@tk21769, I think they were short one professor and adding back for the fall. The other consideration is because it’s a 1900 student LAC, the department only supports 40-50 students. I do know they were part of the consortium that developed the LAC CS curriculum.
Hamilton students can code, here finishing first in a competition against 36 other teams, including Clark (2nd), Middlebury (9th) and Wellesley (outside the top ten):
https://cs.hamilton.edu/ccscne/
Note that of their professors, two cowrote a CS textbook that has been used nationally.
Is the SUNY science scholarship still available for students in the top 10% of the high school class?
http://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-launches-scholarship-program-encourage-top-high-school-students-pursue-stem
@“Snowball City” I just checked and SUNY is still offering the STEM scholarship, so I’ll look into that. Also thanks for the UAH rec; will definitely consider it.
@mamaedefamilia Thank for the recommendation! My dream school is Stanford, which is why I’m aiming for a higher SAT score, especially b/c my GPA is on the lower side.
I like liberal arts schools, but I’m honestly open to any schools that have good undergrad programs with regards to CS and the humanities.
Have you or your parents run the net price calculators for Stanford and other highly ranked universities? The hardest ones to get into will give the best $, which makes more people apply. See if the EFC is affordable. It was just tax time so the financial records should be easy to access. You will also need information such as how much is being put into retirement each year, any home equity, and savings, etc.
Beyond these colleges you will need to balance out your list with places with a higher admit rate and that give full tuition scholarships. There are very few colleges that have a fifteen thousand dollar price tag. However that money can cover your room and board.
The good news is that your scores are high and this is doable.
You are really smart to be looking into this now. It was also really smart of your parents to let you know what is affordable rather than springing it on you later.
By any chance are you and your siblings the first generation to go to college?
Wesleyan - Eight faculty including a postdoc. Lots of programming sections.
Harvey Mudd comes to mind
@padfootprongs
Yes Harvey Mudd would be good if the money would work out. The consortium it is a part of is walkable and the total student body of it is roughly 5,000 students. You can take classes at all of the colleges and eat at any of the dining halls.
@“Snowball City” @latinvibes Thanks for suggesting Harvey Mudd – I checked out their website and it seems like they have a really great CS program. My only concern is the level of difficulty; I took a look at some examples of their freshman class schedules and they all seem very intense. I’m okay with math and I enjoy CS, but I haven’t done very well in my science classes (high 80s/low 90s) so I’m sort of concerned about that, especially because it looks like their science courses are very difficult. I know most colleges require a minimum 1-2 semesters of physics specifically, but I was hoping to take just the required science courses and leave it at that so I could have time to take more humanities classes and such. At HMC, it looks like there is a very heavy course load based on the sample schedules on their website, so I’m worried I’ll only have time to do STEM courses and very few humanities ones and have less time for extracurriculars as well.
Also, I’m not the first generation to go to college, but I’m a girl if that helps? I’ve read some articles that say it can be a little easier for girls to get into CS schools (including HMC, CMU, MIT, etc.), but still difficult of course.
@circuitrider Thanks for the rec! Wesleyan looks really good!
Yes, I have heard that Mudd’s core is very intense. Perhaps it is not for you. Ruling things out is all part of the process.
Have you looked into University of Rochester?
@padfootprongs , if you’re interested in Mudd’s CS program but not sold on their STEM-heavy core, you might want to look at Scripps, also in the Claremont Consortium. It is the one women’s college in the consortium. It has a more humanities-oriented core, but you can still major in CS through Harvey Mudd or Pomona, or minor through Pomona. (There’s a computation track within the Cognitive Science major at Pomona, as well.) In addition to a great living environment, Scripps gives more merit aid than the other Claremonts. My D’s stats are similar to yours, and she will be attending Scripps with a half-tuition scholarship. Like you, she’s interested in CS but prefers humanities (and social sciences) to lab sciences. She didn’t apply to any other women’s colleges, but in the context of the larger co-ed consortium, Scripps came out on top as a best-of-all-worlds option. You can also declare the Mudd CS major from Pitzer, I believe; and Pomona has its own CS major and could be a great place to combine CS with humanities. (But I don’t believe Pomona offers any merit aid at all, so apply there only if you can realistically pay your full EFC.)
The other quite-different option my D considered was Northeastern, which has a wide range of combined majors that allow students to combine the Computer Science core with another field of interest (English being an option). They also give some good merit packages, although they weren’t as generous with my D as we’d hoped they might be. (The more you can raise your test scores, the better your chances of a good merit award,and admission to the Honors program, at NU.)
William and Mary might hit the sweet spot for you, too. It’s a “public ivy” with very strong liberal arts but also a good CS program.
Good luck!
Williams and Grinnell have CS programs that have been cited as exemplars by the most recent college curricula report from the ACM and IEEE - https://www.acm.org/education/CS2013-final-report.pdf. You certainly can’t beat Williams for an English major and Grinnell’s open curriculum makes double majors with CS not only possible, but encouraged.
@aquapt Thank you for the rec. I realized that my definition of a liberal arts school was incorrect, haha, so I’ve shifted away from LACS, but I might apply to Scripps anyway bc it sounds like it would be a good fit. I’m planning to apply to Northeastern, so hearing that your D got in with similar stats is very reassuring to me. Will look into William and Mary as well!
@“Snowball City” My college counselor recommended U of Rochester to me as well, so I might apply there!
@Otterma Thanks for the recommendations! I’ve shifted away from LACS, but I do really like Grinnell and might apply anyway.