said, USC is very different than Yale. Yup. So, from doing this process with two kids, most recently with my D this year, schools look very different on online and the entire "feel" of a school can be completely different live-and-in-person. That's what happened when we visited USC. All things looked like it would be a fit, and my D quickly cooled on it. Not her tribe. Which is ok! Not every school is a fit for you. Do your research and utilize QB advisors to get insider information on each school.
So, why did you love Yale so much? What was it about the school? The students you met? The community feel? There are schools that have similar affinities. Suggestions for U Rochester and Brandeis are good. I think I understand your aversion to Lehigh, and it points out that Rochester and Brandeis might be worth looking at.
Other matches: Santa Clara is a good suggestion. Have you considered Northeastern, Oberlin, Macalester, College of Holy Cross, Univ of Pittsburg, St. Olaf's? I'm trying to find schools that might fit your specs (if I'm reading them right).
Don't overshoot. Make sure you have robust range of schools -- reaches, matches, safeties -- that will give you options. Some of the best merit are from schools NOT in the top 20, but from 21-50. And these are excellent schools, too!
Santa Clara has been suggested a few times in this thread. It should be considered a reach, because you need to get a large competitive merit scholarship to afford it. A student from a low income ($30,000) family will see a net price of $32,366, according to its net price calculator at https://www.scu.edu/financialaid/net-price-calculator/ .
Holy Cross’ CS offerings are rather limited compared to some of the other schools. You can compare course catalog listings.
Again, make sure that your designated safeties are affordable – run their net price calculators. Run the net price calculators on the other schools as well; you may want to remove any where the result is unaffordable.
Santa Clara is ranked as one of the worst schools fin for lower and middle income applicants. It’s not worth applying. Uwash may have a fantastic program, it doesn’t meet need, nor do Drexel, RIT, or Stevens which have unusually high expected contributions for lower income students. In all cases run the NPC in case you’d beat the odds.
Rice and URochester should definitely be on your list.
Look into Harvey Mudd. It sounds exactly like what you want: strong Engineering for students who are also interested in the liberal arts. And I believe it’s QB.
Look into Penn’s dual degree and Benjamin Franklin scholars program (inquire).
Also look into Lafayette, Grinnell, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, and perhaps Trinity CT.
As for safeties, I’d apply to Rutgers and Rowan honors as soon as the app is online. If you want to try for something OOS with close to possible full tuition/ rides, add Temple, tOSU, UCincinnati co-op, UMN (look into those).
If you qualify for QB you should qualify for an application fee waiver.
Through QB you will automatically apply to 8-12 schools. Are the 15 in addition to that? Because restricting the number of QB math schools you’re allowed to list kind of doesn’t make sense.
If I were you, I’d apply to the QB schools, add 4-5 matches, Rutgers, Rowan, and a few OOS merit aid schools. Take care of the publics as soon as the app is up (July/August) then focus on QB.
