Son is a rising senior, very intellectual, not very social. One of those socially awkward and quiet kids. Very involved with computers and gaming. Spends a LOT of time gaming with friends - but would rather hang out and sociallize with them virtually and using a head set, rather than in person. These are actual friends from school - not strangers on-line.
He is looking to study computer science - but most interested in a school with a game development or computational media option.
Very high GPA, high test scores… ACT 34 ; SAT CR 800, Math 780 (Writing 660)
Looking for a school with an accepting culture for different kids. He will not be interested in or accepted at a big greek school or a big sports focused school. Does not have to be small – but just a place where there will be others like him.r
Older brother will be attending NYU in fall – but I think it may be too artsy for this child.
Very interested in any suggestions…
TIA
You might look at Bard – we visited it and it was not right for my kids, but it had some great things to offer. Everyone seemed very smart and there was absolutely no focus on Greek life or sports. Their primary science building is new and beautifully set up.
Our tour guide made a point of saying how gaming was big but that they were social about it, if that makes any sense.
There are probably several of choices. Could you be more specific- without discussing personal info- about location, cost, size considerations? That would help .
Also, how is your child with being independent- keeping up with things like laundry, living with or without a room mate, assignments- without your prompting, contacting teachers on his own if needed- basically, his executive function- and dealing with the non academic aspects of college.
How much of this do you help him with? This is something that can be necessary with quirky kids who are brilliant in school but need support in other areas. This is fine- kids mature at different rates, but it may influence a college choice in terms of size and distance from home.
Two colleges that come to mind are: Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd. Both reaches for any student ( due to low admissions rates) but your son seems to be in range for accepted students.
While many larger schools have a big spectator sports scene, many smaller schools have a larger percentage of students who are athletes, i.e. potentially a bigger participatory sports scene. However, a school with a large enough CS department probably will have other students like him.
For CS, look in the catalog and schedules to see what junior/senior level CS courses are offered on a regular basis. The usual ones are:
algorithms and complexity
theory of computation
operating systems
databases
networks
security and cryptography
software engineering or project course or projects in other courses
hardware design courses
electives like artificial intelligence, graphics, human - computer interface, etc. (common for those looking into game design)
Of course, for game design, a good selection of art (for visual effect design), humanities (including creative writing), social studies (background information for games in social contexts), and science (physics for modeling moving objects) courses can be helpful.
Hard to make recommendations without knowing geographic preferences, size preferences and cost constraints. Will he be NMSF? That could play a role, too. With his stats, he wouldn’t be ruled out anywhere for scores/grades - but all of the top schools will be a real reach, as they are for anyone. Does he want a school where there’s a core curriculum and he’ll have to take a wide variety of classes? (Columbia, Chicago) Or would he prefer a school where he can zero in on computer science / gaming, etc.? Look at tech-specific schools such as RPI and RIT (mentioned above), WPI, etc. You might look at something like Stevens Institute of Technology or Case Western. For a real reach, consider MIT and their media lab. A little more information will help folks make more recommendations. Good luck.
Pennylane… he is pretty independent… can handle daily tasks fine – but making a phone call can be uneasy (that type of thing,) We are certainly tapering back support – and have him on track to go away to college. Just hard to find the right fit.
We are in the southeast. He will qualify for need based aid… but will also be looked at for merit where available. His brother is one year ahead – qualified for all of our in-state merit scholarships - but neither are excited about our in-state schools. Brother received very generous scholarship to NYU (the only way he could attend.)
We are visiting Ga Tech and Emory this week, as well as Michigan State (mostly because of a family vacation – although they have a great game development program.) Already visited Michigan (he liked) and Clemson (he did not like.) Would really love to check out Carnegie Mellon. Heard UNC and NCState have good programs… but I don’t know the culture or vibe at these schools.
*He’d like to consider DigiPen - but it is in Seattle and I can’t imagine sending him that far away (even just the cost to travel home or visit would be astronomical.)
4Gulls - is is not NMSF…sadly. Doesn’t match his SAT scores – but I guess he just had a bad day for PSAT. I actually think he made the index to qualify the year he took it as a sophomore, but not this last year. He is actually very interested in liberal arts as well – his passion for game development includes art and story design. He is a very proficient programmer - but also interested in the story-line.
I value all of your insight… this is such a learning process. Just hoping that someone might make a suggestion of a great school that we hadn’t considered. What we have learned from our oldest child is that you never know what can happen – so he should apply anywhere that he could see himself feeling successful.
I’m not sure how how accurate this is, but someone once told me that Champlaign College is Vermont is one of the best schools of game design in the country. It’s small, but located in Burlington which is a great college town should he decide he does want to venture out.
I’m not sure how selective it is, but it sounds like he should he decent merit, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at.
UNC and NCSU have excellent CS departments. I think he would find other students like him in these colleges as the CS department would attract students like him.
I am not as familiar with NCSU, but I know of UNC grads who have attained employment at major tech companies out west. Many of these programs have CS clubs where he could meet other students.
Carnegie Mellon does not award significant merit aid as far as I know, but it certainly is a top CS program. Emory and GT do award merit aid to competitive students.
For the Southeast, I would check out Furman- small and strong academics. You would have to look at specifics as far as gaming components.
One college that may not be on your radar is UNC Charlotte which has a strong CS department and offers a certificate in game design, both as undergraduate and graduate programs. Your son would possibly be eligible for merit aid. Look at the Levine Scholarship.
Other colleges where he may be eligible for merit aid are Clemson, U South Carolina, UGA, U Alabama. I don’t know how these are for what he is looking for, but all have CS.
Since he qualifies for need based aid, then the colleges that meet full need should be on his list: UNC, MIT. and those mentioned. Some of these other colleges I mentioned do not meet full need, so you will need to look at them as far as how well they fit your finances.
Davidson College meets full need and I believe that Wake Forest does too, as well as Emory.
Duke has a strong CS department and meets full need.
Your son sounds exactly like my son - even the SAT scores line up. Well not exactly like since he decided he was more interested in Linux than programming games. He attended CMU and was extremely happy there. More social than I have ever seen him before or since. He still keeps in touch with his CMU friends long distance. They have good aid if they want you enough. For a quirky, geeky kid it really doesn’t get much better.
I second the suggestion of RPI as they have a bunch of Electronic Arts, Web Science and other interdisciplinary programs along with straight Computer Science.
Carleton is a college my self-proclaimed geeky D loved. They have excellent need based aid, a good CS dept, though I don’t know how well it would translate to game design. Lewis and Clark is also fairly geek friendly and has CS in the math dept, with some computer graphics courses.
I know a student at Champlain in Vermont who is studying film there and loves it. I don’t know anything about their program, though. I do know that the dorms are in a house style; as in, the students live in an actual Victorian house with a smaller group of students than would be found in a dorm. It sounds like the houses are close knit and have a lot of house activities. This is perfect for the student I know who goes there, an extremely social young lady. But it might be a very bad fit for OP’s son, who sounds so very much like my own youngest son. My son would be very stressed in that kind of living situation.
I’ll venture in here and kindly ask if whether a college that might pull him out of his social isolation might be a better fit? it would worry me that most (all?) of his social interaction is done on-line…it’d be cool is there was a college out there who appreciated the geek side but also had kids who would pull him more into the larger world. Ya know?
Yes… southernhope – yes. Of course we want him to assimilate more and be more social - that’s the hope in finding a great option with others that he can relate to. He attends a rigorous magnet school and has friends – a very welcoming environment – but not many people that he relates to (except the ones that are heavily involved in his gaming community.) Thanks for any feedback - this has all been very valuable.
Mathmom… booked a visit at CMU on our trip in a few weeks - just adjusted the route a bit. Thx
thanks @3boys1g I regretted writing that the moment I posted it! But there are no 2nd acts at College Confidential. :
I like your philosophy…that is, find a place where he will feel welcomed…and then let that pull him more in social circles…
btw, if you visit Georgia Tech…my kid is starting there this fall and it’s a huge surprise to both her and me…we were in Atlanta visiting Emory and rolled by there for the heck of it…only to end up accepting an offer from them 5 months later. I think you’ll be impressed/surprised.
I agree in theory that a college that could pull him out a bit is good, but of the kids that I know who are similar, they are most comfortable with peers who share their interests. Putting them in the middle of the more outgoing kids in college can feel similar to how they felt in high school being with those kids. Having a CS club might give them more social outlets.
Fit is a personal thing that I think you will feel when he visits the campuses. I am sure you are already aware that the highly selective colleges are reaches, even for top students, because of their low acceptance rates- so you will have a final list of reaches, matches, and “safeties” ( I don’t like that term exactly as a “safety” could be the best fit school for a student). Of the ones mentioned, UNC Charlotte is a likely safety if you are in NC, and even for OOS for merit. Depending on your state, USouth Carolina, Clemson, Alabama, Auburn, UGA, honors programs might work.
Still, with your son’s credentials, having top schools on his list is reasonable since he is in range of accepted students at them. Sometimes after financial aid, some private colleges are more affordable than state colleges, but one needs to look at the finances for all the choices.
@SouthernHope, I think it depends on the kid. My son got into both Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. I made him go to the accepted student’s weekend at Harvard and he did discover that there were quite a few kids like him there. He’d have survived. But I don’t think he’d actually have taken advantage of the things that make Harvard great. I don’t think he’d have hung around with kids at the French table talking about Sartre, or met the guy who became famous for producing baroque operas, or talked to the kids on the literary magazine. OTOH at CMU there were hundreds of kids with similar interests. My kid who spent a lot of time in high school in his room (he did do Science Olympiad and Academic Team at school), spent a lot of his free time hanging around in the Linux cluster actually having face to face contact with other kids. They read the same books, played the same games. Sometimes it was a big like toddlers playing side by side, but not with each other, but they also played board games and cards in that room. I was absolutely gobsmacked to discover that the first year he spent part of his time at Carnival with recent alumni who came back to enjoy the fun and so he could meet these people face to face. (It’s sort of like Homecoming without the football!) Later that tight alumni network would help get him summer internships (Nvidea and Google.) A more well-rounded kid might have gotten more out of Harvard, but I don’t think mine would have. I wish he were different, but he isn’t.
@mathmom, 1000 compliments to you for knowing Harvard wasn’t the best place for your son. There must have been a bit of a pull when the acceptance came in! I have twins and although they’re both strong students I know only one would reap the benefits of a place like that, and the other would thrive in a very different environment.
@Pennylane2011 I was having the same thoughts as you about putting someone in an environment to be “pulled out” and think it really could be like high school (and not in a good way) if you’re not careful.
