I’m looking for good liberal arts that also excel at computer science. Right now, I’d like to go into the tech industry after college, and I’m considering majoring in computer science and either majoring or minoring in english.
I live in NYC but I’d really like to go out of the city and the state for college if possible. I need recommendations for target schools, so basically schools that aren’t Stanford/part of the Ivies/etc.
Thanks!
What are your stats? What is your financial situation?
@intparent My GPA is a 93 (most kids from my school who get into the Ivies have around a 95 GPA or higher for context), and I have a 1520 on my SAT, but I’m trying to raise that to a 1560+ during the summer. Definitely need financial aid b/c of other siblings in college, but my parents’ income (100k+) doesn’t really qualify me for a ton of aid.
Harvey Mudd, it is quite competitive to get into but you definitely have a good shot with your stats.
Thanks for the suggestions so far! Do you guys know of any bigger schools that excel in English and CS? I checked out Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, and a few of the other schools in the link, but they all seem to be pretty small.
I should have mentioned this in my original post, but I do want to go to a medium/large sized school w/ lots of different people and courses offered. Besides English and CS, I also enjoy history and am interested in learning more about business/econ, taking language courses, + government as well. I like math well enough and am decent at it, but I’m not really much of a science person in any way.
Internship opportunities and alumni connections are also very important to me, and in terms of non-academic related things, I also want to study abroad for sure. I’m not sure how plausible studying abroad for a semester is yet if I decide to major in English and CS and graduate in 4 years as well, but I’ll save that issue for later if it does arise.
Would appreciate any other suggestions for target schools, or even safety schools if you have any in mind as well!
Would colleges about the size of Tufts be right- 5,000 undergrad? Or a college with about 3,000?
edited to add: look into Santa Clara University
Colleges have Net Price Calculators which should give you a ball park idea of financial aid provided your family finances are pretty straight forward - salary, not business owners; no rental properties etc
If your family income is at the low end of “100K+” and you have siblings in college, then you may qualify for more need-based aid than you seem to expect. According to my quick-and-dirty net price estimate, assuming 2 siblings in college and $150K family income, you could expect Swarthmore College to award about $54K/year in grant aid.
Your Mileage May Vary (esp. if your family income is much higher or at least one of your siblings will graduate soon). Run the online net price calculators on schools that interest you.
@“Snowball City” @tk21769 Tufts sounds goods in terms of size! I’ve calculated my EFC (not for a specific college though, but I assume it would be similar for most schools, give or take a few thousand – not sure if this is true?) which is around 33k, but my parents can only pay up to 15k max if I’m really pushing it.
Also this is the calculator I used and the one my school linked me to if it makes any difference at all: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml
Older list of CS offerings at smaller schools. Check catalogs and schedules to see if there are changes.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19190340/#Comment_19190340
A larger school often has fairly well stocked English and CS departments, but you may want to check each school’s offerings in its catalog and schedule to be sure.
Take a look at Case Western. Merit scholarships go up to about 30K, not sure how they are on need-based aid.
1520 is plenty good enough on the SAT, IMO.
Read up on University of Alabama - Huntsville because it is the right size, has access to high tech industries, and will give you a boatload of scholarships. This could be your safety if you get the application in early in the fall.
https://www.uah.edu/research https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships
Try running the net price calculators on at least a few LACs that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need. The following list of ~60 colleges includes many LACs:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-09-19/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
If your parents cannot cover the EFCs for any schools on that list that are realistic for admission, then you might want to look for LACs that award relatively large/numerous competitive merit scholarships. Check the Kiplinger rankings for that information:
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts
Especially if it looks like none of those will be affordable, even with above-average merit grants, also have a look at colleges that guarantee large merit scholarships for qualifying stats:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Any feedback on the CS program at Hamilton? Our DD2 has been accepted there and is interested in majoring in Neuroscience with potential minors in Math and/or Comp Sci. She has also been waitlisted at Middlebury and Wesleyan, and while not expecting to be converted would be interested how those two compare to Hamilton for a Comp sci.
On the Hamilton site, I only see 4 faculty members for CS and a rather limited number of courses. For a prospective CS major I’d be a little concerned … absent some rather rave reviews from current/former students, or good reports on post-graduate outcomes. The department might be more than adequate though to support a CS minor (or double-major).