<p>Senior in HS, 3.99 UW GPA
35 ACT
2180 SAT (October retake is probably 2300+, though)
800 Math/ 770 Chem / 750 Lit SAT II
Nation Merit Semi, blah-blah-blah</p>
<p>So I'm looking at majoring in Computer Science. My application is competitive and I'm applying to MIT, Caltech, Brown, Stanford, Yale, Harvey Mudd, Carnegie Mellon, etc., but am nowhere near counting on getting into one of them and need some colleges more on the match and safety side of things.</p>
<p>In particular, I'm looking for smaller, private colleges (<6000), preferably in a rural environment, that have very good Computer Science programs. Financial Aid is also an enormous factor.</p>
<p>I've heard good things about RPI, Carleton, Tufts, Amherst, and such the like. Are there any other recommendations or suggestions? I know that most good CompSci schools are large State Unis, but there have got to be more schools like HMC that aren't quite as selective.</p>
<p>Amherst has a small and limited CS department. If you major in CS there, you will probably want to use the consortium agreement to take additional CS courses at UMass - Amherst (but check to see if there are any commuting or academic calendar issues involved).</p>
<p>SD Mines and NM Mines are small engineering-focused schools with CS. While they may not have much financial aid for out-of-state students (although there may be merit scholarships), their list prices are low enough that you may want to see if they are affordable even without financial aid.</p>
<p>I don’t think Amherst is a good idea (and Tufts is a little worse) even if you do take courses from UMass, especially if you plan on getting a job when you graduate. Most large companies don’t recruit from LACs (other than the Claremonts) I feel. </p>
<p>Even if you decide to go onto grad school at more techy universities like MIT, it’ll probably be difficult to get in. And if you do, you’ll be faced with much harder classes probably. The CS education you’d get at an LAC like Amherst, no matter what anyone says, will always be sub par compared to other universities. That’s just how it is.</p>
<p>I’m applying as a CS major this year too with almost the same EXACT scores, and like you said, large public and private colleges seem to be the best choices - not counting Harvey Mudd. Of course there are colleges like the ones MYOS stated, but I feel like you’re trading off college size for massive differences in the level of education. Of course I’m just a highschool student so I might be wrong.</p>
<p>However, like Amherst, Swarthmore is one of the most selective LACs. Don’t assume admission is more likely than to Brown or CMU. </p>
<p>Oberlin is a bit less selective and has a relatively large department compared to some other LACs. I’d say Oberlin is a high match for your stats. You might find other good “match” options among small universities like Case Western. Run the online Net Price Calculators to see if they look affordable.</p>
<p>Although I’m a big fan of LACs, as you get closer to safety territory (not Amherst/Swarthmore/Carleton … not Oberlin …), it becomes hard to find robust CS departments at small LACs. For instance, Lawrence University is one of the “Colleges That Change Lives”; it has a well-regarded physics department; however, its CS department lists only 2 faculty members. I suspect the less selective LACs have a hard time competing for CS talent.</p>
<p>Another issue here is cost. Most LACs are expensive private schools. It’s hard to find a less selective LAC (like most of the CTCL schools) that covers 90% or more, on average, of determined need. Example: For Allegheny College, College Abacus estimates the net cost of attendance to be ~$24K for a middle income family (assuming AGI = $60K, parents in late 40s, 1 child, $10K in checking account.) Many public universities are much cheaper than that for state residents, even without any aid, and have much broader course selection in CS.</p>
<p>The recruiting issue is probably more of an issue with smaller companies than larger companies, since smaller companies have fewer recruiting resources and smaller recruiting needs.</p>
<p>Amherst is a special case here, since its students can use the UMass - Amherst career center. Still, there are many better choices for a CS major.</p>